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[Virt McPolygon]

Japan won't abandon Sony. PC gaming has been gaining popularity though, so we'll probably be seeing more PC ports(released later if Sony pays for an exclusivity period).

 

[Woopah]

I see, so I was very off the mark. I figured the Japanese market would be behind both US and Europe. I appreciate the responses guys.

Edit: well I was partly right at least recently where Nintendo is concerned.

Nintendo's revenue by region worldwide 2014-2023 | Statista

In the financial year ending March 2023, Nintendo generated around 4.5 billion U.S.

www.statista.com

Regardless, my assessment that the Japanese were less concerned for foreign markets vs their domestic one seems to be off the mark.

If you compare a country to a continent then yes Japan is smaller than Europe. But looking at their financials today, it is very likely that Europe is a smaller market for Nintendo than East Asia.

You can look at the JP charts for their game sales and, despite having nearly 2x the hardware sales (17.5M to 9.3M), the sales are pretty close with the PS4 versions of games selling better than the Switch version at times.

It heavily depends on whether third parties have invested in building an audience on Nintendo platforms. When they haven't (Persona) then the PlayStation version will sell more, and when they have (Dragon Quest) then the Switch version will sell better. Of course the other way around is true too.

That's why it's good to see most third parties wake up and follow a multiplatform development strategy.

Don't most big Japanese games sell more in the west than in japan anyway?.

This is true but the fallacy is thinking that to sell big in the West you can't sell big in Japan. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Persona 5 and Ring Fit have shown this, and we're about to see it with Monster Hunter Rise too.

 

[KingT731]

It heavily depends on whether third parties have invested in building an audience on Nintendo platforms. When they haven't (Persona) then the PlayStation version will sell more, and when they have (Dragon Quest) then the Switch version will sell better. Of course the other way around is true too.

I think that particular comparison with DQ had more to do with being portable as well as having more content. Not to mention it was announced for the 3DS/Switch at the same time as the PS4 version...

 

[Woopah]

I think that particular comparison with DQ had more to do with being portable as well as having more content. Not to mention it was announced for the 3DS/Switch at the same time as the PS4 version...

I was more looking at the franchises as a whole rather than a particular game.

Persona has been very PlayStation focused so it's not surprising to see P5: Strikers do better on PS4.

Dragon Quest on the other hand has appeared on both Sony and Nintendo platforms, so it's not surprising that DQ Builders 2 did better on Switch.

To give another example, Konami has mostly put it's baseball titles on PlayStation. In recent years however it's also started investing in building an audience on Switch as well, which is now paying off.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

DQ11 sales on PS4 was enough to cover the cost of the port I'm sure.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

The rest of Asia is now more important than Japan.

 

[Woopah]

The rest of Asia is now more important than Japan.

Maybe in the future when the Chinese market has grown more, but that's still a few years for happening (at least for dedicated gaming platforms. For PC gaming the rest of Asia is more important than Japan).

 

[MagnesG]

The rest of Asia is now more important than Japan.

Market growth in Asia is relatively tied to Japan, especially for countries with little to no support.

 

[D.Final]

DQ11 sales on PS4 was enough to cover the cost of the port I'm sure.

I think so

 

[D.Final]

Market growth in Asia is relatively tied to Japan, especially for countries with little to no support.

True