According to the analysis firm Ace Economic Research Institute, the PS5 and the Playstation brand are about to experience an unprecedented decline in Japan. With only 240,000 PS5 sold on the archipelago, Sony recorded its lowest sales in the history of Playstation consoles on Japanese soil. For a Japanese analyst, the manufacturer is not doing anything to prosper in Japan.
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Does Sony despise Japan? In any case, this is the question raised by our colleagues from the Japanese version of the GameIndustry.biz site. In this article, the media questions the popularity of Sony, the PS5 and the Playstation brand in general on the Japanese archipelago. It must be said that the figures speak for themselves: only 240,000 PS5 passed during the first six weeks of console career. Nothing to do with the box of the PS5 in the United States.
Sony records here its lowest sales figures for a Playstation console over the same period, with the exception of the PSP. To try to understand why the Japanese shun the PS5, the media called on Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at the Ace Economic Research Institute. For him, these sales figures prove that “Sony doesn’t take Japan seriously ” and that the Playstation brand is about to live “a decisive decline ” on the Japanese market.
He adds: “If this trend were to continue, sales of the PS5 over its entire cycle could end at less than half of those of the PS4 ″. Nothing very reassuring, knowing that PS4 sales have struggled to hit 10 million copies sold in Japan, after a seven-year career.
Controversial Sony decisions
For the analyst, certain decisions taken by Sony prove that the manufacturer has chosen to favor the European and American markets to the detriment of the Japanese market. It refers to the move of Sony’s headquarters to the United States, or the recent announcement of the cessation of PS4 production in Japan. Hard to hear news, as Sony has promised the PS4 will last for years to come.
According to Hideki Yasuka, Sony will never assume the fact of abandoning the Japanese market and it is obvious, at the risk of killing itself politically and commercially speaking. And if the statements of Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan are reassuring, the absence of concrete actions to straighten the bar speaks volumes.
Sony will have to win back Japanese players
Flooding the Japanese PS5 market in 2021 will not be enough for the analyst. According to numerous social media posts, gamers feel looked down upon by the brand. Several decisions of the manufacturer were badly perceived by the players: the late launch of the PS4 in Japan, the change of the validation button from “Round” to “Cross” (a tradition in Japan), the absence of Japanese dubbing and approximate subtitles at dedicated PS5 conferences, etc.
And you, what do you think from Hideki Yasuka’s point of view? Is Sony willingly sidelining the Japanese market after the PS4 and PS3 commercial failures? Tell us in the comments.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
