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Famitsu Sales: 11/29/21 – 12/5/21

I don't need to believe, I just have to look at the numbers.

Nintendo kicked Sony out of Japan, Switch won for 37(Cant quite remember the number) consecutive months in the US, if NPD is to be believed. It might change now with the PS5 but the Switch is entering its twillight, and the PS5 is still just a baby, so thats to be expected.

You want to believe that what Nintendo manufacture is not a videogame console but rather a toy, so that ypu can say that Big Boys dont play with kids and you feel better with yourself with Sony's abysmal performance in Japan, but Nintendo is the oldest player in this game, and will remain to be. Switch is kicking the PS5 butt(in Japan), and there is nothing Sony will do about it. If this is not Nintendo smacking the competition, I dont know what else it would be.
The fact that a single Switch game (Pokemon remake 2021) will likely outsell all the PS4 and PS5 software combined this year is everything you need to know about the state of Playstation in Japan. It is what it is.
 

kingfey

Banned
I doubt that they are going to do that, given both MS and Sony performance there.

But more than that, MS basically gave up the console wars, and its going all in in the "service wars", seeing their strategy with the Gamepass.

Honestly, as far as hardware is concerned, neither Sony nor Nintendo should worry about MS that much.
They should. We saw what is going now. What do you think they will do in the future when we have shortage again?

MS is covering all bases. Nintendo and Sony arent.
 
You are most likely right, and the numbers do back that up.But its not like Sony is trying very hard, is it?Ghost of Tsushima is their biggest hit in a long time, and while the theme is very niponic, its still a very western game at heart.But Ghost of Tsushima was a step in the right direction.So why not keep pushing some of their resources in that direction?Why not make a JRPG too?Keep funding games like Bloosborne that appeals to japanese and westerns alike?Make a high effort in a game that has a primary audience as Japan, but not be a weird experimental game like Concrete Genie?

I mean, at least for now, they are doing better than ever, and seems to be mostly fine for now. But why lose Japan?Or at least not try to maintain a foothold there? Half of the biggest games comes from there and, even if they have worldwide appeal, its not like Capcom or Square is happy not selling in Japan.They are already bleeding several small devs to Nintendo.

And if they tame too long to react, either by making new games or acquiring studios, the install base will be too small for japanese devs to really bother, and it will be even harder to convince people to buy a PS6 for example.
In theory what you say here is nice...but why would Sony invest in a big AAA game (which is what they do mostly) that caters mostly to a single market? Why approving a game that costs at least 50M (and i'm being nice here) to sell half a million in Japan that may not have a huge audience anywhere else?
The quirky and adventurous Sony from 20 years ago is gone...and that's due to how the market has changed in part. Remember smaller titles like Gravity Rush? No one even talks about that anymore... Sony have been trying to have a successful IP for Japan, made in Japan for how long? How many flops in a row can a studio like Sony Japan have? And they had a lot of those...

That's why Sony spends money on having timed exclusives like Final Fantasy or Persona.
It's a lot less risky for them to make these deals than to create a Japanese studio and bleed money for like 4 or 5 years in a row until they have a game ready that may or not sell well there.

That's why i'm expecting a big acquisition in Japan, honestly. Specially in a time they have so much anime franchises with them and they are going for a big synergy between all their businesses. Not trying to bank on that would be a waste and i think they know they are sitting on a gold mine. A franchise like Demon Slayer deserves much better than what it got. I'm sure they also know this.
 
Do people actually care about Sony’s performance in Japan? I just don’t understand the outrage. If you’re an Nintendo fan you should be thrilled about how much better Nintendo is doing compared to the other’s.
 

TheTony316

Member
Do people actually care about Sony’s performance in Japan? I just don’t understand the outrage. If you’re an Nintendo fan you should be thrilled about how much better Nintendo is doing compared to the other’s.

I think it's a combination of people being "concerned" about future japanese software output on Playstation and a little bit of fanboyism from both sides. :pie_fwt:
 
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Nautilus

Banned
They should. We saw what is going now. What do you think they will do in the future when we have shortage again?

MS is covering all bases. Nintendo and Sony arent.
MS is trying new business ventures rather than covering their all of their bases from their hardware business.

Not that its wrong or anything like, its just different of what Nintendo and Sony are trying.
 

Impotaku

Member
How to kill a brand.
Terrific job, Jimbo.
f6c.jpg
 

Nautilus

Banned
In theory what you say here is nice...but why would Sony invest in a big AAA game (which is what they do mostly) that caters mostly to a single market? Why approving a game that costs at least 50M (and i'm being nice here) to sell half a million in Japan that may not have a huge audience anywhere else?
The quirky and adventurous Sony from 20 years ago is gone...and that's due to how the market has changed in part. Remember smaller titles like Gravity Rush? No one even talks about that anymore... Sony have been trying to have a successful IP for Japan, made in Japan for how long? How many flops in a row can a studio like Sony Japan have? And they had a lot of those...

