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[Black_Stride]

Are you telling me not one PS4 or PS5 game managed to sell more than 2200 copies.....in Japan?

Does this count digital? Im guessing not.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

I genuinely question how much sony cares.

They are having their best years ever for playstation.

Sony is extremely healthy in general.

And they have clearly pivoted away from Japan and are focusing on more emerging console markets like china and the middle east and india.

I'm honestly surprised Sony even launched in Japan day 1. I mean, clearly Japan don't give a fuck while the rest of the world scrambles for a ps5.

I'm sure they realize their position in Japan, Japan's current gaming landscape, and are ok with where they are.

They don't have to be #1 everywhere.

 

[TheGrat1]

the industry itself is growing so it better be. but the relevance PlayStation has compared to other, mobile systems is way smaller nowadays.

Japan is not.

 

[kingfey]

Sorry I meant companies who makes mobiles with their own stores. For instance, is there some Docomo Store ? Do they own 20% of the mobile gaming market in Japan ? 1%? I saw a lot of mobile games before the birth of Iphone/ios gaming in japan...

Mobile market so far has 2 OS. Google and IOS. Unless they own their own OS. Then maybe. But so far, playstore and apple store have been a heavy market for Japanese games.

Found it.


In March 2021, Android recorded a market share of 57.4 percent among smartphone operating systems in Japan, while iOS held a market share of 42.4 percent. Android was the most widely used operating system in Japan throughout most of 2020

 

[kingfey]

I genuinely question how much sony cares.

They are having their best years ever for playstation.

Sony is extremely healthy in general.

And they have clearly pivoted away from Japan and are focusing on more emerging console markets like china and the middle east and india.

I'm honestly surprised Sony even launched in Japan day 1. I mean, clearly Japan don't give a fuck while the rest of the world scrambles for a ps5.

I'm sure they realize their position in Japan, Japan's current gaming landscape, and are ok with where they are.

They don't have to be #1 everywhere.

This is like saying, Xbox doesnt need USA. Japan is their turf. Its where they made PlayStation. Losing that ground is disgrace to them.

Its the same way, Sony is beating Xbox in the UK market. Just like Nintendo is beating Sony in japan.

 

[kingfey]

Who is leading mobile market in Japan ?
Ios/apple? Google /Android gaming ? Or a Japanese company ?

In March 2021, Android recorded a market share of 57.4 percent among smartphone operating systems in Japan, while iOS held a market share of 42.4 percent. Android was the most widely used operating system in Japan throughout most of 2020

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Japan doesnt care about home consoles.

Fate/Grand Order — Japanese RPG, which came out in 2015 and has reached $5.4 billion in revenue. 2nd Biggest game from Japan Monster Strike being 1st. For some reason Sony Music Japan handles Japanese market for mobile games, anime, etc.

PlayStation hiring for new Head of Mobile

It would appear as though PlayStation is ready to double down on its mobile division as it seeks a new head of for the department . As detailed in the job description , the successful candidate wi...

www.pocketgamer.biz

Playstation is finally opening a mobile division. Idk why they took this long. They probably have zero cross-over. They risk no self competition. A mobile GOW game wouldnt eat console sales.

 

[lh032]

I think we should stop these Japan sales nonsense.

Lets be honest here, they dont contribute much on console /software sales anyway.

 

[Marty-McFly]

I think we should stop these Japan sales nonsense.

Lets be honest here, they dont contribute much on console /software sales anyway.

Nintendo has sold 20 million Switch's and an ungodly amount of software in Japan.

 

[MagnesG]

That's what happens when you only make western-focused games and censor japanese games.

Except for Fate Grand Order apparently.

They've got all of the anime weeb shit stereotypes out in the wild. Skimpy customes, loli boobs, you name it.

Sony's gonna Sony, except when they don't.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Handheld gaming rules Japan.

Exactly

/Thread

 

[TLZ]

This is like saying, Xbox doesnt need USA. Japan is their turf.

Haven't been in a while. Their focus and messaging have been clear for a while now.

 

[kingfey]

Japan doesnt care about home consoles.

Fate/Grand Order — Japanese RPG, which came out in 2015 and has reached $5.4 billion in revenue. 2nd Biggest game from Japan Monster Strike being 1st. For some reason Sony Music Japan handles Japanese market for mobile games, anime, etc.

PlayStation hiring for new Head of Mobile

It would appear as though PlayStation is ready to double down on its mobile division as it seeks a new head of for the department . As detailed in the job description , the successful candidate wi...

www.pocketgamer.biz

Playstation is finally opening a mobile division. Idk why they took this long. They probably have zero cross-over. They risk no self competition. A mobile GOW game wouldnt eat console sales.

