From the Western’s approach of “What me recession?” to Japan’s realization that perhaps last year wasn’t so great [link via VG247] it seems that analysts will be all over the comparisons as soon as the final NPDs hit this month for North America. In 2008, Japan’s gaming industry raked in a whopping ¥582.61 billion ($6.26 billion USD), which is a lot of money all its own, but not quite as much as the ¥687.95 billion ($7.39 billion USD) they managed to make the previous year. Considering the huge gains in the market that have been made over the year, all the talk about overtaking other forms of entertainment, and yet the motherland of video games seems to be suffering a bit. Most of that seems to be in the hardware itself rather than the software, which only slightly lagged behind last year’s results.

Perhaps the onus of this slip-up can be seen in the strength that Microsoft has been able to make in the market, and the fact that Sony has certainly been slow on the uptake this generation. The PS3 is still not lighting hearts on fire in Japan or North America, and considering their massive stronghold in the former during previous generations it is a bit frightening to see that the American Giant Microsoft was able to even sell 1/3 units in compared to Mighty Sony. Yes, the Wii continues to be a big seller in Japan, but enough so to pick up for the decline that Sony has made in the last year, with the PS2 making the final curtain call and the PS3 still waiting for its killer app in the Land of the Rising Sun. As long as that slide continues, Japanese hardware sales certainly won’t pick up. Software sales were pretty close, but again that distance that Sony had with major titles across its platforms certainly would have made up for it. And considering the success the PSP has had, it hasn’t had a lot of major releases that caused it to catch fire quite the same as Monster Hunter, whereas the Wii rounded up the Top 5 in the year with 3 titles.

The Wii seems to be on a steady pace of success, and the DSi has a way to go before anyone would call it a breakthrough for the portable market. With the PSP showing a noticeable decline in huge announcements, it’s a bit of shaky ground for 2008, as well. The Wii will see a few big releases with Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest possibly dropping this year, but I don’t see hardware sales going through the roof when they are already in the clouds. Without another major player in the market, pulling in that pure Japanese RPG and action title market that Sony used to clutch so close, it may be a lot of the same news for Japan in the coming year. That’s got a lot of people thinking, it’s got a lot of people worried, and certainly may be a telling thing for the North American market in the coming months, as well. Without Sony to drive competition in the market as a truly strong player, it certainly won’t mean sales will be made up on any other platform. People are waiting, someone just has to step up in a big way.