A Slim around the time the next Monster Hunter comes out can help PS5 a lot there.
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Why is Japanese console gaming on the decline? Does anyone find this trend concerning?
- Thread starter PersianPrince
- Start date
I'd like to dispel this notion that somehow indie gaming isn't a thing there. If anything it's bigger there than anywhere and for much longer. Just because they don't leave the country in most cases doesn't mean they don't exist.
Aaand this is a bang up summary of trends most of us who keep up with it have been seeing. They've been doing gaming on phones for way longer than a lot of the rest of us. There are legit entries in series lost to those platforms and everything. Commuting has been a large factor in portable gaming taking over in general.
In Korea the PC dominates but Switch is having great relative success, dominating hardware and software sales compared to PS4 and Xbox. The information we have from Taiwan and China points in the same direction.
I think they know. It's more of a, "Sony and Xbox don't make games that we like" than they don't knowing about those options.
See, here is the thing. The OG Switch is also a better handheld than the Lite is. Even if you're going to only use it handheld, it has a bigger screen, keeps the HD Rumble, you can replace the controllers if they go haywire (Which they do), and you keep the option of it working as a console. The Lite is more of a slightly lower cost 2DS to the Switch handheld than the "handheld" in the mix.
It feels like the whole hybrid concept with the Switch has thrown a lot of people into this weird cognitive dissonance where we can't really get it's both a console and a handheld, with all that implies.
Yeah, I just don't understand why people fail to see the obvious--Switch is exactly what Nintendo calls it: a hybrid platform. It's both a portable and a console. Or, more succinctly, it's whatever you want it to be. In Japan, that means it's a portable first and foremost, and that makes all the difference.
If you remove/ignore Switch, the console market has shrunk in western markets. US in particular, where PS4 is tracking quite a bit behind both Wii and Xbox 360 gen on gen.
PC/mobile is bigger in Asia but consoles are growing in key markets (Korea, Taiwan, HK, China, etc). And in that respect they tend to align with Japan too (Nintendo significantly leads PlayStation, Xbox is nonexistant).
Hardware and Software sales 2019 in many countries
Via IDG Consulting for USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Nordic region and Japan. For South Korea and Taiwan the source is Media Create. USA Hardware Switch - 6.480.000 (47%) PS4 - 3.830.000 (27%) XB1 - 3.040.000 (22%) 3DS - 560.000 (4%) TOTAL - 13.350.000 (100%)...
www.resetera.com
Geez the media create people are having an absolute field day with this thread. Of course traditional console games and hardware heavily declined and not "just Playstation". Does anyone seriously think that Nintendo games like AC would do anywhere near as good on an actual home console like Wii U? One of the biggest reason people love the Switch is it's handheld capability. It's a tablet you can use on your TV (which is a great thing) and not an actual stationary home console like PS or Xbox.
Why do you want Remote Play if the games that interest you are not there?
That's what I'm going to use as a reference on my next college report.
This type of shit is just embarrassing and I honestly don't know why moderation allows it to go unchecked.
When the premise of the thread is that the JP console market is declining, and it is not true, then don't be surprised if people correct it or try to bring additionnal context.
You do realize that the worse selling PlayStation platform in Japan is a portable right ? Content is always the decisive factor. How do you explain the success of the PS1/PS2 and the big decline of the PS3/PS4 since they have the same form factor otherwise ?
Yeh, really weird that the people heavily involved with week to week, year to year sales trends in Japan with reams of actual data and statistics are here in a thread about Japanese sales and correcting the other people who haven't a clue
Try to guess which Animal Crossing games were on home consoles and which were on portables.
Oh, I think it's fairly obvious that content is king, and we're all in agreement on that front. That having been said, the fact remains that good portables in general are still the preferred form factor in Japan, and we have 15 years of sales data to back that up.
