 Oh man, whoever thought this news was going to come across my desk, but it did. So let's talk about it. It has to do with the Japan video game market. Apparently, this is according to Yahoo Japan, the Nintendo Switch has saved the video game console market from a decade long decline. Yes folks, a decade long decline, since 2007 the video game market year over year over year in Japan has declined. Now this is video game specific market because there's the smartphone game market as well and that's considerably separate from the video game market and also significantly larger than the video game market. So that's mostly because they can't determine if you're buying spending money on a game or on any other application in Japan. So they can't really just say that the smartphone game market is just spending money on games. So that being said, here's the data. So in 2017, the video game console market, which consists of package software, digital software and hardware for traditional video game consoles, home handheld, etc. Hit $3.5 billion USD in sales. That is a 22.7% increase year on year. For the past 10 years since 2007, the console market was actually in a decline, a sharp decline. In fact, 2007 was a time when the Nintendo DS Lite was to be in a big hit. There was the Wii also getting big back then, etc. So the video game market back then peaked at $6.4 billion. So it's almost been halved since 2007 overall. But in 2017, they finally reversed the overall decline of the video game market according to CESA, which is the Computer Entertainment Supplier Association in Japan. They themselves have attributed this turnaround and decline to Nintendo Switch specifically in 2017. And if you're wondering how this compares to the smartphone market, in 2017, $11 billion is what the smartphone market is worth, $11 billion. So significantly larger than the dedicated video game space. So I think this is interesting on many fronts because obviously the decline of the video game market in Japan also coincided with the rise of the smartphone market because the first smartphone started coming out around 2007 and they just become more and more prevalent since then. In Japan, they prefer mobile gaming, way more than home console gaming. It's sort of always been that way. And that being said, obviously being able to game and use a phone in one device is something that is going to be a big hit in Japan and is. It's just interesting though that despite that, the Switch itself, a portable home console like device, which is something a phone is not going to give you, somehow helped turn around the market. Now we know Switch blew up last year. It's on pace to outsell the PlayStation 4 rather quickly. It's on pace to do better than the 3DS numbers, which were 24 million in just Japan, which is a big figure. I don't know if it's on pace for DS numbers or what it's looking like overall at this point. But in its launch year, not even out of full year for it to turn around the entire video game industry from a 10 year decline to actually see growth. It lets you know how big a deal Nintendo really is in Japan and probably really on a global scale because as awesome as the PlayStation 4 has been doing this generation right now, it's around or at or around the sales of what the PlayStation 3 did during its lifespan on the PlayStation 3 was out longer and it's no doubt the PlayStation 4 is a more popular platform. But I find this a very interesting data point to look at because overall the video game market has actually shrunk worldwide. It's not just in Japan. I know the sales and the money might be bigger than it's ever been, but if you just look at hardware, the market's significantly smaller than it used to be. Basically, before Switch came out, the three platforms on the market were Xbox One, Wii U, and PlayStation 4. One of those platforms was overall a success. Obviously Xbox is doing okay with their numbers, but their numbers are more akin to like what the N64 did when Nintendo was starting to see a sharp decline in sales. So it's one of those things where are they really doing that well or is it really just one company? And if only one company is doing really well, then that means that the market itself has significantly shrunk. So to see growth is a highly positive thing and I couldn't be happier for Nintendo and for the Japanese video game audience that wants to play more than just games on their phone. And I want to, I've said this before, I'll say it again, there's nothing wrong with gaming on your phone. I game on my phone. I'm sure many of you also game on your phone. Whether or not you consider that real gaming is a silly thing to me because so many of these games you play on our phone used to be the kind of games we would play on, you know, Game Boys and even online, the Facebook games of back in the day or those Flash game websites. I consider those all to be games. I mean games are games, simplistic or otherwise. So I'm just happy to see this success and it's really interesting that Nintendo is the reason this turned around. It's not the PlayStation 4 or not even the 3DS, which we've been counting 3DS numbers for years, or at least Nintendo has in Japan. But the 3DS itself didn't turn the thing around. We, you didn't turn around. The PlayStation 4 didn't turn this around the past decade. It was Switch. So we'll have to wait and see what happens in 2018. Is 2018 going to show growth? Maybe with Pokemon Let's Go coming this year, that might be the case. We'll have to wait and see. But for now, good job, Nintendo. We'll see if the market continues to grow or if this was just a temporary one-year bump. Anyways, folks, I'm Nathan Earlvedance from Nintendo Prime and if you liked this video, you know what to do. And if you disliked the video, hit that dislike button. Subscribe for more content and I'll catch you all in the next one.