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[Rolla]

“The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us,” he said. “We have not been as excited about the engagement of the Japanese game development community as we are now for many years.”
“I’d also observe that we’re making a statement by launching in Japan day and date with the US, and that is not what we did with PS4. So I read that stuff. A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan – as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us.”

Jim Ryan on claims that Sony is shifting away from Japan: "A lot of the commentary is inaccurate"

Edge speak to Jim Ryan on Sony's relationship with Japan

www.gamesradar.com

 

[michaelius]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Yeah no. I mean no company exec will ever say that they sideline their original market. I mean c'mon.

And any argument about third party games. coming to PS in Japan is useless, because PS has some market share in Japan unlike Xbox so it would get those games anyway. So no reason to port to those games to Xbox in the first place. Until XCloud become popular there or something.

 

[DGrayson]

 

[Stiflers Mom]

How did Sony Japan Studio rect to this news?
I guess they who have not been fired or laid off must be dancing around the streets right now in happiness.

"URESHII, RYAN SAN"

"SHIAWASE NE, JAPAN DEV SAN"

 

[BaneIsPain]

Never forget your roots Sony

 

[Fbh]

Ok then how about you invest in some cool japanese games?.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Show, don't tell.

 

[v_iHuGi]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

i might be completely WRONG BUT as i see it:

- Sony is focusing on key battlegrounds to clean up the floor 1st, more shipments will then arrive for countries where Ps5 wins by dafault like Germany, Portugal, Spain, Japan etc.

 

[Miles708]

Sure, if Japan = Gran Turismo

Everything i liked from Sony Japan is pretty much gone, thank you very much.

 

[Elios83]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

This is true but at a strategic level considering that the japanese launch lineup hasn't a killer app this year like FF or Biohazard it makes sense to focus on the markets that are actual battlegrounds with their direct competition like MS. Also shipping consoles to Japan is probably easier and cheaper for them so they can dilute shipments sending a good chunk of consoles every week unlike what happens in the US and Europe where it's basically a big shipment every 2-3 weeks.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

You're correct, actions do speak louder than words. And the actions of Sony are based on profit, nothing more. And if they shipped only 100,000 units to Japan and over 300,000 to the UK you can bet there were actuaries and other people paid a shit ton of money to determine how many to send and why. I'd imagine it has more to do with how Japans gaming demographics have changed rather than a disrespectful slight to their home country.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

One sided love affair.

Japanese people are like 'meh'.

Only positive is it sells in thousands instead of dozens like xbox on weekly basis.

 

[Nikana]

The X button begs to differ.

They obviously will have focus on Japan but I dont see them increasing support over PS4.

 

[mckmas8808]

PROVE IT! Allow Sony Japan studios to make some games then!!!

 

[LordCBH]

Remaster Folklore you fucking cowards.

 

[namekuseijin]

the Japanese don't care about Sony california

 

[Bodomism]

Japan second largest market for PS4 but received 100-150K units less than UK(4th biggest market for PS4).

Logic 404.

 

[Kurimao]

Is that you Phil Spencer???

 

[AmuroChan]

Then why did you kill the Vita?? We all know mobile/handheld gaming is king in Japan. Yet you ceded the entire market to Nintendo.

Also, the PS5 is bigger than most Japanese apartments. Good luck selling that monstrosity over there.

 

[leo-j]

They could be doing the whole artificial demand thing in Japan tho. The fact they are hovering around 40,000 a week so far gives that statement credibility. Still numbers are abysmal for the console there imo.

 

[Hezekiah]

i might be completely WRONG BUT as i see it:

- Sony is focusing on key battlegrounds to clean up the floor 1st, more shipments will then arrive for countries where Ps5 wins by dafault like Germany, Portugal, Spain, Japan etc.

Yeah the UK and US are the biggest battlegrounds so makes sense to focus on them. There's also a massive thirst for PS5 so time for Sony to make hay and pick up the rest later.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Can someone fire this guy ? Please ?

 

[Dargor]

Some people may disagree with me, but in my opinion, sony japan needs a huge overhaul, they haven't made anything big in ages.

I dunno whose fault is it, but they needs to go.

 

[Great Hair]

as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us.”

US: 50mln sold PS4
EU: 50mln sold PS4
JP: 10mln sold PS4

JimBo c´mon

 

[KingT731]

Then why did you kill the Vita?? We all know mobile/handheld gaming is king in Japan. Yet you ceded the entire market to Nintendo.

Also, the PS5 is bigger than most Japanese apartments. Good luck selling that monstrosity over there.

You must have missed the almost complete lack of support from 3rd parties.

 

[Bodomism]

US: 50mln sold PS4
EU: 50mln sold PS4
JP: 10mln sold PS4

JimBo c´mon

US - 34 million units LTD
JP - 9.2 million units LTD

 

[IntentionalPun]

IntentionalPun's stance is I don't give a shit just make great games, whether the Japanese like those games is irrelevant to me.

 

[[Sigma]]

Stop lying Jim!!!!!!

 

[CAB_Life]

Jim Ryan is a lying sack of shit who's besmirching the PS brand; particularly after such candid figureheads like Kaz and Shu (and that passionate Vita guy--bless his heart--who's name I can't recall).

 

[Sakura]

US: 50mln sold PS4
EU: 50mln sold PS4
JP: 10mln sold PS4

JimBo c´mon

Europe with dozens of countries and languages, and hundreds of millions of people all combined sold more than the single country of Japan. No shit. Pretty sure that wasn't what he meant when he said second largest market.

 

[cireza]

Japan is so important to us that we even have a Western developer making a game about Japan.

