One thing that the release of Sony's PlayStation 5 has put back into the spotlight recently
is Sony's attitude and approach to the Japanese market.
This is something that's been getting discussed quite a bit ever since Jim Ryan took over
as Sony Interactive Entertainment's new president and CEO back in 2019, as well as Sony moving
their base of operations over to California.
This has then seen a variety of happenings that give the impression that Sony is becoming
more and more US centric and focusing their efforts much more on the western markets rather
than in Japan.
This is something that was reiterated in a recent Bloomberg article back in November,
which described a variety of ways that Sony has sidelined the Japanese market when it
comes to the release of the PlayStation 5.
The Bloomberg article also provided commentary from an analyst at Ace Research Institute
in Tokyo.
The analyst gave his thoughts on the situation and also theorized that if Sony doesn't change
soon, considering the current power balance between Sony and the US and Sony in Japan,
it's very possible that Microsoft's Xbox may end up overtaking Sony over in Japan - which
is definitely quite a bold thing to say considering the Xbox's historically poor performance over
in Japan.
However the Bloomberg piece describes how Microsoft appears to be making real efforts
with the Japanese market this time around and then how Sony on the other hand appear
to be doing the opposite.
Bloomberg describes how the Xbox has been having more and more discussions with Japanese
based game developers about releasing more titles for the Xbox.
Koei Tecmo games is also one of these developers.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Koei Tecmo's president said that he's willing to consider releasing
more games for the Xbox if the US company shows continued interest in the Japanese market.
A variety of different insiders have also got in touch with Bloomberg who asked to remain
anonymous but confirmed that Microsoft is seeking to make acquisitions in the country.
And that several Japanese game developers from small in size to bigger size have said
that they have been approached by Xbox about buying their businesses.
And then also speaking to Bloomberg a Famitsu representative has said Japan has long been
an isolated part of the Xbox world but it appears Microsoft is changing that landscape.
And then the Ace Research Institute analyst concludes that Microsoft won't be able to
take Sony's position as number two in Japan anytime soon, but at least it has started
to make changes and that a big tide always starts with a small change.
And so this of course raises the question of how this could be and what's going on with
Sony's attitude to the Japanese market.
But according to numerous anonymous Sony employees speaking to Bloomberg, attitudes within the
company started to shift following the PS4's poor sales over in Japan.
Global sales of the PS4 rose to more than 113 million from the PS3's 87 million, but
the console sold fewer than 10 million units in Japan, which is less than its predecessor.
This means that the US accounts for 35 percent of revenue compared with only 10 in Japan.
And so this underwhelming performance then led to a shift within the company and so as
a result of this, according to several PlayStation staff in Japan speaking again to Bloomberg,
Japan has been sidelined in the planning of the PlayStation 5's promotion over in Japan.
And that employees in Tokyo have said that they've just been left awaiting instructions
from California.
Also according to former employees, Japan-based developer support teams have been reduced
by as much as a third from their peak and that the rolling contracts of a number of
game creators at PlayStation Japan Studio haven't been renewed.
And employees in the Californian headquarters are saying that the US office believes that
the PlayStation business doesn't need games that only do well in Japan.
And so all of these reports seem to indicate that Sony are shifting the bulk of their attention
to where there is the most profits - this being the western market and, as a result
of this, the Japanese market isn't receiving the same attention that it used to and is
to a degree getting cast aside.
This article which had the headline “Microsoft set sites on Sony's home turf in console clash”
naturally caused a bit of a stir and resulted in a variety of questions arising.
And so in response to the article, the analyst that Bloomberg spoke to wrote a new article
last month for the Japanese edition of GameIndustry.biz.
This article is titled “looking into Sony's claim that they take Japan seriously” and,
despite being in Japanese, the article was translated by a native speaker and posted
over on the ResetEra forums.
The new article gives further context on the apparent disconnect between Sony and the Japanese
market and it says that, despite Sony maintaining that the Japanese market is extremely important
for them, the analyst proposes that despite these words the actions do not match those
feelings.
He then proceeds to go into detail about this in the article and so, as well as the recent
big Bloomberg article, this new article from last month gives even further context and
information on what's going on between Sony and Japan.
The analyst breaks some of the issues down in a series of bullet points.
At number one is the fact that the PS4 launched in 2013 but the Japanese release came afterwards.
This is referring to the fact that the console launched on November 15th in North America
but the Japanese release didn't come until several months later on February 22nd 2014.
This indicates that even back then there was a growing disconnect between Sony and the
Japanese market and, due to this, consequently a growing disconnect between the Japanese
fan base as well and feeling that they are being sidelined.
And then the second bullet point talks about how after the fall of 2018 Sony has implemented
its own regulations on depictions in games which have seen games and content aimed at
Japanese users being censored.
This is referring to something that The Wall Street Journal did a big investigatory piece
on in 2019.
In the article The Wall Street Journal spoke to a range of different sources over in Japan,
who spoke about Sony's crackdown on sexually explicit content in games.
Some of these sources were game developers over in Japan who spoke of frustration at
Sony not actually having any set of actual explicit guidelines and that is handled on
a very case-by-case basis, which then puts them in a very awkward position when it comes
to them being able to create the games that they want to create - not knowing if Sony
is then going to later on say that this or that isn't allowed.
And this is something that has mainly affected Japanese game developers.
The third bullet point is that the PS5 reveal video had no Japanese narration, as well as
there been issues with the font used for the subtitles as well as their Japanese translations.
The fourth bullet point is another recent change that Sony has implemented - this being
that the confirm button was changed from the circle button to the x button in order to
set a global standard.
Now this is referring to something that has been the case ever since the original PlayStation,
which is that whilst over in the west games will commonly use the x button to confirm,
Japanese games have traditionally used the circle button.
And this is also something that you would find sometimes when Japanese games were released
over in the west and that the circle button was left as it is in Japan and left to circle.
And then at number five is that due to manufacturing issues the initial launch allocation for the
PS5 in Japan was barely above that of the PS3, which prevented the system from reaching
early adopters.
the analyst also states that in all probability the PS5 global launch was simply a response
to Microsoft's attempt to go on the offensive this time around with Japan.
The analyst then presents a bunch of data and shows post-launch sales data for 25 years
worth of consoles over in Japan.
The chart shows the PS5 well underperforming and he states that the sales are far too low.
And that based on this graph can one really sense that Sony has plans for success in the
Japanese market, which in the analyst opinion he cannot see.
The analyst then says that, with Japan only having 10 percent of the market share, it's
conceivable to see that some may stop caring about it.
But he then questions whether Japan is actually a market where game consoles don't sell.
He then presents a chart showing yearly Japanese hardware sales and as you can see the Nintendo
Switch on the other hand has maintained very strong sales over in the Japanese market.
And from this he says, does this look like Japan is a market where games don't sell?
Of course, actually, Japan is a market where you can be rewarded with 20 million sales
for your efforts and he feels that ignoring this market is a very problematic business
approach.
He then once again reiterates that despite Sony maintaining that they deeply care about
the Japanese market, considering all of these points, this is extremely hard to see.
And thus due to this the future of the PlayStation 5 over in Japan is quite concerning.
In regards to all of this of course only time will tell for sure.
If you want to go check out these articles more for yourself then there'll be links in
the description below.
And to finish - how do you feel about Sony and Japan?
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and, until next time, thank
you for watching.