That's why Sony spends money on having timed exclusives like Final Fantasy or Persona.
It's a lot less risky for them to make these deals than to create a Japanese studio and bleed money for like 4 or 5 years in a row until they have a game ready that may or not sell well there.

That's why i'm expecting a big acquisition in Japan, honestly. Specially in a time they have so much anime franchises with them and they are going for a big synergy between all their businesses. Not trying to bank on that would be a waste and i think they know they are sitting on a gold mine. A franchise like Demon Slayer deserves much better than what it got. I'm sure they also know this.
To not be left in a tough situation.The problem of losing Japan is more than simply not selling games there. Alot, if not half, of the biggest games of the industry comes from there. So if you are Sony and you are trying to convince a dev to develop a game for your system, it would be a harder sell because making a PS5 game instead of just aiming for Switch( developing for just one system is cheaper and easier than two) would mean potentially losing anywhere from 20% to 50% of your audience, because the presence of said game would be nonexistant if the PS5 keeps selling like this. Hell, Square is already doing this.Even if much later, they ported Octopath to Xbox(or just gamepass?) rather than PS4 or 5.And thats especially true for smaller devs.
But its more than that. Having lost Japamn, Sony probably will need to pay more for timed exclusives like FF or MH because companies like Square and Capcom will want their potential loses on Japan to be recouped, since those loses would steem directly from being tied to a console with zero presence in Japan.

And just because you are making a game that has more of a japanese focus, doesnt mean that it wont do well elsewhere.MH was a franchise that did well mostly on Japan, and look at it now. The same goes for Xenoblade Tales Of, Persona, (probably) SMT, etc. The problem with Japan Studio is that their output were not that great, and the ones that were did find some success, like Astrobot. So "all" Sony has to do is build a good team that makes stuff of good quality, and its not just outright weird or too experimental.

An acquisition would indeed be a way to go about doing this, though I would personally hope it doesnt happen, as I personally dont like it.
 

kingfey

Banned
To not be left in a tough situation.The problem of losing Japan is more than simply not selling games there. Alot, if not half, of the biggest games of the industry comes from there. So if you are Sony and you are trying to convince a dev to develop a game for your system, it would be a harder sell because making a PS5 game instead of just aiming for Switch( developing for just one system is cheaper and easier than two) would mean potentially losing anywhere from 20% to 50% of your audience, because the presence of said game would be nonexistant if the PS5 keeps selling like this. Hell, Square is already doing this.Even if much later, they ported Octopath to Xbox(or just gamepass?) rather than PS4 or 5.And thats especially true for smaller devs.
But its more than that. Having lost Japamn, Sony probably will need to pay more for timed exclusives like FF or MH because companies like Square and Capcom will want their potential loses on Japan to be recouped, since those loses would steem directly from being tied to a console with zero presence in Japan.

And just because you are making a game that has more of a japanese focus, doesnt mean that it wont do well elsewhere.MH was a franchise that did well mostly on Japan, and look at it now. The same goes for Xenoblade Tales Of, Persona, (probably) SMT, etc. The problem with Japan Studio is that their output were not that great, and the ones that were did find some success, like Astrobot. So "all" Sony has to do is build a good team that makes stuff of good quality, and its not just outright weird or too experimental.

An acquisition would indeed be a way to go about doing this, though I would personally hope it doesnt happen, as I personally dont like it.
Sony main enemy is the age. Older generation are busy with work. Newer generation are growing up with Switch.

Even if they buy studios, they need to attract those generation. And with games like minecraft, it will be even more hard to get them.

Rpg games are selling less now, due to mechanic's being outdated, and dozen of clones of the same game, just different story and skins.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
The gap between Switch and PS5+PS4+Xbox is unreal
Why is it this bad in Japan for Xbox and Sony? Xbox Series X and PS5 barely sold 100 or so copies across the entire nation of Japan? That almost seems fake unless they’re boycotting the two
 
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Nautilus

Banned
Sony main enemy is the age. Older generation are busy with work. Newer generation are growing up with Switch.

Even if they buy studios, they need to attract those generation. And with games like minecraft, it will be even more hard to get them.

Rpg games are selling less now, due to mechanic's being outdated, and dozen of clones of the same game, just different story and skins.
What are you saying? RPGs are doing better than ever. XC2, Persona 5, (probably) SMT V, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Octopath Traveler, BD 2, KH 3, recent FF, Tales Of Arise, etc: All of them are some of the best selling entries on the framchise, and some of them are THE best selling ones.

Sony just need a few good teams and commitment.They might not take Japan back, but they will restablish a foothold there.
 
