• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Jim Ryan: “The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us,”

Aran

Aran

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
354
"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."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is from the Edge magazine, I thought it'd make for a interesting topic since there has been lots of talk recently regarding Sony and it's focus on Japan. Personally I do feel that Japan Studios output has been dismal compared to what they doing before but as people have pointed out they did release 2 launch games on the PS5 (Demon's souls and Astro's playroom).
 
Last edited:
Izanagi89

Izanagi89

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,565
People here are not going to believe this, so I don't know what's the point anymore discussing this. Minds have been made up that Bloomberg was right and Sony's sidelining Japan.
 
Kyoufu

Kyoufu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,582
That's obviously a lie. We all know they only care about *checks notes* ...California...
 
My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Banned
May 19, 2020
4,828
playstation will be the defacto console for certain japanese games so i think it will work out fine for them
 
Dizastah

Dizastah

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,124
Izanagi89 said:
People here are not going to believe this, so I don't know what's the point anymore discussing this. Minds have been made up that Bloomberg was right and Sony's sidelining Japan.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lifejumper said:
This weird ass Jim Ryan hate seems personal.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This!

Nuclear Muffin said:
Liar.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Imitatio said:
Sure, Jim.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Alak96 said:
The Japanese sales tell us otherwise, Jim.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Case and point.....sigh
 
Last edited:
MatrixMan.exe

MatrixMan.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,499
Izanagi89 said:
People here are not going to believe this, so I don't know what's the point anymore discussing this. Minds have been made up that Bloomberg was right and Sony's sidelining Japan.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This. It's incredibly dumb but enough people have the arrogance to think they know exactly how things are going down within large corporations based on second hand information in news articles and tweets. While it's entirely possible that there's truth to the Bloomberg story, it almost definitely doesn't paint a full picture of exactly what's happening internally and why, so definitively calling Jim and liar and saying Sony doesn't care about Japan anymore seems incredibly stupid and premature.

Let's just wait and see how this gen unfolds. It literally started less than a month ago.
 
ianpm31

ianpm31

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,529
Didn't Sony "sideline" Japan by pushing PS4 launch to 3 months later? Don't remember ppl making a big deal out of it.
 
Nightengale

Nightengale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,708
Malaysia
The argument that people have is that Japan Studio's situation is supposed to reflect Sony's sidelining of Japan, but honestly? if you've actually paid attention to how Japan Studio games perform in domestic markets, you'll know that Japan Studio's output has no meaningful relevance to the value that SIE sees in Japan as a market.

Japan Studio has released no games in the past several generations that made more than a dent when it comes to commercial success in the Japanese console market.

Japan Studio being side-lined functionally only means that SIE doesn't see their domestic first-party as a reliable resource for sucess in the Japanese market, and will instead... rely on 3rd-party exclusive deals like timed exclusivity of FF16/Athia/etc.
 

Deleted member 15360

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,477
MatrixMan.exe said:
This. It's incredibly dumb but enough people have the arrogance to think they know exactly how things are going down within large corporations based on second hand information in news articles and tweets. While it's entirely possible that there's truth to the Bloomberg story, it almost definitely doesn't paint a full picture of exactly what's happening internally and why, so definitively calling Jim and liar and saying Sony doesn't care about Japan anymore seems incredibly stupid and premature.

Let's just wait and see how this gen unfolds. It literally started less than a month ago.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thank You !


While I do expect PS Sales to decline from PS4 , there is far more negativity around this and too much of concern trolling
 

Deleted member 9305

Oct 26, 2017
4,064
The lack of Ape Escape is causing me sleepless nights.
 
Charamiwa

Charamiwa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,055
Sony getting every big japanese games and Sony appealing to the japanese audience are two very different things.
 
kuroneko0509

kuroneko0509

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,377
>as our second largest market
imagine wasting energy on era trying to insist that japan is irrelevant, japan isn't 2nd largest market, japan gdp situation doesn't help, europe is worth better focus etc then jim ends up saying you're wrong lol
 
Nanashrew

Nanashrew

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,328
Nightengale said:
The argument that people have is that Japan Studio's situation is supposed to reflect Sony's sidelining of Japan, but honestly? if you've actually paid attention to how Japan Studio games perform in domestic markets, you'll know that Japan Studio's output has no meaningful relevance to the value that SIE sees in Japan as a market.

