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Has Sony made PlayStation "too Western"?

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Even Japan is becoming more Western. Just look at Square or Capcom. It's a good thing because it's sort of a hybrid of their great craftsmanship but they are now fine tuning it to be more globally appealing.

From Software is the same way. I guess for people that really dug the more niche Japanese stuff, I'm sure they're disappointed but I never was very fond of it
Yep. The Japanese audience no longer appeals to iconic Japanese developers. That's a problem with the audience, not the game makers. And I am not blaming the japanese gamers for no longer enjoying AAA games, but it's fair to say that their tastes have changed over the years. Sales of RE, MGS and DMC are no longer what they used to be. Now they fail to outsell the first week tally of older entries in the franchise.

Whereas gaming in the west has only grown. Japanese games are more popular than ever. RE8, DMCV, Monster Hunter are all breaking franchise records. From Software have reached iconic status thanks to PlayStation. FF is selling more than ever before despite being exclusive to Playstation. Sony has exclusive deals with Japanese devs like Mikami's Tango Studios, Team Ninja (Nioh), all Yakuza games on PS4 were day one exclusives before Phil finally realized just how popular these games were. Persona 5 was a PS4 exclusive. FF16 is a PS exclusive. Forspoken too. That's THREE Square Enix games that Sony managed to secure as exclusive back to back to back.

I think Sony is doing fine when it comes to Japanese games.
 

zedinen

Member
Why did PlayStation get westernized?

Japan, at its peak, accounts for 40% of world's console spending. Its devs stay ahead of the competition.

The japanese domestic market sets trends in the West. Console wars are fought and won in Japan. The winners, like PS1 and PS2, have hundreds of exclusive japanese games and dominate overseas markets.

The world has changed profoundly since then.

Japan, with few exceptions, no longer buys games while the West accounts for 90% of world's console spending and western devs dominate the industry.

Japanese companies have become Western centric in order to stay in the console business: Square Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, Koei Tecmo ...

More than 85% of these companies' software unit sales come from the West, which is why PS remains the best place to play japanese games.

In the late 2000s, Nintendo's market cap was almost double that of Sony as Nintendo revenue was bigger than PS and Xbox combined.

In conclusion, Sony's strategy is working.
 
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Lethal01

Member
Western games are where the quality is right now. What was the last great game out of Japan that wasn’t from soft or Nintendo?

Now,this is just a strange question. Guilty Gear Strive is great came out last week. DMC5 was great, Resident Evil 8 was great, Final Fantasy 7 remake was great, Yakuza like a dragon, Astral Chain, Trials of Mana, Nioh 2, Atelier Ryza, Monster Hunter Rise, Grandblue Fantasy Versus was great. Japan is regularly pumping out some of the best games.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Now,this is just a strange question. Guilty Gear Strive is great came out last week. DMC5 was great, Resident Evil 8 was great, Final Fantasy 7 remake was great, Yakuza like a dragon, Astral Chain, Trials of Mana, Nioh 2, Atelier Ryza, Monster Hunter Rise, Grandblue Fantasy Versus was great. Japan is regularly pumping out some of the best games.
Yet it's tOo wEsTeRnIzEd

Some of the takes in here from some Xbox fans are a hoot as well.

Happy Eddie Murphy GIF by Laff
 
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japan just doesnt respond to home consoles anymore. sony will need some sort of handheld mode for future consoles if they want to gain marketshare back. at the moment, you focus on where most will buy your console and that is the west. sony will always get tons of japanese games by default anyway. its just, they themselves dont focus on that side much anymore.
 
And too successful as well...

PS4 has made more money for Sony than any other PlayStation. More than PS2 did with over 65% of market share and over 150 million units sold.
 

Lethal01

Member
tOo wEsTeRnIzEd

Some of the takes in here from some Xbox fans are a hoot as well.

