Japanese Games Retail Could 'Vanish in the Next Five Years' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 28 November 2014 / 6,971 Views
The retail gaming market has been struggling in recent years and it is in risk of completely disappearing in the next five years, according to game retail employee Osho who spoke with Gekicore Gamelife and translated by Kotaku. Osho does sales promotion for Tokyo video game retailer Pao.
Profits have decreased due to the growing digital market. The amount of games sold in Japan at retail has continued to shrink and is showing to signs of slowing down.
"Real-world 'game specialty shops' will not survive [in Japan]," said Osho. "It seems like they'll completely vanish in the next five years."
"If there is a reason to come to your shops, then the increase in customers is directly tied to the resulting profits," added Osho.
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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man... I really like having the games I like the most in their physical form... I hope they don't dissapear for good 100%...
Well I don't know, the Japanese are not fans of digital stuff, like music or movies.
I would be ok with retail games dying off. It's gonna mean a lot more money goes back to the creators of the games and this means that the budgets of games could then increase.
I don't know what's going on with Japan these days. It used to be the biggest market. Now, it's all about mobile gaming. I hope it gets back to the golden days again.
I don't want retail to go away but considering their internet blows the US's internet out of the water, I'm not surprised.
If the retail gaming market is struggling over there, it's not digital's fault, it's that Japan isn't buying as many games. Specifically in home consoles, but even portables aren't selling as well as they used to.
one way to alleviate the lack of growth is to provide a fast download service for a small fee to people who for what ever reason be it lack of adequate broadband or time constraints .
Nintendo used to have download kiosks in Japan, called "Nintendo Power" no less, where you could download games onto blank cartridges. I think the Famicom Disk System also had kiosks where you could download games onto blank disks.
not true, japan doesnt even sell PSN cards and tons of games get released with DLC on disc there as japanese dont like DLC