Fate/Grand Order - $4.3+ Billion​

The Fate series is one of Japan's most popular and biggest media franchises that has spawned more video games, light novels, manga, anime shows, and movies than what the average consumer can keep track of. It began with the 2004 adult visual novel Fate/stay night, and it is still going strong to this day. Fate/Grand Order was the first Fate game to release on mobile and featured a turn-based combat system, quickly rising up the ranks to become one of the most successful gacha games of all time.

The 15 Highest-Grossing Mobile Games Of All Time, Ranked

Mobile gaming is a force of nature unto itself, and some titles have made billions of dollars thanks to a combination of charm and gameplay.

screenrant.com

When a single game makes that much money, you will want to invest on mobile heavily.

Arena Of Valor - $9.5+ Billion​

Initial release date: October 14, 2016

Call of Duty has generated $27 billion in lifetime sales, Activision claims​

This is call of duty life time revenue. A single mobile useless game, managed to earn 1/3 of COD. and it got released on 2016.

For COD mobile.
According to a report by gamesindustry.biz, Activision Blizzard executives also confirmed in a post-earnings conference call that Call of Duty: Mobile reached lifetime earnings of $1 billion and has been downloaded 500 million times since its debut in October 2019.May 5, 2021

 

[Dr Bass]

I thought Sony has been kind of out of it in Japan for awhile. Nintendo dominates. Unfortunately it's not going to motivate Nintendo to do anything different with the results they are currently seeing.

 

[JerryinSoCal]

PlayStation leadership is too busy chasing pennies to mind their core business....

They bought Nixxes to port to PC, where they undermine their own platform and have to share profits with Steam and Epic..... when they have countless classic games stuck on PS3 that could be ported to run on PS5 and add value and make 100% of the profit for themselves.

They shutdown Japan Studioand lost Yakuza and KH exclusivity.

It's time to invest HEAVILY in PlayStation as a console and expand PS Studios from 13 (Really about 9) studios.... to about 20 or so.
Or just buy Square. Maybe Kadokawa...

With Steam Deck coming, priced around the same as a PS5.... and it has access to PC, Xbox and any PS exclusives that go to PC....... PlayStation starts looking like a lower value proposition.

Theyhave lost massive ground to Nintendo (They have REAL Exclusives) in Japan..... AND they have a lot more competition in the USA and the entire US media machine against them.

If they don't make some serious moves, they will lose more ground in the longterm.

Buying Square makes no sense at all they already basically have them in their back pocket and there is no reason for MS to make a move on them for a number of reasons. IF Sony were to buy a 3rd party it needs to be one that makes games for both systems, while I don't condone this action and think it sucks for gamers as a whole when hardware makers start buying up 3rd party publishers if Sony were to do it they need to do something like Take Two or WB games. There is NO reason to spend a ton of money on Japan when the only competition they'll have there is Nintendo and they are basically doing their own thing. Investing in mobile will help in Japan in other ways anyway.

As far as PS exclusives that go to PC that is going to be one game every so often, they won't be launching day and date and not likely within a year or two of the PS5 launch so no it doesn't make PS look like a lower value proposition it just brings in a little more money from PC gamers when an inexpensive port is done.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Buying Square makes no sense at all they already basically have them in their back pocket and there is no reason for MS to make a move on them for a number of reasons. IF Sony were to buy a 3rd party it needs to be one that makes games for both systems, while I don't condone this action and think it sucks for gamers as a whole when hardware makers start buying up 3rd party publishers if Sony were to do it they need to do something like Take Two or WB games, companies. There is NO reason to spend a ton of money on Japan when the only competition they'll have there is Nintendo and they are basically doing their own thing. Investing in mobile will help in Japan in other ways anyway.

As far as PS exclusives that go to PC that is going to be one game every so often, they won't be launching day and date and not likely within a year or two of the PS5 launch so no it doesn't make PS look like a lower value proposition it just brings in a little more money from PC gamers when an inexpensive port is done.

A lot of Sony's studios purchases are ones which had always been all/heavy into PS gaming already, but they still buy them out. Sony needs them as most of their best franchises since the PS3 days have come from third party partnership games - not grassroots studios. I think the only homegrown big franchises left at Sony are God of War, GT and their baseball game. The rest come from third party studios which Sony will buy out later.

Has to do with their transition to western focus gaming, as they dont seem to buy Japanese studios. Also, buying them out can lead to long term profits because now they get all of the proceeds instead of paying Insomniac or Housemarque or Sucker Punch third party fees.