Media Create Sales: Week 2, 2021 (Jan 11 - Jan 17) Sales
Media Create Sales: Week 2, 2021 (Jan 11 - Jan 17) 01./01. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! (Konami) {2020.11.19} (¥6.300) 02./02. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure # (Nintendo) {2019.10.18} (¥7.980) 03./03. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons # (Nintendo) {2020.03.20}...
www.resetera.com
some of you should catch up on this.
Try to guess which Animal Crossing games were on home consoles and which were on portables.
Wasn't City Folk also significantly less well received, and seen as a retread of Wild World?
Didn't it also sell significantly less outside of Japan/in the west where conventional wisdom tells us home consoles are more popular?
The Switch is on track to be the most successful Console ever in Japan, both in hardware sales and software sales. Mobile and PC are popular everywhere, not just in Japan. The console market is on the rise in Japan.
PC day 1? I doubt. But a few years after the console sales have slowed down? That's for sure.
I'm torn on ps5, if P6 isn't to far away, we could even see a ps4 release... It's Atlus after all.
On a sidenote, Project Re: Fantasy is a multiplatform game for sure. Mark my words.
The issue here is you're discounting the actual data that gives us counterpoints: OG Switch outselling Lite, Vita flopping, docked focused or associated games (Ring Fit, Momotaru, Splatoon, etc) selling huge. Ignoring that doesn't strike me as common sense.
In reality, the hybrid nature of Switch is itself a core selling point in Japan too. And that's shown in the sales. This isn't some zero sum game with handheld portable versus tv stationed being dominant, it's really an additive "all the above" approach that's making it more successful. Would Switch be as successful as a docked only console? Definitely not. Would it be as successful as a handheld only console? Also definitely not. There's clear value in both use cases and the sales frankly prove that, even in Japan.
I do have a slightly separate question. Maybe this could be another thread topic. Arcades are obviously declining in Japan but why? It's not just the pandemic because they were dying prior.
The reason I ask is because unlike the western world, Arcades are a form of social gathering for the 18-40 crowd in Japan as most Japanese citizens usually live in a full family home including their parents. Asian families are usually content with living and taking care of their parents at an elderly age, which is why arcades lasted so long.
What replaces arcade gatherings in Japan as arcades decline? It's obviously not console gaming.
The reason I ask is because unlike the western world, Arcades are a form of social gathering for the 18-40 crowd in Japan as most Japanese citizens usually live in a full family home including their parents. Asian families are usually content with living and taking care of their parents at an elderly age, which is why arcades lasted so long.
What replaces arcade gatherings in Japan as arcades decline? It's obviously not console gaming.
It's merely because that kind of shit doesn't go against the order that assures justice and balance. Of course, that order that assures justice and balance is when Sony is at the top, since it feels so just. But if someone does the same thing trying to go against justice and balance, oh boy they're in for a rude awakening :P
True but that's on Sony and MS. They don't have any relevant IP for Japan. They focus on the west and are ignoring a very lucrative market.
I think there's a distinction to be made here: the fact that Nintendo have positioned the Switch as a hybrid device gives them an edge in two areas:
1. In the west, where the perfect balance of power and portability hadn't been struck until the Switch. Calling it a hybrid makes it more appealing to the western consumer.
2. In the eyes of publishers that are making games for "home consoles". Perception among the dev community is important, and this is how you get their support.
But in Japan, if they had simply released the Switch Lite (and the regular Switch had never existed), I don't think it would have made much of a difference to the Japanese consumer. Obviously we'll never be able to confirm that, but I think the last 15 odd years of sales data tell us that a portable-only Switch would have done very well.
Again, I'm not saying that the hybrid factor isn't important--it absolutely is, because it lets the Switch be whatever you want it to be. I'm just making the case that to the Japanese consumer, common sense tells us it's a portable device first and foremost.
Just in case you didn't notice, the only graphs for Korea/Taiwan/HK in that thread are for the year 2019 only. There aren't any "total sales" graphs as there is with every other country in that thread.PC/mobile is bigger in Asia but consoles are growing in key markets (Korea, Taiwan, HK, China, etc). And in that respect they tend to align with Japan too (Nintendo significantly leads PlayStation, Xbox is nonexistant).
