For the past 40-50 years, Japanese prosperity has been linked with the success of the nation's world-beating consumer electronics companies. Sony, Panasonic, Fujitsu, etc.
Recent figures released by analysts Eurotechnology show, however, that as those former giants of the Japanese economy take hit after hit in the current global economic crisis, the country's games business is going from strength-to-strength.
By combining the net income of Japan's top 19 electronics companies (which also includes the likes of SHARP and Hitachi) and comparing it to the combined net income of Japan's top 9 games companies (including Nintendo, Square Enix, Sega, Konami & Bandai Namco), we can see the games company income on a slow-but-steady climb, while electronics income takes a battering.
Of course, while these figures make for good reading, they're also based on some selective statistics. As you can see, when the electronics giants are on a roll, their net income dwarfs that of the games business. And games companies are only ahead on this graph because it's listing net income, rather than total revenue, which takes advantage of the fact most electronics giants are posting net losses at the moment. Nintendo's continued global dominance also helps pad the figures, covering up for the losses made at other companies.
Games sector overtakes electricals [eurotechnology, via Evil Avatar]