Sony also buys companies with narrow focuses. One game at a time kinds of companies. Square has big selling FF and DQ. But they also have other franchises that are dormant or dont sell as well, but they would result in contributing to a bigger buy out price.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I think we should stop these Japan sales nonsense.

Lets be honest here, they dont contribute much on console /software sales anyway.

Wtf!!???? Is for real??

 

[JerryinSoCal]

A lot of Sony's studios purchases are ones which had always been all/heavy into PS gaming already, but they still buy them out. Sony needs them as most of their best franchises since the PS3 days have come from third party partnership games - not grassroots studios. I think the only homegrown big franchises left at Sony are God of War, GT and their baseball game. The rest come from third party studios which Sony will buy out later.

Has to do with their transition to western focus gaming, as they dont seem to buy Japanese studios. Also, buying them out can lead to long term profits because now they get all of the proceeds instead of paying Insomniac or Housemarque or Sucker Punch third party fees.

Sony also buys companies with narrow focuses. One game at a time kinds of companies. Square has big selling FF and DQ. But they also have other franchises that are dormant or dont sell as well, but they would result in contributing to a bigger buy out price.

Square isn't a developer they are a publisher, MUCH more expensive both up front and over the long term because you have to bring so many employees onto the payroll. That expense wouldn't help PlayStation in the long run at all, their games are frequently PlayStation timed exclusives and don't sell anywhere near as well on xbox so in what way does buying square give PlayStation any kind of competitive advantage?

If they are to buy a publisher they need to buy one that takes big games away from xbox, doing that also makes the publisher less valuable long term because it cuts millions of potential customers out of the loop. I suggested Take Two and WB Games because GTA will make up the money no doubt and is a game that will get xbox fans to buy a PlayStation just to play it and WB games would if Sony could get the IP's as well. Having Mortal Kombat exclusive to PlayStation would be big, much bigger than Street Fighter, MK11 is still in the top ten for both xbox and playstation in NPD and it came out over 2 years ago. Hell I'd even consider going after CDPR just for the Witcher if the IP would still be retained if it went exclusive.

If we are talking developers I would just pick up Blue Point and see about maybe picking up some bigger indies or buying IP's from publishers and putting together some dev houses to work on them. They could still even try to just pick devs from publishers like NRS from WB if they can get the MK IP with them.

I will say again though buying Square makes no sense when you stand back and look at it, there is no danger of MS picking up Square and Sony already gets most of their games as timed exclusives and most people who are Square fans are also PlayStation owners so it just seems like a silly way to spend billions of dollars when that money could be spent more strategically.

 

[carlosrox]

That's what happens when you focus your marketing on COD and sports garbage.

 

[SpokkX]

Is Sony losing ground in Japan?!

they already LOST Japan - why do you think they put all their eggs in the west now? They even shut down studio japan

 

[Nezzeroth]

This is like saying, Xbox doesnt need USA. Japan is their turf. Its where they made PlayStation. Losing that ground is disgrace to them.

Its the same way, Sony is beating Xbox in the UK market. Just like Nintendo is beating Sony in japan.

Europe is Sony's stronghold, not Japan.

Tbh I doubt they care about losing Japan. They are having record revenue thanks to focusing on the west. They probably see it as a victory.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Might have something to do with the lack of PS5s even available

 

[ZywyPL]

I think we should stop these Japan sales nonsense.

Lets be honest here, they dont contribute much on console /software sales anyway.

Year after year people are still surprised/shocked that PS/XB consoles and games barely appear on Japanese sales charts, I wonder when they'll finally get that Japan is not interested in home consoles anymore.

 

[bitbydeath]

They still move more consoles than most, including the UK. Suppose that’s a dead zone too.

 

[sublimit]

...which track physical software sales from 2nd August through 8th August,

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

There´s more. Nintendo domination means very low sells. That’s a huge problem!

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Upcoming what can Playstation do to stay relevant thread?

 

[noshten]

Japan is not.

From Media Create's 2020 CY Report:

This year Japanese Video Game market will reach it's highest point since 2010, as software is heading towards being up YoY due to third parties finding success on the Switch offsetting the huge year New Horizon had in 2020 and the big drop in PS ecosystem drop YoY.

Next year it will likely reach 2007 levels due to Switch entering it's software peak(Arceus, Splatoon 3, Breath of the Wild Sequel).


