A year ago, Wii had shown bigger growth in Europe than in the U.S., and the Wii console's share increased to more than 50%. So far this year, the share level is back to what it was in 2007. The price revision for Wii in Europe took place in October, so that influence is not reflected in this graph yet. Like in the U.S., we would like to regain the momentum toward the end of this year.

This chart shows the Japanese software unit sales transitions for home console video game machines.
The total Japanese market size is less than one-sixth of that of the U.S. and about one-fourth of the four major European countries. There exist big differences in market size today. When we compare the unit hardware sales, Japanese sales are about two-seventh of the U.S. and more than half of the four major European countries. It can be said that Japan today is the challenging market for home console software to sell.
Wii market last year was comparatively healthy. Since the software we launched at the end of 2008 did not go on to sell for an extended period of time, and we were not able to launch very strong titles in the first half of this year, we have seen a significant drop in software sales this year.

As the result, Wii software unit sales share is just below 50% in the entire home console software market so far in 2009.

This chart shows unit sales transition of home console software in the U.S. market.
Although the U.S. market is a much larger home console market than the Japanese one, the factor for the decline that I have mentioned for the Japanese market can also be applied to the U.S. market. As Wii marked only a slight increase over last year and Sony's PS2 software sales saw a sharp decline, total unit sales of the software market decreased from last year, despite slight increases for PS3 and Xbox 360.

As unit sales of total home console software market did not grow, market share of Wii software is not at a satisfactory level, despite marking a year-on-year increase.

Also in the European market, Wii only slightly increased sales and failed to realize its potential for sales increase. Along with that, the whole software market itself failed to grow by absorbing the decrease of PS2 software units.
It should be noted that the European home console software market is still half as large as the American one, which is in contrast to the handheld software market that is soaring close to the American market. I will explain more in detail later.

As you can see from the chart, the share of Wii in this market remained almost flat when compared to last year.

I would like to explain handheld market next.
This chart shows the sales transition of handheld hardware in the Japanese market from January to the most recent week in the years 2007, 2008 and 2009, according to the source of Media Create.
I have put the chart in the same scale as American and European markets in order to make it easy to understand its volume, as handheld market accounts for a lot in Japan.
Last year the Nintendo DS hardware sales fell sharply compared to the previous year. This year, healthy software sales is pulling up the hardware sales, to 18% increase year-on-year since July. But the whole handheld hardware market has declined.

Some people think that DS is fighting an uphill battle against competition in Japan, but when you look at the market share like this, it must be obvious that the situation is completely different in this year.

This chart shows unit sales transition of handheld hardware in U.S. market.
Despite the decline of the total videogame market in U.S., Nintendo DS continued to grow by more than 17% year-on-year. Our analysis is that this growth is due to the launch of Nintendo DSi and that the U.S. market is realizing its Nintendo DS market potential this year following the market penetration in Japan and Europe. Last year, Wii was the best selling hardware at this point in time, but this year Nintendo DS sales is surpassing Wii sales and becoming the best selling hardware of the year, followed by Wii.