Japan's home video game market declined by 21.3 percent in the April to September fiscal first half compared to the same period last year to be worth 238.8 billion yen, according to a report by Nikkei Business News.
Citing a survey by video game magazine publisher Enterbrain, the report on Nikkei's Website said this was the first year-to-year interim decline in four years, adding that it came after an expansion in the first half of fiscal 2007 when new game machines were released.
The report said hardware sales fell 33.5 percent to 95.23 billion yen in the first six months. It said the PlayStation Portable from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc was the top game machine with sales of 1.58 million units. The report said the Nintendo DS from Nintendo Co was second with sales of 1.31 million units.
It said the Nintendo Wii topped game consoles with 1.11 million units sold, followed by Sony PlayStation3, with 350,000 units sold, and Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 with 140,000 units sold.