It's only Sony that's becoming irrelevant in Japan, this year software on the PlayStation Ecosystem is currently down more than 50% YoY.
The PS4 is basically being killed of far quicker than any prior console to ensure a fast transition elsewhere but in Japan this spells only further decline for the PS Ecosystem.
Compare what the PS4 managed last year to this year and the rapid decline is there for all to see - it's top selling game Resident Evil: Village struggled to sell its initial shipment, while the only game that didn't under perform is probably Nier Replicant.
With the PS5 having a tie ratio of 0.4 it's heading for X360 like performance in Japan its not viable for a large portion of third parties to release anything exlusive on the system unless they are supported by Sony.

Back in the PS2, PSP days Japan Studio published 100+ different third party games on those systems; both small and big titles. They scaled support back on the PS3 and PSV.
When they started the transition to the PS4 they stopped the support smaller devs all together and were mostly publishing and marketing Western Titles like Call of Duty, Destiny, etc.. the only really major titles they published that were by Japanese game makers were Bloodborne & Death Stranding - they provided marketing support only for the AAA Japanese Third Party titles like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Monster Hunter, Metal Gear Solid etc. The issue is that if you do't have a varied and constant stream of exclusive games for your system by Japanese game makers you lose relevance especially for a system like the PlayStation which was always reliant on third party Devs; the major success Sony had with the PS2 and PSP in Japan where because they were default system for a vast majority of third party titles - both big and small.

Last year was the first time there was parity between the PS Ecosystem and the Switch Ecosystem in terms of third party support, this year we are already seeing third parties drop PS support all together - ranging from Millennium Kitchen who used to be a PS focused developer now launching a game exclusively to the Switch, Konami launching Baseball Spirits exclusively to the Switch despite the franchise being exclusive to the PS in it's prior entries, Koei Tecmo reveling a new Musou exclusively for the Switch which doesn't use any Nintendo IPs - Touken Ranbu, while releasing PS focused franchises as multi-platform in the form of Samurai Warriors 5 and the latest entry in Dynasty Warriors.

By dissolving Japan Studios, Sony has also broken many interpersonal relationships the employees of Japan Studios had with third parties making them have an even smaller reason to focus on PS5 exclusives. And with the dire situation for PS5 software it's unlikely anything will change, as there is little incentive to actually even target the PS5 for 99% of AA games. This will have profound effects as for the first time ever the vast majority of Japanese Third Party devs will end up focusing on a Nintendo ecosystem, we are already seeing the impact of this - as Third Party Titles are likely to sell more on the Switch in 2021 compared to all previous years combined. A lot of them didn't expect Switch to be such a success but now are fully onboard, this will consolidate sales to one platform and will push software sales to new heights in Japan for a single system.

Japanese Third Parties were one of the competitive advantages Sony had over Microsoft; now it is becoming a competitive advantage for Nintendo. With competition to be featured on a Nintendo direct becoming more fierce - it means that there is inherent pressure to cozy up to Nintendo with timed exclusivity for game launches. We are already seeing the results for third parties that went this route and mobile remains far too competitive for most Japanese third parties, making Switch success far more accessible.

 

[Banjo64]

Just drop the Japanese dream. Consoles have been on the downward trajectory for generations, handhelds have thrived. I can only see Nintendo sticking with hybrids moving forward because they have a strangle lock on Japan.

 

[DeepSpace5D]

Lost Judgment should chart decently next month. I think the first Judgment charted at #3 in Japan upon release.

 

[ghairat]

Japan is all about handheld gaming such as mobile and switch. I went to Japan not too long ago before covid and there were even people inside arcade halls playing either on the mobile phone or switch.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Japanese developers are kind of in a weird position. Sony doesn’t prioritize or really care about Japanese games compared to Western now, but where do Japanese developers going to go?

We know those Japanese games will not sell on Microsoft consoles unfortunately and Nintendo just doesn’t have the horsepower and technology that Sony has, so they are kind of stuck with PlayStation technically. I guess there’s PC? Mobile as well of course.

Basically, if Sony continues down this Western-focused path, this could affect most Japanese developers support in the future. With less PS5’s being in Japan, Japanese developers will have to mostly rely on regions outside of Japan. Obviously, the mobile and portables are a factor as well.

 

[reksveks]

Japanese developers are kind of in a weird position. Sony doesn’t prioritize or really care about Japanese games compared to Western now, but where do Japanese developers going to go?

We know those Japanese games will not sell on Microsoft consoles unfortunately and Nintendo just doesn’t have the horsepower and technology that Sony has, so they are kind of stuck with PlayStation technically. I guess there’s PC? Mobile as well of course.

Basically, if Sony continues down this Western-focused path, this could affect most Japanese developers support in the future. With less PS5’s being in Japan, Japanese developers will have to mostly rely on regions outside of Japan. Obviously, the mobile and portables are a factor as well.