Happy Eddie Murphy GIF by Laff

I agree that I wish Sony first party was more Japanese-focused, but it's not like I don't get that appealing to the west is clearly more profitable.
I wish it was more fighting game and jrpg focused too but you gotta be realistic.
 
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They could just... make another handheld. And not fuck it up by requiring expensive proprietary memory.
But then that would split development resources (let alone R&D, production, ,assembly etc. resources) on two simultaneous devices instead of one, and it's not like they would've magically gotten 2x the money to handle all of that. One of the major criticisms of PS Vita and even PSP was that some of the 1P games felt like "knockoff" versions of the console entries of their time, at least among some people.

IMO if Sony want to do a portable system, they would need to design as a mobile companion to their console, something to facilitate streaming of current-gen PlayStation software and, potentially, enough horsepower to run native versions of older PlayStation systems (perhaps up to and including base PS4) locally. It's something I actually suggested a long few months ago when speculating on mid-gen refreshes for Sony and Microsoft, and I think it's something they should do especially on a 6nm process.

That way you can play the new PlayStation titles on it like PS5, without having devs split resources, or needing them to target different tiers of APIs. So think of what Microsoft plan to do soon with cloud streaming of certain Series X/S/PC games on older Xbox One consoles, but now apply that to a new handheld-like device from Sony.

To pull it off though, Sony would need very robust cloud infrastructure; I don't think they have quite the infrastructure ATM for that and still provide cloud game streaming for PS5 and PS4 owners simultaneously.
 

Woggleman

Member
Japan itself has changed and doesn't make much beside weeb stuff so Sony adapted. The only third party old school Japanese developer still making great games is Capcom. Konami is just a shell of it's former greatness. It even took a western developer to make a great Samurai game.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
But starting with the PlayStation 3, things were changing.

They changed fully. It was like a light switch. When I think PS3, I do not think of japanese games. I think of Infamous, Uncharted, God of War, Resistance, Heavy Rain, and Gran Turismo (which is japanese but not necessarily what japanese gaming fans are super into). The notable Japanese games on PS3 tended to be multiplats also available on 360. 360 arguably even had more Japanese support during the first 2-3 years of its lifespan.

Which makes threads like this a bit outdated, no offense. If you were puzzled/upset by this 15 years ago, fair enough OP. As an early PS3 owner I was not a happy camper either at the shift in console gaming. But if Sony's westernization is still somehow surprising or bothering you in 2021, two generations removed from PS3, I dunno what to tell you. The western-centric vision being executed for PS5 right now was formed in some board room like half a decade ago. As good as their games are, Japan is an increasingly small market for console gaming. If middle class Chinese start buying more consoles you might see a shift back East but in the meantime its the west.
 

LRKD

Member
Absolutely, to the point that I'm not even interested in owning PlayStation consoles anymore. Most of the Japanese games that used to go on the vita, are now going on the Switch, and some devs have started going onto steam as well.
 

spawn

Member
They're just following the money and right now Europe and North America are the biggest markets for gaming. It's all about the bottom line and what makes the company and their investors the most money
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Japanese games are largely superior to western games. Interesting to see.some in here not interested in Japanese games. When I think of playstation I think of a uniquely Japanese console (ps1 and 2).

Now a days all of their stuff is samey.
It really is all the same I sold my ps4 in 2017 because all the games I care about on ps4 were either on PC or coming to PC so it made no sense to own one

My interest in PlayStation was always an extension of my interest in Japanese culture in general

A western bias console like the PS5 is the same as sony leaving the console business for me I don't hate the PS5 (other than how it looks, the ugly UI, and defective controller) I'm just completely disinterested in it...I want more than the same ole action adventure games and remakes/remasters but these days in the eyes of PS5 fans that makes you a xbot lmao
 

Yoboman

Member
We know why Western part of Sony took over

They simply were selling more and putting in much more effort to save PS3 at a time where Japan had put out a disaster console release

Where was Japan Studios in terms of the PS3 recovery? They pretty much went missing all gen, they failed to put out any big games. They had some niche hits like Folklore and Tokyo Jungle. Gran Turismo fell behind Forza that gen. Team Ico failed to get a game out all gen. They had Demons Souls outsourced but bungled its release

Meanwhile the western studios were pumping out hits and regular content in a way they had not previously done

That signified the big change for Sony moving forward

God knows where they would be if they were still relying on Japan's output. Good thing they've been cleaned out over there and hopefully start acting more like the Western studios in terms of getting big new games in the pipeline
 

Dr Kaneda

Member
Japan devs in general just aren't releasing as many good games.

