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The PS5 is the first PlayStation platform to launch in Japan without any retail 3rd party JP game alongside it [Discussion]
- Thread starter Lelouch0612
- Start date
I think the consequences of Playstation's diminishing popularity in Japan are going to be that a Playstation is no longer a must have console if you love Japanese 3rd party games. It will still get them of course, but a long running advantage of the Playstation brand was its 3rd party exclusives which seem to be dying now unless paid exclusivity is involved.
The low and mid budget part of the Japanese industry is shifting heavily to the Switch, with the AAA productions largely going multiplatform with Xbox and PC such as what we've been seeing from Sega and Bamco marketing in the run-up to Series X.
The low and mid budget part of the Japanese industry is shifting heavily to the Switch, with the AAA productions largely going multiplatform with Xbox and PC such as what we've been seeing from Sega and Bamco marketing in the run-up to Series X.
This argument is a bit disingenuous because the third party JP titles for the PS4 launch were practically inconsequential. Hell, look at PS4's Japanese launch lineup and how many copies they sold. The best seller was Knack at 300,000 units followed by a distant 80,000 units for Yakuza!
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The thing is right now, I don't see a game selling as well as Yakuza until maybe Resident Evil 8 ? PS4 also had Metal Gear soon after.
Persona 4 Golden on Steam
A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders.
Makes sense to me, Sony has been slowly focusing on the western market. All their big games are developed by western studios, and while they still have some deals with SE and other Japanese developers, they know that home consoles are slowly dying in Japan and that their best selling games in the west are developer by western studios.
Compared to the Ps2 days, now most AA Japanese games are released on PC, some big PS exclusives from the past are also on Xbox, and the Switch being by far the most succesful system on Japan makes lots of developers prioritize a Switch version.
Which I think is great, exclusives from 3rd parties are almost gone and we all benefit from this, and while Sony will pay for some timed deals, developers know that PC/Switch/Xbox versions means more money.
My real hope for PJ exclusive Japanese games is them using their studios there to develop something small and fresh (I hope it's far better than Gravity Rush though).
Compared to the Ps2 days, now most AA Japanese games are released on PC, some big PS exclusives from the past are also on Xbox, and the Switch being by far the most succesful system on Japan makes lots of developers prioritize a Switch version.
Which I think is great, exclusives from 3rd parties are almost gone and we all benefit from this, and while Sony will pay for some timed deals, developers know that PC/Switch/Xbox versions means more money.
My real hope for PJ exclusive Japanese games is them using their studios there to develop something small and fresh (I hope it's far better than Gravity Rush though).
Sony launching in Japan alongside North America and ahead of Europe indicates that they still see it as an important territory.
I'm not saying it will be the case for PS5, but Vita, Wii U and PS4 all plummeted in their second weeks. The issue with the PS5's lineup isn't necessarily right at launch but in general for that early period, the lack of anything retail from a Japanese third party is really just showing historically poor it is in comparison to past platforms.
Persona 4 Golden on Steam
A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders.store.steampowered.com
And 5?
edit: I just remembered that's a ps2 well vita i guess game. And this came out this year does that really count?
What about it? The comment was about traditionally long time exclusive series no longer being exclusive. 4 instead of 5 doesn't change that.
It's simple, in the past 5 years Sony has been slowly Americanizing the brand, Japan is a tertiary market at best for them and with them moving the company to the US, it's only become more clear that they no longer consider Japan to be their "home market". Like it or not, PlayStation is now a Western brand and Sony will continue to focus on the west.
I mean for the sake of this thread i won't really call a port of a vita game released years later as "losing" exclusives if it isn't day and date.
Miles Morales is cross gen though, so a significant amount of people will pick up the PS4 version.
Demons Souls should be a good seller though.
Demon Souls was originally developed by FromSoft and Studio Japan and the remaster also has Studio Japan taking a leading role.
I appreciate the concern and I'm not trying to be dismissive, but it's not exactly being honest either.
