Last week, whilst planning a party to celebrate the one-year anniversary since this feature was unceremoniously plundered from Joystiq's South African liaison, we received devastating news -- the Japanese gaming industry is shrinking faster than an osteoporotic grandparent. By our calculations, the whole industry has a few months before it's due to collapse in on itself like a bright, beautiful, bankrupt supernova. Just look at this week's chart -- red across the board. Except for the PS2, which we all know doesn't count.

With the fate of Japan's gaming industry in constant peril, we must learn to savor the precious little time we have left together. Sure, we could spend the next few months ceaselessly running through our respective cities proclaiming warnings of the pending Japanese ludopocalypse, but that doesn't sound very appealing, as we are out of shape. Instead, let's just calmly resign ourselves to our fate, so that this feature may meet its eventual end with dignity.

Aw, screw that noise. We're flying to Japan to buy a few hundred thousand gaming consoles. Who's coming with?

- DSi: 57,401 13,832 (19.42%)
- PSP: 54,148 11,617 (17.66%)
- PS3: 22,825 2,610 (10.26%)
- Wii: 17,276 819 (4.53%)
- DS Lite: 8,408 540 (6.03%)
- PS2: 5,246 179 (3.53%)
- Xbox 360: 4,849 592 (10.88%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The osteoporotic archives