I would be interested to know how the split of JRPG's sold in Japan vs RoW. That's kinda the key info as long as RoW is big, it doesn't make a huge difference.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Japan is more interested in Portable and mobile games.
Apart from some big PS4/PS5 games and 3rd party games they won’t be in the charts compared to portable games etc. Games like Final Fantasy 16 and Persona 6 etc

For people saying Sony is concentrating on western tastes and games:

Japan Studios did release a good few games last gen, Knack 1&2, Gravity Rush 1&2, The last Guardian, as well as some older Japanese remakes like Shadow of the Colossus. None of them were hugely popular in Japan.

Playstation 4 also released a bunch of games that are normally popular for the Japanese market like Monster Hunter World, Yakuza Kiwami 1-2, 0, 6 etc. Persona 5, Final Fantasy 7 remake, Kingdom Hearts 3, Nioh 1&2, Y’s, multiple Tales games, Sakura Wars etc which alot of them were exclusive.

People need to realise Japan is more focued on handhelds now. Doesnt matter if all these Switch games were on a console, the Japanese market wouldnt care either, we saw what happened with the Wii U ( literally the same titles as the Switch ) We saw what happened with the Gamecube, or even Wii titles compared to the DS and 3DS. They prefer Handhelds.

Just like it doesn’t matter what Playstation releases on the PS4/PS5 it won’t sell like handheld games anymore.

I guarantee you if Nintendo made a console only machine next, the games won’t sell nowhere near the Switch or Mobile games.

Its not about Sony’s catering to western tastes, its about Japan liking Handhelds more. Japan wouldn’t give a fuck about those games if the Switch was not a handheld or hybrid.

If Sony launched a PSP3 that can play PS4/PS5 games downscaled like the Switch/SteamDeck then games like Persona 6, Final Fantasy 16 and all the other games will be hits again and in the charts. Otherwise not gonna happen.

Japan is portable land. Sprinkled in with some major hits Dragon Quest etc

 

[Kokoloko85]

That's what happens when you only make western-focused games and censor japanese games.

But Sony released plenty of good Japanese Centric games on the PS4 like multiple Yakuza games, Kingdon Hearts, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Gravity Rush 1&2, Monster Hunter World, Dragon Quest, multiple Tales of Games, Sakura Wars, Y’s, Trails of Cold Steel, Atelier Ryza etc and so many more

Japan didnt care about Nintendo games when they released on consoles like Wii U.

Its because Japan cares about Handhelds more

 

[Lethal01]

Handheld gaming rules Japan.

Because the games they want are on handheld, Sony needs to put more of those on their console

 

[Kokoloko85]

Sony abandoning PSP and Vita was just the beginning
Killing Japan Studio was the final nail

Mostly correct. Sony didnt abandon PSP, it sold like 80+ million units. More than the 3DS and same as the Gameboy Advance.
Abandoning the portable market is where Sony is failing

 

[Mr.ODST]

SteamDeck is a game changer in the long run if it works well (from what I've heard it does), I can play my Xbox games, Playstation Games (thanks to them buying Nixxes now) and a ton of JRPG titles that come to steam all on one system from a portability point of view, PC can emulate everything and has games going back to 12 - 15 years ago that I can still play, I think consoles in general are just losing their appeal.

Still love my PS5 and Series X now but if it wasn't for Final Fantasy XVI coming to PS5 on launch I would of sold my PS5 by now.

EDIT: Also to make it clear while I have owned every handheld from Nintendo's line up I LOVED worked on PS Vita, probably the best handheld I've ever owned and Sony just killed it off, when I worked for Sony my best days was working on PS Vita such an awesome system.

FURTHER EDIT: I also like my Series S for portability and used it for a long time when I worked away to play all the lastest titles, SteamDeck means I can do the same with GamePass for PC, If I go away I probs wont even take my switch ill be playing Halo Infinite on a SteamDeck with friends.

 

[SaucyJack]

Digital isn't counted in these charts despite PS5DE selling out each time a new batch is released.

Again play video games and stop playing accountants.

Sure, Nintendo is head and shoulders the market leader in Japan, but this point is hugely important.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Because the games they want are on handheld, Sony needs to put more of those on their console

Not really. The Japanese Market didnt care about Wii U games Which was alot of the Switch games

PS4 had plenty of Japanese games like Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter world, Yakuza games, Kingdon Hearts, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Gravity Rush 1&2,, multiple Tales of Games, Sakura Wars, Y’s, Trails of Cold Steel, Atelier Ryza.
These arent western focused games

 

[Topher]

Because the games they want are on handheld, Sony needs to put more of those on their console

Nothing is stopping those devs from releasing their games on PS4 or PS5. The consumer base simply want the games on handhelds.