 

[Maxwell Jacob Friedman]

Show, don't tell.

Final Fantasy console exclusive.....and probably other big third party deals as well from studios based in Japan, I mean like....what....

 

[a multicultural team of v]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

I mean, the US market is probably more than 3x as big so that kind of makes sense from a business perspective. I do hope that they actually back up some of this rhetoric though.

Japan is so important to us that we even have a Western developer making a game about Japan.

To be fair, that is more a damnation of the Japanese market in total as it is anything else. The Yakuza director gave the impression he is almost ashamed that an American developer had to be the one to make a game like that.

 

[DustQueen]

I don't know... I think it would be a bit strange if Playstation CEO said "Japan market can eat a dick" don't you think?

 

[Panajev2001a]

I don't know... I think it would be a bit strange if Playstation CEO said "Japan market can eat a dick" don't you think?

It is Jim Ryan, he basically said that about EU when he was managing it) .

 

[Blond]

That's great and all but as certain other industry exec taught us - actions speak louder than words and shipping slightly over 100k consoles to Japan vs rumored 300+ k to UK is very telling.

The PS4s entire lifespan in Japan was 8 million consoles, a holiday Season in America generates more money for Sony than Japan does in in an entire generation. It only makes sense to focus on where most of your money is coming from.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[AmuroChan]

You must have missed the almost complete lack of support from 3rd parties.

That's on Sony. They are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to secure 3rd party console exclusives on PS5, but didn't do it for the Vita. Hard to blame the 3rd party publishers when the platform holder was barely supporting its own system.

 

[ElCasual]

Why he is not fired?
Is like the bad decisions of Don Matrick with the bored PR of Phil Spencer.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Final Fantasy console exclusive.....and probably other big third party deals

Collaborations like these is exactly what I mean. Sony being pro-active and supporting Japanese studios and developers is what I want to see.

But I don't want there to be only AAA titles that define the japanese selection of titles, Sony should invest in smaller titles too, locking deals with smaller developers as well as doing in house development.

 

[Dargor]

They can only do something proprotionally to the investment they receive. Get small investment, work on smaller games.

Look at all PS4 AAA titles. How many were made by japanese companies? How much investment japanese companies received from Sony?

- Uncharted 4
- TLOU2
- God of War
- Ratchet and Clank
- Killzone
- Horizon
- Until Dawn
- Dreams
- Little Big Planet
- Detroit Become Human
- Spider Man
- Infamous
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Bloodborne
- Gran Turismo
- The Last Guardian
- Death Stranding

Of all those games, only the last four are japanese.

The only thing I know about japan studio is that they're one of sony's biggest studios.

Last time I read anything about them, they said they had around 1k people.

But thats besides the point. Whatever they are doing, with whatever money they are getting, its obviously not leading to anything big. That needs to change.

Maybe they need to hire more people or maybe fire some people. More funds or more focus, I dunno.

Things need to change though, thats clear.

 

[Pejo]

Stop lying Jim!!!!!!

Lyin' Jim Ryan

It's got a certain cadence to it.

I certainly hope they keep the Japanese developed games coming, this type of statement sounds like one of those PR things that execs say right before they close whole studios. "nothing else to say at this time" type bullshit.

 

[sublimit]

The PS4 was a powerhouse of great and unique exclusive Japanese games (both 1st party as well as 2nd and 3rd party exclusives) and i really hope this will continue with the PS5.

However there's no denial that the impact Western marketing has had in the last 15 years is really influencing the tastes of both media as well as consumers and those influences are making more and moreWestern gamers move away from the sensibilities of Japanese games (both in terms of art direction as well as gameplay) so obviously in that current environment Sony can't afford to invest on Japanese developers as much as they did back in 20-15 years ago. Just be thankful that last generation they supported games like The Last Guardian,Gravity Rush,Bloodborne and others for Vita like Freedom Wars.
What's most important is to fix those stupid and unfair censorship rules they seem to enforce from their offices in California on Japanese developers and make it as easy as possible to submit their games on the platform.I think they have easen up a little lately so hopefully they have come to their senses.

Ultimately Jim Ryan (or anyone who comes after him) will be judged at the end of the generation and not at the start. But we all know that the days of PS1/PS2 Japanese dominance in the market are long since gone.

 

[ReBurn]

Remaster Folklore you fucking cowards.

Yes! Give us more versions of the games we've already played instead of new games you cowards!

 

[longdi]

Jim sounds like a used car salesman, seems to grow into that role super fast.

Im worry SCE is led by this old folk who dont seem to 'know' gamers.

 

[bender]

Then give us:

...without bullshit club mechanics geared towards MTX.

 

[STARSBarry]

I will believe this when I see it.

Recently, especially after its HQ move Sony are forgetting what made them great to begin with.

The thing's about games is like Music, Movies and Books it is an art form, you have things that are produced as a consumer product by big budget company's and then you have movies produced as art, that want to tell a never seen before story in a unique and engaging way. There will be many failures but to keep an industry fresh you need both of these things.

Simply focusing on a single type of title that only makes the maximum amount of profit by appealing to the largest auidence results in EA, Ubisoft and Activision and honestly if Sony continue down its current path I feel by the end of a generation thats what its first party titles could result in.

Just because not everyone picks up a copy of Shadows of the Colossus does not mean its not important to have games like that on a system, only with width of title genres alongside a depth of choice can you have a successful console, for a perfect example of what happens when you don't, look no further than the Xbox One of the previous generation.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

Japan is so important to us that we even have a Western developer making a game about Japan.

So what? They loved it.