Playstation Brand In Decline In Japan?

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Novalee

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https://www.videogameschronicle.com...cisive-decline-in-japan-research-firm-claims/

"Citing Famitsu sales data in an article published on GamesIndustry.biz Japan, Ace Economic Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda said PS5 sold some 240,000 units in Japan in its first six weeks of availability – less than every other PlayStation console during the same timeframe, barring PSP.

In comments translated and republished on ResetEra, Yasuda claimed that the figures showed that “Sony is not taking Japan seriously” and that the PlayStation brand “is in decisive decline” in the company’s home country.

“Total sales of 240,000 are by far the lowest in the history of PlayStation home consoles,” the analyst wrote. “If this were to continue, lifetime sales of PS5 would perhaps end up at less than half of PS4.” "


Interesting times ahead .
 
Japanese market has been shying away from traditional consoles for like a decade now. PS4 was also comparably irrelevant to how it did in other countries. Sony moving everything to do with Playstation out of Japan and running everything through California has only accelerated a trend that was already starting.
 
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Did they hazard a guess why? Its the enormous size a factor?

There was speculation the original Xbox one did badly partly because of its size (and also because you cant expect an American console to do well there).

We were always told the Japanese lived in shoebox apartments and they were gravitating towards handhelds (Like Switch) and phones.
 
But how many were available? Without that data it's a pointless statement. Are there thousands of PS5s sat on Japanese shelves or are they mostly sold out like in the west?
They were completely sold out at launch like pretty much everywhere else according to this: https://www.videogameschronicle.com...ady-completely-sold-out-in-japan-sony-claims/

I don't know if anywhere has got any new batches in yet but I'd be interested to hear from other regions. The only ones who have them for sale in Australia are the eBay scalpers.
 
Did they hazard a guess why? Its the enormous size a factor?

There was speculation the original Xbox one did badly partly because of its size (and also because you cant expect an American console to do well there).

We were always told the Japanese lived in shoebox apartments and they were gravitating towards handhelds (Like Switch) and phones.
Here’s the thing though, one or two journalists mention it’s massive, suddenly everyone says it’s so.
The thing surprised me most when I unboxed mine was that it’s size was greatly exaggerated.

Yes it’s bigger than PS4, but not by that much.
Also much smaller than a pc packing similar specs
 
Here's the thing though: it is indeed pretty massive. They're out in the wild now. There's no need to pretend that it's actually much smaller than all those immediate-post-reveal size estimations suggested it would be. It's got several inches on the CECHA PS3 and even the original Xbox that he was referencing.



And it's much larger than the directly competing console packing better specs.
 
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The console size certainly is a factor but also the games. I doesn't help that many Japanese developers haven't been able to keep pace with the budget and scope of western developed games and they hardly have the incentive to with a dwindling domestic market.
 
But how many were available? Without that data it's a pointless statement. Are there thousands of PS5s sat on Japanese shelves or are they mostly sold out like in the west?
They moved away from consoles in the PS3 era in favour of mobility gaming. I personally think that is why the PS4 and Xbox one were low tech low risk machines. Maybe they thought the west would follow the Japanese lead.
 
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