Konami releases nothing. CAPCOM basically just releases RE and Monster Hunter. SE gives you a KH or FF every 10 years. SEGA is basically just 1million Yakuza games. From release the same Souls type game every 2-3 with a new lick of paint. Atlus only release shitty virtually novels basically with Persona. Platinum are taking forever a day to release Bayonetta 3 and bite your head off when you ask why it's taking so long.

Where are the likes of Silent Hill, MGS, MGS Rising, Castlevania, Suikoden, Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Dragons Domga, Dead Rising, DMC, Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Lost Planet, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, a GOOD Sonic game, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, House of the Dead, Power Stone, etc..

Yeah with Sony we're missing out on great games like Ape Escape, SIREN and Team ICO. But that list above is far makes a bigger dent in the industry and a few Jap games by Sony. Problem with Japanese developers is they mostly either release only tried and tested game formulas that appeal to western audiences or they release super hardcore weeb games.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
If you aren't on mobile the East is a lost cause now.

That's why you see companies like Square and such focusing so much on mobile, and making strange choices for consoles.
Who in Sony thought that a behemoth of a console would do well with Japanese consumers who live in tiny apartments?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
No

But why you overthink this so much? The games do the talking. Times change and the world adapts. It's not 1990, or 1997, or 2006. Japan has been eroding in their prominence for a while.

It's going to be ok.
 
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Jeeves

Member
No matter what the underlying reason may be, the sad truth is that I basically no longer see Playstation as a Japanese brand.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
For the most part, PlayStation as a brand for the PS1 and PS2, was distinctly Japanese with many of its well known titles being third party games from Japanese developers, as well as many first party games being developed in Japan such as the Ape Escape series and Team Ico games. This echoed the Japanese origins of the company behind it, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., which was headquartered within Sony's Tokyo offices at the time. But starting with the PlayStation 3, things were changing. Microsoft helped revolutionize the market with its focus on Online services and Western AAA titles in the Xbox 360. With the PlayStation 3 struggling, Sony needed to combat it by moving PlayStation towards a more western focused direction. It started with SCE placing more focus on its western studios like Naughty Dog and Santa Monica. Then by bringing in Mark Cerny to architect what would be known as the PlayStation 4, and by making a bunch of deals with western third parties for exclusive content in multi-platform titles. This all culminated into Sony's decision to merge Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment, into Sony Interactive Entertainment, and relocate the whole division to San Mateo, California, where it exists today.

The only thing that PlayStation has Japan related now, is the fact that they have a studio in Tokyo. I get Sony's need to make PlayStation more a more western-oriented brand in order to keep up with Microsoft, and in a lot of ways, that's a good thing. But do you think that Sony may have went too far in that direction? And if so, should Sony move SIE back to its original home in Tokyo?
Considering the fact that Japan doesn't give a flying fuck about PlayStation anymore, it was the right call for Sony to GOoo WEEEEST!
 
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Outside japan PS was known for Crash Tomb Raider Tony Hawk Twisted Metal , wipeout, Xcom, loaded , psychic detective, nfl gameday, madden, legacy cain, medieval jetmoto , krazy Ivan, earthworm jim.

How can Sony be more western when they were already western. Once in awhile you had parapper, metal gear, gran turismo sometimes given free but that's almost it. Final Fantasy 7 was biggest japanese launch in America couldn't do better than namco museum which everyone played for pole position and ms.pacman. games 3000 years old. Internet filled with japaweeb lol, just joking but also serious. Most western gamers not buying castlevania, tobal number who, Gate of fire or Gradius.

