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Jim Ryan on PS4 Japanese Launch Window: "... these days I do not think that was a good idea."
- Thread starter Jawbreaker
- Start date
I agree with the other posts.
You can't just give up on it. This isn't a MS XBO situation there.
That's one reason why I think there are rumors about Lockhart. A cheaper Xbox console might be appealing in Japan.
It may legally be a single market, but I bet they have to make individual advertisements and commercials, localize the games and box art, etc for each individual country. Releasing a game in the Japanese market is a much simpler, less faceted process.
Then why did the Xbox One come out at a later date in Belgium, Denmark, Finnland, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland?
I never said anything to the contrary. The original point was purely with regards to total market size.
But I agree that the European market has more costs attached to it compared to the US market, because of language, marketing localisations and taxes. Hence margins will be lower in Europe compared to US (or prices higher).
I dont think Xbox will ever be appealing in Japan. They tried and tried, it's time to give it up. Phil is really doing his best to get Japanese games on their platform, but the way i read it is to satisfy his western fans with more diverse content, not to get any foothold whatsoever.
It's not like the delay changed the price or brought in any game worth a mention! So it was probably better to at least not miss the holidays if the shitty launch was unavoidable.
Because Microsoft were idiots. It was exactly the same as if the console had released in some US states and not others.
I guess Sony would consider Demon's Souls Remake as something appealing to JP userbase...
Japan as consumer market for consoles is irrelevant now, even if their devs have been smashing it this gen.
If you ignore Nintendo yes. Otherwise no. Nintendo already have multiple million sellers and is next to reaching their first 4 million seller there. Animal Crossing will also be massive there
Jim's statement makes me lose confidence in him. Like really Jim? Even with the 3 month delay the Japanese launch lineup was pretty bad.
That's actually why I think they prioritised the US and Europe.
I'd always assumed that Sony wanted as many PS4s in the hands of Americans and Europeans as early as possible to start the snow ball rolling knowing that MS is typically nowhere to be seen in Japan and the later launch wouldn't come at a penalty.
PS4 will have additional 10m sold thanks to Japan and Nintendo is doing great with Switch, how is that irrevelant?
Even if PS5 does worse it should still sell 5m minimum LTD.
For Xbox I agree, they shouldn't even launch there when you sell hundred units per week.
Nintendo consoles sell poorly too. Even the massive Wii barely did better than PS3 there and the Wii U did poorly as well. Switch doesn't count as a traditional console because it's a handheld. Make a dedicated TV Switch and watch it flop compared to the OG/Lite.
Nah prioritization of the US should continue. Those extra consoles sold in the US will do more than launching in Japan. We are the largest consumer of their games as a country. We should continue to get prioritization. Japan barely supports half of what we do.
Do some US states require completely different localization and distribution partners? But I still don't see how your weird statement that Europe is "as far as anything jurisdictional goes" a single market. Especially if you look at the Belgium lootbox regulations, that make a lot of mobile games not release in the region or disable the ingame shop completely.
Do you count Russia to Europe by the way? What about Israel? Turkey?
Both of those things exist... SIEE actually covers many territories outside continental Europe, including a number of Middle Eastern countries, Australia, New Zealand.
Sorry, forgot it's SIEE now and not SCEE haha.
I think my point is that they don't have individual branches of SIEE for every country in Europe. Unless they do? You work there so you would know far more then I'd ever.
That's why Sony decided to basically concede Japan to Nintendo. Why worry about this little acre of land over here if you are reaping from the rest of the field? Sony just happens to be in a unique spot because while they aren't the de facto console in Japan, they will continue receiving support from Japanese third parties which sells to the rest of the world. That's power you can't buy.
There are local offices for many European countries as well as others outside (Australia, for example).
I expect they probably are already working on MH6 with Tokuda's team but don't expect multiple Gens (ie: no MH7) on PS5 and don't expect it before 2022 earliest. Maybe they could do some spinoffs on PS4/PS5 but they'd probably need to be ground up new projects since Frontier's dead and the older family friendly PSP/3DS spinoffs (Nikki, Stories) would just bomb on PS4/PS5.
I think there's a good chance Team Ichinose's Gen 5 game (which is likely being made for Switch) could end up multiplatform with PC/PS4/XBO too, and maybe work as a good PS5/XSX transition game as well with it's G version. Sort of like MH3U (3DS) and MHGU (Switch).
For anyone who is overly anxious to get more details about the PS5, may I recommend this beloved children's book to help you find your center.
Maybe because that little acre of land over there is by a wide margin the 2nd largest national console market and also hosts a disproportionate amount of high pedigree game development. It's a mistake to downplay Japan like this.
