For those of us curious about the Japanese side of the world in terms of video games, here's some news direct from Japanese news website Japan Today: it seems that Famitsu publisher Enterbrain has high hopes for video game sales in the land of the rising sun. In fact, Enterbrain predicts that hardware and software sales will reach record highs in 2008 before tailing off over the following two years.

While it sounds like a tall order, it does make some sense. Enterbrain believes that the brisk demand for game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation 3 will propel sales figures into the expected 710.4 billion yen (approximately US$ 7 million) this year, before tapering off into a modest but still respectable 671.1billion (US$ 6.6 million) yen in 2010.

Of course, there's also the expectation that the market for online games is expected to continue growing and reach 320.5 billion yen (US$ 3.2 million) in 2010, which would bump up the total market for game consoles and online games to 991.6 billion yen (US$ 9.8 million). And with the Nintendo DS' cumulative sales figures topping that of the Sony PlayStation 2's, it's not that hard to see this particular prediction coming into fruition. Updates as we get them.