I appreciate the concern and I'm not trying to be dismissive, but it's not exactly being honest either.
Sony used to have a lot of core Japanese franchises as de facto exclusives on Playstation. Their consoles were basically THE place to go if you preferred Japanese games over Western ones, since Xbox has always prioritized the West as their primary target demographic since the beginning. That needle has slowly shifted down to zero starting with Metal Gear, Devil May Cry and FF going multiplatform in the PS3 generation and now culminating with Yakuza going timed Xbox exclusive (this is still a massively WTF decision on Sega's part) and Persona jumping to PC, while the more niche Japanese games largely center themselves around Switch with ports to PS4 and PC if they have the budget for it.
As of right now, there really aren't any core Japanese-developed exclusive reasons to buy a PS5 over any other platform, so Sony is essentially counting on the same people who used to buy their consoles to play Japanese games just sticking with them out of habit rather than potentially switching to another platform. Their focus is entirely on the West and Western developers, with the occasional Japanese multiplatform game here and there.
And to be fair, that gamble will probably work for them on a macro-scale, because the Japanese market is shrinking. But it really stings for anyone who's primarily interested in Japanese games and I can't imagine it's going to help their hardware do better in Japan next generation compared to this one.
I can't imagine a lot of people in Japan are going to buy a PS5 to play Demon's Souls. Souls is way bigger in the West than it is in Japan. We'll see what happens in a month and a half, though.
That is very cool and all but this seems like the first FF game in a while that is on schedule or at least has a lot to show for it.
I understand and appreciate them wanting to do gameplay, but why not both? Why not one of the amazing CG trailers they are, or were, renowned for and also include gameplay?
I really hope this game is big on the classic CG cinematics as every mainline FF has.
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Delaying the PS5 in Japan for a title or 2 that might scrape to 100k copies would be madness. The PS5 will still get pretty much all Japanese AAA and AA games by virtue of their worldwide install base. Focusing on a single market in a digital world doesn't make sense any more.
It's like the silly argument people like to make about Capcom being unhappy with MHW's sales in Japan when it's sold 15m+ worldwide.
It's like the silly argument people like to make about Capcom being unhappy with MHW's sales in Japan when it's sold 15m+ worldwide.
Sony's decay of support for Japanese games has been my highest point of contention with the company for years now. While I think the ps4 is good, I consider it worse than ps1-3 because of this (and 3 is worse than 1/2 for similar reasons).
It doesn't seem to be getting any better either
It doesn't seem to be getting any better either
No it wasnt(well I guess it technically came out 10 days before the PC version in NA)
Souls games are still relatively big in Japan. All three Dark Souls games have sold >300k with Dark Souls going over 400k.
Demons Souls will probably outsell Resident Evil 8 in Japan.
Sony should have forced* japanese 3rd parties to have exclusive games on launch day during the year of covid-19, or else they don't care about Japan.
* In case they did, there would be weekly discussions about sony buying exclusivity of games they don't deserve.
* In case they did, there would be weekly discussions about sony buying exclusivity of games they don't deserve.
I think the question is going to be if enough PS5 consoles even sell in Japan to allow for 300k+ units of Demon's Souls to sell over there.
That kind of attach rate is a challenge. I honestly don't see it happening at launch, but who knows. Maybe Japan has been hiding a huge amount of demand? Like I said, we'll find out in December.
How much can we really expect from a remake of Demon Souls to sell in Japan?
I don't think anyone even means exclusivity. PS5 currently doesn't even have that many multiplatform games coming to it.
I'm also not sure how much of a factor COVID-19 is either. The Switch's third party lineup in Japan is the best it has ever been over the next few months(not even including MH Rise).
Oh, it definitely won't happen at launch but >100k wouldn't be weird considering pretty much every none Xbox launch in the past decade has had 200k+ consoles on the market day 1. The rest will be sales over time.
:( Now you're getting me sad. Whatever happened to Ridge Racer?
