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Thanks to @ggx2ac for finding out the original news.
Back in April, Hirokazu Hamamura, senior advisor for Digital Entertainment at Kadokawa, held an online seminary to provide an outlook on the gaming market, with a bigger focus on the Japanese scene: sales, marketshares, etc. For those who originally missed it - https://www.famitsu.com/news/202105/12219228.html
The good news is that it looks like it wasn't a one-off: here's the material from the recently-held online seminary "2021 Autumn Game Industry Status and Outlook: Winners of Game Business 2.0."
Both the seminary title and the extracts reported here are translated via DeepL. The source for the Japanese sales retail numbers (hardware and software) is Famitsu.
General overview on the worldwide gaming market
Japanese software sales (retail) across all systems for the first-half of FY3/2022 (from March 30th, 2021 to September 26th, 2021)
A more in-depth look at PS5 software sales in Japan: between retail low figures and the rise of F2P / MTX
What about eSports?
Closing summary
Back in April, Hirokazu Hamamura, senior advisor for Digital Entertainment at Kadokawa, held an online seminary to provide an outlook on the gaming market, with a bigger focus on the Japanese scene: sales, marketshares, etc. For those who originally missed it - https://www.famitsu.com/news/202105/12219228.html
The good news is that it looks like it wasn't a one-off: here's the material from the recently-held online seminary "2021 Autumn Game Industry Status and Outlook: Winners of Game Business 2.0."
Both the seminary title and the extracts reported here are translated via DeepL. The source for the Japanese sales retail numbers (hardware and software) is Famitsu.
General overview on the worldwide gaming market
The global game content market in 2020 will be 5,802.4 billion yen in North America, 3,765.4 billion yen in Europe, and 8,772.3 billion yen in Asia including Japan. The global game content market for 2020 is 5,802.4 billion yen in North America, 3,765.4 billion yen in Europe, and 8,772.3 billion yen in Asia including Japan. This is about 1.3 times the figure for 2019, when the figure was 15,689.8 billion yen.
As expected, this is largely due to the nest egg demand caused by the new coronavirus infection. The three home video game platforms also saw significant year-over-year increases in their earnings.
So, what about the most recent results of the three companies for the period from April to June 2021? Here, compared to the same period of the previous year, Nintendo, Sony Group, and Microsoft basically maintained their strong performance: 90.1%, 101.6%, and 109.1%, respectively. Nintendo's seemingly sluggish performance is due to the fact that there was no "Atsumare Animal Crossing" level hit in the April-June period of 2021.
Japanese software sales (retail) across all systems for the first-half of FY3/2022 (from March 30th, 2021 to September 26th, 2021)
What about the domestic sales of game software sold on each hardware? Again, the overall figures are down compared to the previous year.
[...]
Titles for Nintendo Switch dominated the list from No. 1 to No. 10. The PlayStation 5 has been selling well, but sales of packaged software have not been good.
Compared to the previous year, hardware sales were strong, but packaged software sales were sluggish due to the lack of blockbuster titles, a situation that is common worldwide. However, this is not simply due to the fact that "game software is not selling well," but also due to changes in business schemes.
A more in-depth look at PS5 software sales in Japan: between retail low figures and the rise of F2P / MTX
So what about the current sales of game software in Japan? The best-selling packaged software for PlayStation 5 in the first half of fiscal year 2021 was "Resident Evil: Village," which sold approximately 69,000 units.
Despite the fact that 1 million units of the console have been sold, the install rate of the best-selling packaged software is less than 7%, which is a very low figure. He added, however, that with PlayStation 5, which allows users to play PlayStation 4 titles without modification, the install rate of exclusive titles will not be of much use.
[...]
F2P billing model dominates PS5 and many other platforms.
Even though the development of high-profile titles has been delayed, the performance of platformers has not suffered. This is due to the aforementioned changes in business schemes. One example of this is the renewed popularity of "Final Fantasy XIV" in the US and Europe.