 

[farmerboy]

Also, Japanese love Germans and Italians for some reason.

 

[Fat Frog]

In March 2021, Android recorded a market share of 57.4 percent among smartphone operating systems in Japan, while iOS held a market share of 42.4 percent. Android was the most widely used operating system in Japan throughout most of 2020

Ok,thanks. It's really big brother

 

[noshten]

Japanese developers are kind of in a weird position. Sony doesn’t prioritize or really care about Japanese games compared to Western now, but where do Japanese developers going to go?

We know those Japanese games will not sell on Microsoft consoles unfortunately and Nintendo just doesn’t have the horsepower and technology that Sony has, so they are kind of stuck with PlayStation technically. I guess there’s PC? Mobile as well of course.

Basically, if Sony continues down this Western-focused path, this could affect most Japanese developers support in the future. With less PS5’s being in Japan, Japanese developers will have to mostly rely on regions outside of Japan. Obviously, the mobile and portables are a factor as well.

Japan Media Create Top 1000 2020:

01. NSW - 24.636.454 <74,98%> (220 new games)
02. PS4 - 7.839.893 <23,86%> (211 new games)
03. 3DS - 200.354 <0,61%> (0 new games)
04. PS5 - 109.374 <0,33%> (16 new games)
05. PSV - 69.251 <0,21%> (7 new games)
06. XBS - 243 <0,00%> (1 new game)
00. ALL - 32.855.568 <100,00%> (455 new games)

There were 455 new games launched last year and the vast majority of sales were on the Switch.
Granted as far as Third Parties I'm the figures were actually closer

2020 Third Party Publisher Ranking Top 20 + Other

1. Konami - 2.008.300 vs 314.986
2. Square Enix - 482.979 vs 1.515.364
3. Bandai Namco Entertainment - 1.194.444 vs 756.132
4. Sega - 558.042 vs 474.445
5. Koei Tecmo - 548.503 vs 378.647
6. Capcom - 222.020 vs 592.671
7. Microsoft Game Studios - 621.328 vs 2.768
8. Atlus - 173.541 vs 363.170
9. Spike Chunsoft - 110.849 vs 245.133
10. Marvelous - 204.003 vs 100.813
11. Electronic Arts - 101.148 vs 194.226
12. Ubisoft - 74.177 vs 213.828
13. Take-Two Interactive Japan - 37.584 vs 155.759
14. Nippon Columbia - 190.426 vs 0
15. Imagineer - 188.071 vs 0
16. Cygames - 23.610 vs 147.835
17. Nihon Falcom - 0 vs 164.595
18. Level 5 - 108.704 vs 7.726
19. Game Addict - 113.830 vs 0
20. Teyon Japan - 104.800 vs 0
21. Other - 1.366.524 vs 712.209

TOTAL NSW: 8.432.883
TOTAL PS4: 6.340.307

There were more Japanese Third Parties achieving most of their sales on the Switch compared to the PS4.

Compare that to the numbers Famitsu has posted so far for this year and the path for Japanese Third Parties is pretty clear with the PS5's anemic sales.

Famitsu Top 40 Third Party 2021:

1. [NSW] Monster Hunter Rise (Capcom) - 2.303.192
2. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu (Konami) - 1.067.953
3. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft) - 398.986
4. [NSW] Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (Marvelous) – 281.140
5. [NSW] Monster Hunter Stories 2 (Capcom) - 205.463
6. [PS4] Resident Evil Village (Capcom) - 191.983
7. [NSW] Baseball Spirits 2021 (Konami) - 159.492
8. [PS4] NieR Replicant (Square Enix) - 158.265
9. [NSW] Crayon Shin-Chan (Neos) - 156.274
10. [NSW] Bravely Default II (Square Enix) – 136.091
11. [NSW] Rune Factory 5 (Marvelous) - 127.968
12. [NSW] Fitness Boxing 2 (Imagineer) - 91.326
13. [NSW] Dragon Quest XI S (Square Enix) - 89.135
14. [NSW] Human Fall Flat (Teyon Japan) - 81.457
15. [NSW] Little Nightmares II (Bandai Namco) - 72.796
16. [PS4] Samurai Warriors 5 (Koei Tecmo) - 72.727
17. [NSW] Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (Marvelous) - 65.620
18. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Koei Tecmo) - 62.119
19. [NSW] Samurai Warriors 5 (Koei Tecmo) - 61.350
20. [NSW] Fishing Spirits (Bandai Namco) - 60.360
21. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! (Bandai Namco) - 59.165
22. [PS5] Resident Evil Village (Capcom) - 53.953
23. [NSW] Minecraft Dungeons (Microsoft) - 38.147
24. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega) - 36.105
25. [NSW] Family Trainer (Bandai Namco) - 35.273
26. [NSW] Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega) - 34.615
27. [PS4] Scarlet Nexus(Bandai Namco) - 31.665
28. [PS4] Biomutant (THQ Nordic) - 30.292
29. [NSW] Densha de Go!! (Square Enix) - 29.624
30. [NSW] Apex Legends: Champion Edition (Electronic Arts) - 29.057
31. [NSW] eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020 (Konami) - 27.539
32. [NSW] Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny (Nippon Ichi) - 25.744
33. [NSW] Jack Jeanne (Broccoli) - 25.518
34. [PS4] Little Nightmares II (Bandai Namco) - 24.968
35. [PS4] Judgment [New Price Edition] (Sega) - 24.271
36. [PS5] Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (Square Enix) - 23.491
37. [NSW] Neo: The World Ends with You (Square Enix) - 22.028
38. [NSW] The Quintessential Quintuplets Double Integral (Mages.) - 20.374
39. [PS4] Disgaea 6 (Nippon Ichi) - 18.289
40. [NSW] The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Capcom) – 18.197

NSW - 30
PS4 - 8
PS5 - 2

TOTAL: 6.452.012
TOTAL NSW: 5.822.108 (90.2%)
TOTAL PS4: 552.460 (8.6%)
TOTAL PS5: 85.618 (1.3%)

Top 10 Third Party Publishers (NSW/PS4+PS5/TOTAL)

1. Capcom - 2.526.852 / 245.936 / 2.772.788
2. Konami - 1.254.984 / 0 / 1.254.984
3. Marvelous - 474.728 / 0 / 474.728
4. Square Enix - 276.878 / 181.756 / 458.634
5. Microsoft - 437.133 / 0 / 437.133
6. Bandai Namco - 227.594 / 56.633 / 284.227
7. Koei Tecmo - 123.469 / 72.727 / 196.196
8. Neos - 156.274 / 0 / 156.274
9. Sega - 70.720 / 24.271 / 94.991
10. Imagineer - 91.326 / 0 / 91.326

With PS5 being unable to support third party titles, and the very rapid decline of the PS4 audience, we are looking at majority of third parties embracing a Nintendo system for the first time since PlayStation entered the market in 1994.
There is no need to wonder what will happen it's already happening there are four Japanese Third Party publishers in the Top 10 without a title on the PS4/PS5 that has managed more than 18K sales.

 

[cireza]

Japan is a shadow of its former self. Interesting and ambitious games from Japan have become pretty rare, as their primary target has changed (mobile and web).

Sales there are pretty irrelevant, they are not more interesting than sales in UK or France.

Simply be happy that some Japanese devs still make games for the Western audience on home consoles.

 

[NahaNago]

I genuinely question how much sony cares.

They are having their best years ever for playstation.

Sony is extremely healthy in general.

And they have clearly pivoted away from Japan and are focusing on more emerging console markets like china and the middle east and india.

I'm honestly surprised Sony even launched in Japan day 1. I mean, clearly Japan don't give a fuck while the rest of the world scrambles for a ps5.

I'm sure they realize their position in Japan, Japan's current gaming landscape, and are ok with where they are.

They don't have to be #1 everywhere.

They probably launched day 1 in Japan because of Capcom and Squareenix. Plus Bandai Namco.


On topic Sony mostly just needs to ensure that Japanese companies don't skip the playstation and only put their games on Nintendo. With the way things are going I could easily see some start up Japanese studios doing just that especially if they don't like the pro-western and censorship happy Sony.

 

[Buhaj]

The Japanese are also marrying their sex dolls.

Tell me you're not serious.

 

[Bryank75]

Square isn't a developer they are a publisher, MUCH more expensive both up front and over the long term because you have to bring so many employees onto the payroll. That expense wouldn't help PlayStation in the long run at all, their games are frequently PlayStation timed exclusives and don't sell anywhere near as well on xbox so in what way does buying square give PlayStation any kind of competitive advantage?