Especially considering Yakuza 7 will have come out on PS4 in Japan almost a full year before the PS5 launches. Game is gonna be discounted to hell over there for anyone who actually still needs to jump onboard.
I would be surprised if it didn't sell at least 200k in its lifetime(at retail). The Souls series has only grown since that original game.
yeah 200k seems like a solid baseline for Demon's Souls. dunno what to expect from the Japanese launch at all
sony stopped caring about anyone already, after the psvita launch. how the fuck did they get away with this?
and now japanese devs are only on mobile, because they dont care about international audience... very sad since i was a huge fan pretty much of all the games... but now only available digital and only in japanese, i stopped caring...
and now japanese devs are only on mobile, because they dont care about international audience... very sad since i was a huge fan pretty much of all the games... but now only available digital and only in japanese, i stopped caring...
Here's Japanese 3rd-Party published titles for each PlayStation console:
PlayStation (December 3, 1994) (280 Days Ahead of the US Launch)
18.9 Million units sold
21.5 Million units sold
10.5 Million units sold
9.2 Million units sold
A console's launch clearly isn't the end-all be-all when it comes to its future success, but there is a clear dedication to Japanese audiences with the first two consoles that paid dividends. Post-PS2, Sony has focused on its Western audiences due to a plethora of factors, but the end result remains the fact that clearly, the Japanese market isn't as important to Sony as it used to be. Likewise, there's a trend here that can't be ignored: Japanese third parties see less import in Sony's launch window than before.
Also, pretty funny to see FromSoftware up there for the PS2. Maybe a bit of sales magic will rub off on the PS5 with Demon's Souls. :P
PlayStation (December 3, 1994) (280 Days Ahead of the US Launch)
18.9 Million units sold
- A. IV Evolution (Artdink)
- Gokujou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack (Konami)
- Mahjong Station Mazin (Sunsoft)
- Ridge Racer (Namco)
- Nekketsu Oyako (Technosoft)
21.5 Million units sold
- A-Train 6 (Artdink)
- DrumMania (Konami)
- Eternal Ring (FromSoftware)
- Kakinoki Shogi IV (ASCII Entertainment)
- Kessen (Koei)
- Mahjong Taikai III (Koei)
- Morita Shogi (Yuki)
- Ridge Racer V (Namco)
- Stepping Selection (Jaleco)
- Street Fighter EX3 (Capcom)
10.5 Million units sold
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight (Namco Bandai)
- Ridge Racer 7 (Namco Bandai)
- Sega Golf Club (Sega)
9.2 Million units sold
- Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition (Tecmo Koei)
- Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (Tecmo Koei)
- Ryu ga Gotoku: Ishin! (Sega)
- Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition (Digital) (Capcom)
A console's launch clearly isn't the end-all be-all when it comes to its future success, but there is a clear dedication to Japanese audiences with the first two consoles that paid dividends. Post-PS2, Sony has focused on its Western audiences due to a plethora of factors, but the end result remains the fact that clearly, the Japanese market isn't as important to Sony as it used to be. Likewise, there's a trend here that can't be ignored: Japanese third parties see less import in Sony's launch window than before.
Also, pretty funny to see FromSoftware up there for the PS2. Maybe a bit of sales magic will rub off on the PS5 with Demon's Souls. :P
Please don't use my dishonorable post history to shame me.
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What's your source on this? It was announced multiplatform (PS4/3DS/"NX") on day one. And sales were strongest on PlayStation 4 overall.