PS2 same, metal gear kingdom hearts final fantasy and???? People were buying Grant Theft Auto Crash Max Payne Jak NFS most wanted, Nba street Metal of honor. People buying Japan games in big number had Gamecube or Dreamcast because not much choice, all the big popular games weren't on those!

Ms.pacman not even a japanese game technically lol. Almost forgot.
 
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Japanese games are largely superior to western games.
You should play more western game same excuse western use they play only 4 Japan games say suck. Both have good and bad games.

But people always buy western games more outside japan since 1992. On console. Japan absent on PC since 286 have no choice.
 

CamHostage

Member
I mean if we didn't see a lot of games from China, ASIA MARKETS getting promoted by Sony I would say you are correct in your assumption OP. But it's farther from the truth. PS4 showed a big surge in eastern developed games because of not only Sony but Nintendo. If you want those smaller games like Bravery Default get a switch or buy them on PC?

Yeah, I was about to say, the China Hero Project is a major initiative.

https://asia.playstation.com.cn/en-cn/hero/


PlayStation is going to China, looking for upstart developers, and funding them to make games for PlayStation platforms. (And the project is backed with help from Epic, Unity, CRI, Silicon Studio, and a lot of other middleware partners which would get these studios into mainstream game technology.) Boundary, Hardcore Mecha, Lost Soul Aside, FIST, Anno:Mutationem, these are all significant games from Asian developers. CHPJ has yet to launch a big hit (3 or so of the 13 projects have shipped, and of the upcoming ones I said were significant, many GAFers might still have never heard of any of them,) but it's an important seeding project for Sony in the Chinese game development scene.

If China takes off the way it could with the funding and resources it has there (...and labor and business practices and political/financial interest and all the dark things that make it controversial to look forward to a bustling Chinese game influx,) PlayStation would be at the forefront of having those developers at its side and those PS consoles already in homes to play on as the market grows and the games go worldwide...
 
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EDMIX

Member
One thing I like about PS2 that it had nice selection of both western and Japanese first party but these days Sony mostly focusing on western first party games.
True, but that is where they move units though.

I feel stuff like Ico or Shadow Of The Colossus could be done with those types of budgets, but with games like The Last Guardian, when you have games staying the same price for literally years and then budget a AAA game, it can't really afford to do ok numbers before you see them start to slow down on those type of games, look at Gravity Rush. So I feel you'll still see them put out very Japanese stuff, but with AAA, maybe not. The numbers simply don't add up. Even when you look at the PS2, literally look at shit like God Of War vs Dark Cloud. They have great reason to back a team that was knocking it out of the park.

They gave them more chances again on PS3 with that White Knight series and it was very meh compared to God Of War, Infamous, Uncharted etc. So I see this simply as Sony giving those teams chances and other teams doing better and better and Sony making the call to support the teams that are doing BETTER. Its not like you see stuff like GT going away or anything, they shift record units, thus Sony trust that team to knock it out of the park every time. So I don't really believe its a west vs east thing, I think its simply good teams vs bad teams.

SlimySnake SlimySnake Slow Clap.

Agreed 10000%. Because they already move the most units in that area by 3rd party, it makes little sense for Sony to even focus on that in house when many of us are already buying a PS to even play those IP in the first place.

I understand Resident Evil can be found else where, but stuff like that, Yakuza, DMC, Tekken, Monster Hunter, FF etc I've played on PS my whole life, the controller lay out is already how I like those games, so I don't see me in the future really playing them else where even as a person that owns many systems. So I get 100% why Sony in house doesn't really focus on a lot of that, they already have that market. I feel if they buy From Soft or Kojima Pro or anything like that, it will simply secure that many fans of games from the East buying a PS by default, but shit many of us already do lol

PS console, Nintendo handheld and PC will forever be my go to combo to get the most out of gaming, so Sony isn't really getting more of a market imho by really doing MORE of those titles. We already have great Japanese titles and you bring up amazing points about RE, Monster Hunter, FF etc breaking many records last gen.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
True, but that is where they move units though.
If Sony only focuses on games that does big sells then PS5 is going to have very boring ass selection, games like Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle or Puppeteer didn't sell crazy well but it made Playstation's game selection exciting and diverse.