In 2020, "Final Fantasy XIV" will be free to play with the origin of the story, "New Eorzea" and the first expansion pack, "Ashgard of the Blue Sky". With this, so many new users entered the game that the servers almost ran out of space, and the Steam version was "sold out" even though it was a downloadable title. The Steam version was "sold out" even though it was a downloadable title, and sales had to be temporarily suspended.
In order to enjoy the story beyond "Ischgard of the Blue Sky" and to open up more features, additional individual charges are required. It's a very hybrid billing model that combines package sales, monthly billing, and item billing.
Other games supported by the PlayStation 5 include many F2P (Free to Play) titles such as "Apex Legends", "Fortnite", "Hara-Kami", and "eFootball 2022".
Checking the download rankings on the PS Store, these F2P titles dominate the top of the list, showing just how popular they are. This is one of the reasons why hardware sales are strong even when packaged software sales are sluggish.
A breakdown of Sony Group's game software sales shows that "add-ons," which represent additional charges for titles including F2P, have been selling more consistently and at a higher rate than both packaged and digital software sales. This trend has become even stronger with the transition from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.
Although not as prominent as PlayStation 5, F2P titles are also increasing their presence on the Nintendo Switch, and "Pokémon Unite," which is being developed simultaneously with smartphones, was cited as a title with the potential to gain even more popularity in the future.
What about eSports?
The next topic was e-sports. Due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, it has been impossible to hold real events in the eSports market, but the accumulation of online know-how has been observed, and the market scale is expected to increase again in the future.
However, with the accumulation of online know-how, the market is expected to grow again in the future. There are high hopes for the creation of economic effects and social significance from e-sports, such as the sale of e-sports related goods and products, the opening of facilities, and the establishment of schools to train professional players.
Stadiums for eSports practice have been opened in various parts of the country, but the games that can be played here are currently limited to titles that can be played on PCs. This is due to the fact that home video game consoles are subject to regulations under the Entertainment Business Law.
This is due to the fact that home video game consoles are regulated by the Entertainment Control Law, and popular titles such as Splatoon and Super Smash Bros. cannot be played at the eSports Stadium.
In order to change this situation, the Japan e-Sports Union (JeSU) is planning to start a demonstration experiment under the guidance of the National Police Agency to establish e-Sports practice facilities where home video game consoles can be used without obtaining a license under the Entertainment Establishments Control Law.
With the expectation that the size of the e-sports market will continue to increase in the future, a variety of companies are moving to make a full-scale entry into the e-sports market.
Closing summary
To summarize, we will review the platform business, which is a major shift in business scheme.
The Nintendo Switch business is still centered on packaged titles with strong IP, but freemium titles are also on the rise.
Freemium is becoming the mainstay of PlayStation 5, with subscription services such as PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus. and PlayStation Plus.
The Xbox Series X|S has both packaged and freemium services, but the big draw is Xbox Game Pass, a monthly subscription service.
In addition to Steam, which has the largest share of the PC market, Amazon and Netflix are also about to enter the gaming industry in earnest.
These are not the only gaming platforms: Apple is focusing on freemium app games, but has introduced a monthly subscription system with Apple Arcade; Google is also focusing on app games, but is exploring packaged games and a monthly subscription system with Stadia. Google, while focusing on app games, is also exploring the possibility of packages and monthly subscriptions with Stadia.
Facebook is working on VR, and GREE is developing a metaverse for smartphones. Epic Games, home of Fortnite, is strong in both freemium and packaged games, and is beginning to develop its own metaverse.
The core of each platform's customer attraction is as follows. The "set-top box" in the PlayStation 5 section refers to the fact that the PlayStation 5 will be in front of the TV, making it useful for other purposes besides gaming, such as watching videos.
After looking at the strategies of the various companies so far, you can clearly see that a great variety of business schemes have been created with the shift to online services for games. Mr. Hamamura referred to this as "Game Business 2.0.
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