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Anyway, let's look at Japanese developer support for PlayStation 5 so far:
First-Party
2020
- November 10
- Astro's Playroom (SIE Japan Studio) (Exclusive)
- Demon's Souls (SIE Japan Studio / Bluepoint Games) (Exclusive)
- Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital) (Exclusive)
Third-Party
2020
- November 10
- Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (Capcom)
- Goonya Fighter: Purupuru Shokkan Edition (Mutan) (Next-Gen Exclusive)
- December 3
- Atelier Ryza 2 (Koei Tecmo / Gust) (Next-Gen Exclusive)
- December 10
- Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega)
- December 17
- Go! Go! 5 Jigen Game Neptune: re☆Verse (Compile Heart) (Exclusive)
- March 2
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Sega / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) - TBA for Japan
- March 26
- Balan Wonderworld (Square Enix / Arzest)
- Early / Spring 2021
- Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires (Koei Tecmo / Omega Force)
- Guilty Gear: Strive (Arc System Works) (Console Exclusive)
- 2021
- eFootball PES 2021 (Konami)
- Ghostwire: Tokyo (Bethesda Softworks / Tango Gameworks) (Console Exclusive)
- Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
- Pragmata (Capcom)
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Rabbit & Bear Studios)
- Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix / Creative Business Unit III) (Exclusive)
- Project Athia (Square Enix / Luminous Productions) (Exclusive)
- Psikyo Shooting Collection (City Connection / Zerodiv) (Exclusive)
- Scarlet Nexus (Bandai Namco)
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Now, let's look at who's missing:
- Acquire
- Acquire announced Gladiux in December 2019 for unannounced platform(s), but said it would like to release on PlayStation 5. It is a reimagining of Acquire's Gladiator Begins developed by Starcaster Games (a western company).
- Atlus
- P-Studio - Silent since Persona 5 Royal, which was likely not its main project. More Persona likely to come. I don't expect an immediate jump to Persona 6 though. Maybe a remake of Persona 3.
- Studio Zero - Working on Project Re Fantasy for unannounced platform(s).
- Bandai Namco
- Bandai Namco is a huge company. While Scarlet Nexus and Little Nightmares II are its only announced PlayStation 5 titles so far, there are plenty more to come for sure. Elden Ring and Tales of Arise are likely cross-gen at this point. The new Digimon Story in development since at least December 2017 is likely cross-gen. The next Tekken is likely in development. And you can bet more Dragon Ball, Naruto, Mobile Suit Gundam, and One Piece games are on the way.
- Cygames
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink - First announced for PlayStation 4 in 2016 and more information coming in December. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a cross-gen title at this point.
- Project Awakening - First announced for PlayStation 4 in 2018, many thought this game looked too good to be a current-gen title anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's PlayStation 5-only now.
- Koei Tecmo
- Team Ninja - Sony Interactive Entertainment and Team Ninja worked together on Nioh, which is why it is only available on PlayStation consoles. I can't remember where / when it was said, but I believe it was Yosuke Hayashi that said similarly to how they created Nioh for PS4, he wants to create something new for PS5. Jim Ryan also recently namedropped Koei Tecmo as one of the major Japanese publishers SIE has a great relationship with.
- Konami
- Who knows what they're up to besides eFootball PES 2021... Other than soccer games, they regularly put out Pro Yakyuu Spirits and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu games on PlayStation platforms---the former exclusively---so we'll likely see more of those. I saw rumors floating around of a Metal Gear Solid remake, but who knows how credible they are...
- PlatinumGames
- Tolling away on Bayonetta 3 and Babylon's Fall, the latter of which I wouldn't be surprised to see as a cross-gen title at this point. Then you have whatever they're doing with their Tencent money.
- Sega
- Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio - PlayStation 4 launched with a Yakuza spin-off title (Yakuza: Ishin!). Yakuza series chief producer Masayoshi Yokoyama recently said, "The Yakuza series is heading towards its 15th anniversary, and various plans are currently underway. Naturally, a game is also in development. The development team is working hard every day aiming for the day we can announce it to everyone, so please continue to give us your support."
- Square Enix
- Creative Business Unit I - A new IP action game is in development for HD console(s), according to the unit's website.
- Creative Business Unit III - A new HD title from the Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age team has been in development for unannounced platform(s) since at least June 2019, according to the unit's website.
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There are definitely a lot of companies I'm missing, but the point is that all the players are working on something that probably have a PlayStation 5 version at the very least, so the support will come.