I don't want Playstation losing that over Sony wanting to chase the money.
 

EDMIX

Member
If Sony only focuses on games that does big sells then PS5 is going to have very boring ass selection, games like Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle or Puppeteer didn't sell crazy well but it made Playstation's game selection exciting and diverse.

I don't want Playstation losing that over Sony wanting to chase the money.

I disagree. Sony is not "only" focusing on that, simply that they are no longer doing big AAA stuff by teams that fail to met those sales, but that is the way it has ALWAYS BEEN at that publisher.

Zipper is gone. Was it Japanese? Evolution Studios? Was that Japanese? Both did AAA titles, both failed to meet many expectations, both got canned.

So we have many smaller Japanese titles that are different that exist on PS. My argument is not solely that they didn't sell, but that they were AAA titles.....that didn't sell.

So to argue that we would not get a diverse line up is simply not true.


^^^^

Sony needs money to stay open though, they are a business. Did you think they were just making games for lolz before this or? This idea existed thru all generations at PS. It failed to sell based on its budget, Sony went else where. That is simply business though.... That isn't new to Sony.

So i don't believe Sony was just thrilled with Level 5 games doing poorly or something. As if Dark Cloud and White Knight were just amazing things for Sony. I believe they wanted the team to do better and really hoped that they pulled thru so they can continue to contract them to make those JRPGS, but if things don't work out, Sony can't keep funding failed project after failed project.

That is not a East vs West thing sir, that is a universal business logic thing. We've seen Sony pull the plug on many projects all over the world. So this isn't about simply JUST the east and its not about selling "crazy", its about the budget of the project and if its able to meet those expectations, regardless of east or west. Just cause you like Japanese games (as do i btw) that doesn't mean all logic must be thrown out the window and all failed projects should just continue cause you like the game or something. Enough didn't for them to continue and I believe that is more then fair.

Think about it like this, why would Sony want the FF stuff as a timed exclusive with FFVII remake? FFXVI? I don't think they just hate Japan, they need to back successful projects to continue to support those teams.
 
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CamHostage

Member
I mentioned China, but Sony also has some feelers out in other parts of the world. If you look at its indie showcases, they have games from Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, different places that aren't the US of A. And XDEV is expanding (specifically with an eye towards Japan and Asia) so we may see more games contracted under Sony's own label, not just listed in a PS sizzle reel of indies that are coming up.

...But, if by "too Western", the the OP only means that PlayStation is not as Japanese as it used to be, though, then sure. Times changed, and that part of PS fandom didn't survive the times well (albeit also Sony didn't nourish its growth too well either, especially after Vita ended the portable run.) We'll see what things look like in the aftermath of the Japan Studios closure (which is even more tragic since, technically, two of Sony's five PS5 launch games were Japan Studio productions: Demon's Soul and Astro's Playroom,) but clearing house there might open up new opportunities to contract external studios directly... or, it could suck and SCE WWS / XDEV won't have much Japanese presence and you'll have to get your Japanese games from 3rd Parties, which are still plentiful even if they're all eyeing Switch closely. Japan isn't the powerhouse game development hub it once was, so this all makes sense no matter how hard it is to live through, and it makes bitter sense why Sony is investing resources elsewhere, but it'd be great if Japanese game studios flourished on a PlayStation system again some day.
 

CamHostage

Member
If Sony only focuses on games that does big sells then PS5 is going to have very boring ass selection, games like Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle or Puppeteer didn't sell crazy well but it made Playstation's game selection exciting and diverse.

