PlayStation is decisively losing credibility in Japan – PS5 sales are disastrously low
The PlayStation brand appears to be decisively losing popularity in Japan. At least that’s what ACE Economic Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda says, citing sales figures for the newest Sony PlayStation 5. In 6 weeks after launch, only 240,000 PS5 units were sold in that country – less than any past PlayStation at one time, with the exception of the PSP.
Mr Yasuda is confident that the numbers clearly demonstrate Sony’s frivolity towards Japan and reflect the decisive decline of the PlayStation brand at home. “Total sales of 240,000 are the lowest in the history of PlayStation home consoles,” the analyst wrote. ” If the trend continues, the total PS 5 sales over the lifecycle of the system could be less than half of PS 4’s circulations. “
According to Famitsu, up to 10 million PS4s have been sold in Japan to date. The analyst added: “Based on the above graph, can you really feel that Sony (SIE ) is planning to succeed in the Japanese market? The ACE Institute for Economic Research does not see this. “
Mr Yasuda admits that the PS5 launch in Japan this year is being held back by manufacturing issues. And yet, the analyst says retail sales of the console are worrying. “Early PS 5 trends show that the PlayStation brand in Japan is in serious decline. Looking at the current situation with Sony (SIE ) failing to ship enough PS 5s to Japan for a season of high sales at the end of the year, we cannot help but feel deep concern about the future of the PlayStation market in the country, ” he wrote.
The analyst also listed a number of reasons why Japanese consumers believe Sony is neglecting the domestic market. This is both the decision to change the default control layout in Japan to match Western standards and the abandonment of the Japanese presentation in the PS5 announcement videos.
A recent Bloomberg report, in which Hideki Yasuda also contributed, argued that Sony has decided to overshadow Japan in promoting the PS5, and the team has been scaled down as the company places more emphasis on the US market. The report also claimed that SIE Japan Studio, which has been involved in the development of games like Bloodborne, Astro’s Playroom and The Last Guardian, has not renewed its current contracts with many studios, and the support teams for Japanese developers have been reduced by a third.
After the report, several high-profile departures were confirmed: this is the producer of Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls Teruyuki Toriyama and the creator of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush Keiichiro Toyama.
In a later interview published in Edge magazine, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said that claims that the company is diminishing its focus on Japan are incorrect. “ Sony ‘s position is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us,” he said. “ We are now very pleased with such a strong involvement of the Japanese game development community, which has not been seen in many years. Japan is our second-largest market and Sony’s homeland is still very important to us. ”
However, the ACE Institute for Economic Research argues that PlayStation’s actions in Japan do not match the claims. “The purpose of my previous article was not to simply stir up the public with a sensational headline, but to inform Sony and SIE headquarters of the deep despair of Japanese PlayStation users,” Mr Yasuda wrote about his Bloomberg article. “ Sony headquarters told us directly that they value the Japanese market and we were delighted to hear that comment. I really think Sony is taking Japan seriously. At the same time, although their feelings are also valuable, their actions do not correspond to them. This is why users believe that Sony and CEO Jim Ryan neglect the Japanese market. “
The analyst stressed that SIE’s decision to move its headquarters from Japan to the United States in 2016 caused its attitude towards Japanese users to become rather cool and led to the loss of the Japanese spirit: “As mentioned earlier, Japanese users are not used to expressing their dissatisfaction with social media, so the staff at the SIE headquarters in the United States may perceive it as if the Japanese simply accept whatever is given to them, no matter how cool they actually feel about the system. However, this will be far from the truth: the Japanese players simply began to slowly go into the sunset. “
In a statement released at the end of November, Sony noted that the PS5 had the largest launch in PlayStation history in the global marketplace due to unprecedented demand.