Japan Studio has released no games in the past several generations that made more than a dent when it comes to commercial success in the Japanese console market.

Japan Studio being side-lined functionally only means that SIE doesn't see their domestic first-party as a reliable resource for sucess in the Japanese market, and will instead... rely on 3rd-party exclusive deals like timed exclusivity of FF16/Athia/etc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's actually part of the problem with Sony and being unable to resonate with Japanese audiences and a whole large discussion we were all having in the final pages of the Bloomberg thread. Their overreliance on 3rd parties to handle their decline in the region is not going to work and didn't even work for the PS4.
 
Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
I don't think he's "lying" but I think the way he frames his answer is very telling. Japan is important to Sony primarily just as an avenue to get exclusive content to differentiate from Xbox on Worldwide scale.

I do think his assertion that publishers went console->mobile->console and that is continuing in that direction in Japan is kind of inaccurate though. PS4 consolidated the support from Vita(and some from 3DS) but they are now losing ground to the Switch primarily.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,010
He's right.

People think too much in extremes. Japan not being as important doesn't mean Japan is irrelevant.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,482
If Sony don't want to have the PS5 be their least successful home console ever by a large margin in Japan they need to put major money into developing games targeted at the Japanese market, whether its expanding their developers or funding through other companies. I don't think we've seen any evidence of that thus far.

This talk over FF and KH is meaningless. Those sell well outside of Japan, Sony did not need to do any heavy lifting to ensure they were on PS5, and the exclusivity means zip for Japan where xbox is nothing anyway.
 
Kyoufu

Kyoufu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,582
Theodran said:
It has higher initial sales overall than PS4, but lower initial sales in Japan than PS4. It should tell you everything and how Sony has lowered their expectations and availability in Japan between generations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What? PS4 launched in Japan months later than the west, when supply was beginning to stabilise.

Simultaneous worldwide launch
Ample supply

Pick one.
 
Nightengale

Nightengale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,708
Malaysia
Nanashrew said:
Their overreliance on 3rd parties to handle their decline in the region is not going to work and didn't even work for the PS4.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't disagree. Console market will continue to shrink in Japan generation-over-generation, no matter how many good games are released.

Nevermind expanding the console market, even stabilizing the console market needs at least several 'lightning-in-the-bottle' level games, like MHW, Splatoon, Ringfit, you name it. Third-parties alone won't deliver those kind of games. Granted, Sony never had one of their own either. It's only been Capcom, Level-5 and Nintendo that I can think of as companies that actually delivered those market-expanding games.

My point is that domestic first-party isn't a reflection of domestic market value. If anything, Sucker Punch as of today is a more important first-party studio to the Japanese market than Japan Studio.
 
fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
How can I get to that Edge magazine article? can I buy it online (just the article) or do i need some kind of subscription?
 
MatrixMan.exe

MatrixMan.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,499
Pranay said:
Thank You !


While I do expect PS Sales to decline from PS4 , there is far more negativity around this and too much of concern trolling
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, people need to relax. They're making some interesting choices, and I firmly believe that there are things they could be doing to improve their reach over there instead of getting complacement because "we have Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy", there's next to no real evidence that they're slowly giving up on the region other than people reading into things the way they want to.

Nightengale said:
My point is that domestic first-party isn't a reflection of domestic market value. If anything, Sucker Punch as of today is a more important first-party studio to the Japanese market than Japan Studio.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is such a good point and needs to be stressed. The idea that domestic first-party content is a reflection of domestic market value is such an Era take it hurts. It doesn't matter where the games are made so long as they resonate.
 
J_ToSaveTheDay

J_ToSaveTheDay

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
18,789
USA
Sony has a vested interest in making the PlayStation as successful as possible in every territory it's available in. The realities of the Japanese gaming market suggests a lower priority than in the past that Sony has decided to follow on for a busy and complicated launch, but that territory is still important nonetheless.

Shocking.
 
Jencks

Jencks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,451
J_ToSaveTheDay said:
Sony has a vested interest in making the PlayStation as successful as possible in every territory it's available in. The realities of the Japanese gaming market suggests a lower priority than in the past that Sony has decided to follow on for a busy and complicated launch, but that territory is still important nonetheless.

Shocking.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.