Games like these were back when indies and other types of studios weren't really invited to the party. Times have changed, greatly. Now, there's no shortage of exciting and diverse releases on any of the major game consoles.




In this new era, the homegrown studios are still trying to figure out what they need to represent for their "home turf" game console. There was a time where they were the standard bearers of their boxes, bringing out the AAA and the amazing oddities that they wanted their consoles known for. There was a time before that where they just had to make one of every game because that's what you expected the manufacturer to make, so even Nintendo was like, "What the heck is this 'Football' thing that American's don't play with their feet, and how can we make one of these games?" But now? When gamers think "PlayStation", many of them think Call of Duty and Resident Evil and Fortnite and Assassin's Creed, and eventually they get down to Uncharted or Gran Turismo but for the mass-market gamer, that's not top-of-mind. (Xbox is still "Halo", but that's rare, and they've never been able to put a #2 game on that level the way Nintendo comboed Mario and Zelda and eventually Pokemon.) The market has changed. Right now, Microsoft is adjusting to it by putting all of its efforts into Xbox Games Pass, making its platform not about the console and the games, but about the service and the value. And Nintendo is being Nintendo, and that's working for them. Sony is IMO still searching for the answer, and they've done a good job so far making it about the big games, but they're trying a lot of stuff and they're watching the competition carefully, because the old gameplan won't work for them anymore.

(*I do like your taste in Japanese games, though, Danjin.)
 
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FStubbs

Member
If Sony only focuses on games that does big sells then PS5 is going to have very boring ass selection, games like Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle or Puppeteer didn't sell crazy well but it made Playstation's game selection exciting and diverse.

I don't want Playstation losing that over Sony wanting to chase the money.
That's what indies are for. The strategy for Sony now is to leave the quirky games to indies (every single one of which show up on PS, unlike Xbox or Switch) and focus on as many first party AAA games as possible.
 

FStubbs

Member
What do you think why I have Switch, most my favourite games of all time comes from AA games more than AAA.
Yup. Makes more sense for Sony to do what Nintendo (and Microsoft) can't, and dominate AAA. (At least until Iwata's grand gamble eventually plays out and Nintendo can strike upstream)
 

Ozzie666

Member
Not sure it's fair to say that, at least not singling out just Sony to be honest. The truth is, for example. SquareEnix has chased those Western $$, Capcom to some degree as well. The whole market for the big players is after the Western Market, the smaller survive on Nintendo and Mobile. On the surface though, Sony has definitely become more Western and chasing those big AAA projects, awards and dollars. It's almost a bit like their 90's anti-2D stance for the PS1.
 

packy34

Member
But then that would split development resources (let alone R&D, production, ,assembly etc. resources) on two simultaneous devices instead of one, and it's not like they would've magically gotten 2x the money to handle all of that. One of the major criticisms of PS Vita and even PSP was that some of the 1P games felt like "knockoff" versions of the console entries of their time, at least among some people.
Yeah... they did... because Sony's management doesn't understand landscapes. They don't need to make super AAA tier productions for a handheld. Just look at Nintendo's strategy and copy that. Not even necessarily what they've done with Switch, but what they did with 3DS while they had separate home consoles available. If Nintendo can do it, Sony can do it. They just need better management.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Because they are handheld only now.

besides this being not true, it’s gonna lead to more things like monster hunter rise and disgaea 6, monster hunter stories 2, etc. Ps5 is doing worse than wii U in japan. Nintendo just completely dominates that market now and it kinda sucks because japanese 3p will cater to them now. I like my switch but I would prefer to play games above 720p.
 

Gargauth

Member
What do you think why I have Switch, most my favourite games of all time comes from AA games more than AAA.
Are there any AA games that are only available on Switch? Just asking as I've been thinking about getting Switch, but whenever I look into it I realize there's nothing that I can't play at better framerate/quality on higher-powered machines.
 
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