I don't think the way some posters are pinning this thread's problems primarily on a relative handful of hot takes from "PlayStation fans" is going to help matters, or lead to the change the mods seem to be gunning for. These threads are predominantly frequented by "Nintendo fans", some of whom (emphasis on some, because it's far from everyone) absolutely do take part in the thinly veiled console warring in and out of these threads, which also doesn't help.
It's all contributing to the air of hostility in these threads which has been a growing issue since the MC threads back on GAF. While it's okay to give feedback and not agree 100% with the actions taken by staff, there needs to be at least a little self-reflection here for people to understand why MC threads have the reputation they do these days and the issues that the mods highlighted.
japanese sales threads are unique because they're the only place where you actually get a realistic snapshot of the industry on a regular basis. back in the 00s, we had the golden age of leaks, where we could understand what the market looked like in the united states on a monthly basis.
i think that things have settled down in the last 2-3 years to be honest. but the last 20 were incredibly tumultuous and fraught with drama. 1999-2001 was the death of the dreamcast, launch of ps2, xbox, and gamecube. there was this air around microsoft's entry into the market, the loss of sega, and the continued decline of nintendo that made it seem inevitable that the industry would be controlled by non-game makers. things really came to a head here with the ds and the psp - where the psp was meant to take down nintendo's final stronghold within the marketplace. when the drama of xbox overtaking nintendo's second place status in the us had died down, the handheld comparisons flared up between psp and ds. ds had a weak performance for the better part of a year, and then bounced back once it started receiving key software.
then the tables turned, and psp sales hit a plateau while ds sales skyrocketed - especially with the launch of ds lite, brain age, and new super mario bros. couple that with the surprise success of the wii, the surprise high price of the ps3, and there's a recipe for even more drama in the late 00s when companies left and right were merging or dying out to stay afloat in supporting the xbox 360 and/or ps3 instead of lowering their budgets and making games for less powerful hardware (though in some cases this did happen, hence the psp's late success in japan).
that run from 2001-2009 is probably the nastiest sales threads ever got. nintendo fans got shit on regularly, and playstation fans didn't know what failure felt like. when it switched around and nintendo was on top, there was this belief that the market would rally behind the top-selling hardware and it didn't happen. this is when nintendo fans were probably the most obnoxious.
things calmed down a lot when the wii u was bombing and so was the vita. it was sort of like things going back to 'normal' - ps4 was the top platform in the us, sony basically didn't have a handheld division anymore, and nintendo was making bottom-rung-selling hardware again. 3ds did well in japan and worldwide as nintendo's mainstream platform, but i don't recall any obnoxious fandom in particular from this timeframe.
the last few years with the final death of the vita, the weirdness of the ps4's decline and the ps5's okay hardware sales and abysmal software sales, coupled with the switch looking like it will hit the upper echelon of the best-selling hardware in japan - it's like a repeat of the mid-00s, except quieter. for the most part, developers have rallied behind the switch in a way they didn't with the wii. it just makes absences, such as madden, for example, the more glaring. and i think there's this expectation that especially japan will get on board because it appears that at long last, the writing is on the wall.
within all of that though is still the warring fandoms that made sales-age and sales-era into what they are. like, i started following dengeki threads to get a better understanding of how nintendo was performing in japan. on neogaf, i'd have my monthly updates on gamecube software sales and also sega third-party sales (to prove they were doing poorly on xbox you see - because of my bitterness over shenmue ii not releasing on dreamcast in the us). it's part of the dna of these threads.
i think that making restera's versions of nagoshi and harada and kondo is weird though, and would argue that discussion about these people only makes sense when they're ones making comments directly or were known to be in charge of a specific project that recently launched.
this was a stream of consciousness. sorry. i'm tired.
edit: to clarify the above - i realize looking at it now that it might come across as 'these threads have always been toxic and that's okay.' the intent was 'these threads have always had toxic elements and here's why.' that said, they've seemed pretty chill to me for the last decade or so.