You're right PS won't lose much if any Japanese support but that's more a byproduct of the region finally moving to real multiplatform development. Xbox gets healthy JP 3rd party support for much the same reason, better than Sega, SNK, NEC or Bandai ever did for comparison, despite Xbox One being a complete non-factor in the region. Western sales are increasingly important for JP devs but even in this area PS doesn't really offer an advantage over Nintendo either, in fact some JP devs are doing Switch games in large part due to higher western sales (NIS, Granzella, Gust, etc).
I just hope Sony eventually starts caring about Japan again sometime in the future, even if it looks higly unlikely given how much of an americanized company SIE has become.
I'm pretty sure Europe is PlayStation's largest region in market size. Don't we have the US and Japan numbers for hardware sales?
NA > EU > US iirc
The US market is disproportionately large though (like ~85% of NA), even moreso if you look at the entire console market. Like you can add the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy together and it still doesn't match the US.
How are they not caring about Japan though? Are they not getting every single game and console? People always say they should make software that's enticing for the Japanese market but what does that meant? No market deserves special treatment and if the games that the whole world is buying isn't good enough for Japan then that's on them.
Well it means making games and hardware that would also appeal to the Japanese market. It's not exactly controversial to say that the Japanese market is an afterthought for them compared to other markets. Seeing as they get all major support from Japanese developers anyways, it's not a particular problem for them or anything but it's something to be noted
how much more can they really do?
they basically made sure that the biggest japanese franchises made their way or stayed to the Ps4 with the return of Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest to Ps4.
Apart from that you have the common big 3rd Party Franchises like Final Fantasy, DMC, Resident Evil, Persona, Souls Games etc.
the only thing lacking are first party JRPG's, but thats not gonna change their sitaution over there.
You don't have to make games specifically for Japan, just make games that also appeal to Japan and everywhere else globally. Nintendo's mastered that and Sony used to do it too (GT, Parappa, Crash, etc) but not so much these days. The only other 1st party game that does now is Minecraft and that's in part because it's on everything and really blew up on Vita/Switch.
Only so many consoles you can produce in a small timeframe, delay or not someone is getting left out.
Japan is still an important market and PS4 still sold more than decently there, it's selling more than PS3 and will likely end at 10m LTD.
These are not bad numbers just because Nintendo has done better with Switch.
So Jim is right that PS5 should launch there day one with US and EU.
PS4 was launched later because at launch they didn't have games oriented to the market, launching with COD, AC and Killzone in Japan in 2013 was definetly a risk and it made sense to use the stock to sell more units in the US and EU.
Hopefully this time they will have more japanese oriented games (having a definitive version of FF7R for PS5 at launch would help a lot) but it's also true that compared to 2013 japanese gamers have become more open to western games as well. We have seen many western first party Sony games selling well in Japan as well so that's a good sign.
Worst case Sony could use FF7R, TLOU2 and Ghost of Tsushima at launch with specific PS5 upgraded versions.
These are not bad numbers just because Nintendo has done better with Switch.
So Jim is right that PS5 should launch there day one with US and EU.
PS4 was launched later because at launch they didn't have games oriented to the market, launching with COD, AC and Killzone in Japan in 2013 was definetly a risk and it made sense to use the stock to sell more units in the US and EU.
Hopefully this time they will have more japanese oriented games (having a definitive version of FF7R for PS5 at launch would help a lot) but it's also true that compared to 2013 japanese gamers have become more open to western games as well. We have seen many western first party Sony games selling well in Japan as well so that's a good sign.
Worst case Sony could use FF7R, TLOU2 and Ghost of Tsushima at launch with specific PS5 upgraded versions.
I am referring to the wider core game market outside of Nintendo. Since most Japanese sales of Nintendo games tend to be on Nintendo IP obviously. I figured Nintendo's place in the market went without saying since my first post in this thread said that they have always dominated, but i guess i should add that qualifier there for clarification.
Does that count digital sales or just retail?
I've heard previously that PS4 has sold more software relative to PS3 launch aligned.
Then there you go. Especially since digital has grown a lot over there as seen by the biggest titles ratios over there. It would be almost impossible for PS4 to not surpass PS3 with those ratios extrapolated to the rest of the software suite
If they were working with a set amount of stock and had to allocate it as best they could, they absolutely made the right decision in 2013. It was MUCH more important to take advantage of the Xbox's fumble in EU and secure that market instead of putting boxes in Japan where they wouldnt move much (but still magnitudes more than Xbox)
Hopefully they can get close to parity worldwide with launches going forward, though I'm sure that is a logistical nightmare for an international consumer tech company
Hopefully they can get close to parity worldwide with launches going forward, though I'm sure that is a logistical nightmare for an international consumer tech company
Not if it's going to be a timed exclusive or some other DLC exclusive BS thing. If Sony wants to push Japanese content cool, but the exclusive deals with third party need to end IMO.