If they are to buy a publisher they need to buy one that takes big games away from xbox, doing that also makes the publisher less valuable long term because it cuts millions of potential customers out of the loop. I suggested Take Two and WB Games because GTA will make up the money no doubt and is a game that will get xbox fans to buy a PlayStation just to play it and WB games would if Sony could get the IP's as well. Having Mortal Kombat exclusive to PlayStation would be big, much bigger than Street Fighter, MK11 is still in the top ten for both xbox and playstation in NPD and it came out over 2 years ago. Hell I'd even consider going after CDPR just for the Witcher if the IP would still be retained if it went exclusive.

If we are talking developers I would just pick up Blue Point and see about maybe picking up some bigger indies or buying IP's from publishers and putting together some dev houses to work on them. They could still even try to just pick devs from publishers like NRS from WB if they can get the MK IP with them.

I will say again though buying Square makes no sense when you stand back and look at it, there is no danger of MS picking up Square and Sony already gets most of their games as timed exclusives and most people who are Square fans are also PlayStation owners so it just seems like a silly way to spend billions of dollars when that money could be spent more strategically.

The company makes a profit as it is.... and about 30% of their business is anime, manga and film.

There would be a lot of savings due to publishing integration and other cost cutting.

They have an absolute metric tonne of IP's which is the important thing and many Japan / Asia focused and nostalgic IP's.

Nier, Deus Ex, FF main games and XIV, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, Dragon Quest, Outriders, Life is Strange, Blood Omen and loads of others.

The point of a purchase like this would be to have enough games so that they could keep 6-8 franchises on console only and then have other 'non-core' titles that could go to Nintendo and PC eventually.

A lot of the IP's have not been used much in anime or film yet also and it would add a lot of value to Funimation / Crunchyroll.

They could also leave legacy games on gamepass for passive income

But Square is just an option. TakeTwo would be amazing but they are 18-19 billion before you add the premium, while Square are 6-7 billion.
But there are many options..... I don't have all the info and I'm just throwing an idea out there.

 

[Fbh]

Surprising but not completely unexpected.
Japanese gamers are mostly on mobile and handhelds these days, Sony has nothing to offer that market. Add to it that they've almost completely move their software development to the west and the average japanese player doesn't seem to have much to look forward to on ps5 aside from a couple of timed exclusives from time to time.

It will be interesting to see how this affects higher budget Japanese games. With these sales it's safe to assume games like Final Fantasy, Tales of Arise and even Yakuza are getting most of their sales from the west these days.

Been happening for years now. This is not news.

Vita 2 needs to happen. Switch just having too good of a time lately.

The problem is also on the software side, not just the hardware.
Look at the top 20 best sellers in Japan on any given month, it's usually dominated by Nintendo first party games.

Japanese players won't rush to buy a Vita 2 to play The Last of us and Horizon.

 

[JerryinSoCal]

The company makes a profit as it is.... and about 30% of their business is anime, manga and film.

There would be a lot of savings due to publishing integration and other cost cutting.

They have an absolute metric tonne of IP's which is the important thing and many Japan / Asia focused and nostalgic IP's.

Nier, Deus Ex, FF main games and XIV, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, Dragon Quest, Outriders, Life is Strange, Blood Omen and loads of others.

The point of a purchase like this would be to have enough games so that they could keep 6-8 franchises on console only and then have other 'non-core' titles that could go to Nintendo and PC eventually.

A lot of the IP's have not been used much in anime or film yet also and it would add a lot of value to Funimation / Crunchyroll.

They could also leave legacy games on gamepass for passive income

But Square is just an option. TakeTwo would be amazing but they are 18-19 billion before you add the premium, while Square are 6-7 billion.
But there are many options..... I don't have all the info and I'm just throwing an idea out there.

None of those IP that square own are worth buying the publisher for imo, some of them are dead or insignificant like Blood Omen or Outriders. Life is strange sold 3 million copies but was available on every platform imaginable at the time including mobile, if you take all but PlayStation away there you lose well over half of the IP's value and it's not a strong enough franchise to get people who don't have a PlayStation to buy one.

Like I said earlier buying up a publisher is bad for the industry, the only reason MS was able to get Bethesda was because they were looking to be sold and were a private company. Anyone else would have been a much bigger headache because they are all publicly traded companies so you have to worry about investors etc. It's not good for the industry to have MS or Sony buying up these companies. Buying up a developer here and there sure that's fine but publishers should be off limits and generally are because of the cost.

I have a PS5 and a Series X so I'm fine either way but I'd hate to see people who want to play games that were always multiplatform before have to buy a piece of equipment they aren't all that interested in just to play a game or two that they really love. That's basically predatory and it's right up Microsoft's alley, that's how they run every other part of their business and it's why it cracks me up when I see people on forums like this acting as if they are the underdog.