Sony Hasn't Turned Away From Japan with PS5, Says Platinum Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 August 2021 / 3,077 Views
Sales for video game consoles and more specifically PlayStation consoles, in general, have been on the decline in Japan for the last generations. Sales for handhelds have remained strong and Nintendo has struck gold with its hybrid console, the Switch. The decline in sales for the PlayStation has lead to an image that Sony has moved its support from Japan to more of a focus on western markets.
Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya in an interview with VideoGamesChronicle have said Sony is not focused on one particular market and that the PlayStation brand is popular worldwide. Inaba admitted the console market in Japan is not what it used to be.
"To be honest, we don’t feel it that much, or at least I haven’t felt the impact of it myself yet," said Inaba. "That being said, I do understand that the console industry in Japan is not what it used to be and when that happens the priorities of these big console makers will change, and that makes perfect sense to me.
"I don’t know if this is an opinion that’s out there, and I don’t have any personal investment, but just because PlayStation is from Japan doesn’t mean it should focus on the Japanese market. I don’t feel that way. At the same time, I don’t think it’s American now either: I think it’s international and doesn’t really belong to any country. That’s how I feel as a developer.
"However, I understand from a user perspective that if we start seeing release schedules prioritizing the US over Japan, then that will be frustrating I’m sure. I’m not going to tell Japanese fans, 'that’s how it is, deal with it.'"
Hideki Kamiya added, "Maybe you’re aware that up until PS4 the default confirm button in Japan has always been circle, where as it was always X in the US. But for PS5, Sony has unified this and made X the default select button in Japan like the US.
"To me, this doesn’t feel like a Japan versus US thing – my pride isn’t hurt as a Japanese person – it’s just more that there are two camps who had two ways of doing things, and I think they’ve short-sightedly leaned one way. I don’t understand the reasoning behind that.
"To clarify, if it had been the opposite way around and they had made the world use circle for select, I think I would’ve felt the same way. It’s just a little bit of disrespect towards the gaming cultures that have existed for decades now as part of so many peoples’ lives. I feel like PS5 has disrupted that and I don’t know if it was meaningful to do that."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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It is true that Sony have gone international instead of shunning Japan.
The quoted part in the article is baity...
But the part from the actual interview I liked most are the final comments:
“ What do you think, Inaba?
Inaba: You mean about episodes 7, 8 and 9?
Kamiya: No, about us doing a Star Wars game!
Inaba: Honestly, I feel the same way. It does feel attractive to be able to work on it and it’d be a dream in some ways. But I also feel like we would just make the fans pissed if we worked on it. Star Wars has such a fully developed world I feel it might be hard for us to add something. I think fans would be angry at what we would do, so it’s a difficult proposition.
But you’d take the call?
Inaba: We’re not in a position to be turning down meetings with Disney! (laughs) We’re not that elite yet. We would be honoured to have a meeting with them, yes.”
Wait till they release dragon quest 12 ps5 bundle.
It would be unwise to outright ignore Japan. And hasn't history usually shown that whoever dominates in Japan will dominate in all the other regions?
i mean, the saturn did better then the n64, but look where it got them...
No, PS4 did 105+ Million units sold excluding Japan.
The last traditional home console that had great success over there was the PS2, the country is now dominated by handhelds. .
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