Hardware and Software sales 2019 in many countries
Via IDG Consulting for USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Nordic region and Japan. For South Korea and Taiwan the source is Media Create. USA Hardware Switch - 6.480.000 (47%) PS4 - 3.830.000 (27%) XB1 - 3.040.000 (22%) 3DS - 560.000 (4%) TOTAL - 13.350.000 (100%)...
But the numbers are there for Japan. They are buying a bigger and more expensive machine, that while it's portable, it gives you both. That shows that there is a market for home consoles.
If Japan wasn't interested in home console they wouldn't spend an extra $100 for the hybrid.
it seems that they changed their focus to mobile and handheld games. And for me it is a shame, my favorite libraries are from SNES, PS1, PS2 era too.
I don't like handhelds (and I've tried, I've had PSP, PSVita, DS, 3DS and Switch and still have a 3DS and Switch...) at all and really hate mobile gaming and what it brings with gacha, low-quality GAAS games etc...
And it concerns me because western games don't capture my interest as the games that usually came from Japan.
At least I have an infinite backlog at this point so many franchises waiting for me to play. It also helps that JRPG are my favorite genres and they are longer games.
Sony changing their focus to totally appeal western markets is also bad for me. I loved their output at PS1 and PS2. But it's the third generation already that Japan Studio drops the ball. I think for me it's best to move on. I just hope more japanese 3rd party games comes to PC. Persona 4 success on the platform made me very happy.
I don't like handhelds (and I've tried, I've had PSP, PSVita, DS, 3DS and Switch and still have a 3DS and Switch...) at all and really hate mobile gaming and what it brings with gacha, low-quality GAAS games etc...
And it concerns me because western games don't capture my interest as the games that usually came from Japan.
At least I have an infinite backlog at this point so many franchises waiting for me to play. It also helps that JRPG are my favorite genres and they are longer games.
Sony changing their focus to totally appeal western markets is also bad for me. I loved their output at PS1 and PS2. But it's the third generation already that Japan Studio drops the ball. I think for me it's best to move on. I just hope more japanese 3rd party games comes to PC. Persona 4 success on the platform made me very happy.
We all got hired by Media Create so it's not inaccurate. Didn't you get the memo?
I think the tech is there, only the battery is what is holding it back.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Console wars and history of past similar behavior; cross thread drama and antagonism towards other users
I don't think anyone denies media threads have become a place to troll Playstation. That's much more embarassing imo and I don't mean every single person who posts in those threads but there are people who use those Media Create for hidden console warring.
I mean, that's one hypothesis, sure. Personally, I don't buy the idea that "people don't have TVs anymore" is a factor at all.
That Japan always had a thing for portables is a moot point. That much is obvious. What I'm questioning is the idea that consoles are dying because people are not buying TVs anymore. I'm gonna need some receipts for that.
The regular Switch has a lot of other advantages over the Lite, which don't involve turning it into a console:
- Swappable Joy-Cons that let you customize the system (or replace faulty controllers)
- Gyro
- Tabletop mode
And yes, the flexibility of also being able to connect it to the television, should you want to. But that is just one of many advantages the regular Switch has over the Lite.
Strikers is coming to PC on the same day as the others in the West, so I wouldn't rule it out. Also, even by 2022, cross-gen games will become less common. Imagine a game like P6 that's likely far out.
Wii had one of the best launch for a platform in Japan, way more successful than the 3DS at a similar price. It was sold out for months but eventually died down because of low support from JP 3rd parties (which were at the time on the DS/PSP mostly). The same eventually happened in the West.
I'll agree that there is some games that are more succesful on handhelds (see Animal Crossing or Monster Hunter) but the reverse is also true with games like Mario Party, Mario Kart or Momotaro being way more successful on home consoles.
Truth is, you can have a successful home console in Japan, but it cannot be only pushed by JP 3rd parties, it not enough. Their output was hit pretty hard by HD transition.