How to kill a brand.
Terrific job, Jimbo.

This Jimbo dude is no good,

you just don't give up on Japanese market, the birth place of gaming, even Microsoft knows it. Xbox struggles dearly in Japan, and yet they didn't and never given up on it after 20 years......here comes Jimbo, he was inherited an iconic brand, Playstation and PS4 market size, and this is what he turned PS brand into
 
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Why is it this bad in Japan for Xbox and Sony? Xbox Series X and PS5 barely sold 100 or so copies across the entire nation of Japan? That almost seems fake unless they’re boycotting the two

I think it's combination of different factors, Switch is blooming and Japan is fully embracing it, Xbox and PS5 shortage and MS and Sony strategy to prioritize other markets, lack of games in Xbox and PS5, etc, etc,
 

TLZ

Banned
Did Jim give up on Japan like this? That's so foolish.

Yes ok they're limited because of shortage and sending stock to countries with higher demand, but C'mon. Not to this extent.
 

kingfey

Banned
What are you saying? RPGs are doing better than ever. XC2, Persona 5, (probably) SMT V, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Octopath Traveler, BD 2, KH 3, recent FF, Tales Of Arise, etc: All of them are some of the best selling entries on the framchise, and some of them are THE best selling ones.

Sony just need a few good teams and commitment.They might not take Japan back, but they will restablish a foothold there.
Not really. We have more gamers than before.

The Persona series as a whole has sold over 15 million units (including digital copies) worldwide since the series debut 25 years ago. The previously reported sales record for the Persona series was 13.1 million units as of March 2020 according to Sega Sammy's integrated report 2020.Jun 30, 2021

Excluding the Persona series, the Megami Tensei series has sold approximately 7.2 million copies by October 2017. By October 2018, the Megami Tensei main series has shifted approximately 12.4 million packaged and digital copies (including DL of free-to-play titles) of games worldwide.

That is both series. We havent seen more improvement from it. We have more gamers than ever, and the series can barely do 2m copies per series.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
I think it's combination of different factors, Switch is blooming and Japan is fully embracing it, Xbox and PS5 shortage and MS and Sony strategy to prioritize other markets, lack of games in Xbox and PS5, etc, etc,
Idk, it seems very strange to me. Those probably all play their part in the lack of sales but this is just odd how a country with 126 million people have only purchased 100 Xbox and PS5 consoles in the span of a week. Especially since they all love gaming over there, it’s like 99.9% of the people there in Japan are recalcitrant to anything Xbox/Playstation. i wonder what happened every time one of these threads is posted
 

kingfey

Banned
Idk, it seems very strange to me. Those probably all play their part in the lack of sales but this is just odd how a country with 126 million people have only purchased 100 Xbox and PS5 consoles in the span of a week. Especially since they all love gaming over there, it’s like 99.9% of the people there in Japan are recalcitrant to anything Xbox/Playstation. i wonder what happened every time one of these threads is posted
Black friday. So expect the stock on other countries to be low. We will see more stocks in these 3 weeks.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Not really. We have more gamers than before.

The Persona series as a whole has sold over 15 million units (including digital copies) worldwide since the series debut 25 years ago. The previously reported sales record for the Persona series was 13.1 million units as of March 2020 according to Sega Sammy's integrated report 2020.Jun 30, 2021

Excluding the Persona series, the Megami Tensei series has sold approximately 7.2 million copies by October 2017. By October 2018, the Megami Tensei main series has shifted approximately 12.4 million packaged and digital copies (including DL of free-to-play titles) of games worldwide.

That is both series. We havent seen more improvement from it. We have more gamers than ever, and the series can barely do 2m copies per series.
What are you saying?Persona 5 did somewhere between 4 to 5 million units just that one game. SMT 4 was the best selling entry and while we haven't heard anything yet, its almost garanteed that SMT V will smash past it.

XC 2 is around 2,5 million units, a far cry compared to XC and XCX, which apparently didnt break 1 million. Tales of Arise did 1,5 million in just over a month, being the fastest selling entry by far.

FF XV is the third best sellin entry, and Pokemon Sword and Shield is the second or third best selling Pokdmon Game.

So no, RPGs and JRPGs are doing better than ever.
 

Celine

Member
Were the Sony portables popular in Japan? Because if so, they're sure missing a trick here.
The last PlayStation handheld was the worst selling PlayStation console ever in Japan.
The total software sales were also by far the lowest.

Total packaged software sales in Japan for PlayStation consoles:

PS1: 164.9M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PS2: 182.2M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PSP: 77.7M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PS3: 74.26M (sell-through by Media Create)
PSV: 23.93M (sell-through by Media Create)
PS4: 54.07M (sell-through by Media Create, as end 2020. Still somewhat active.)


Total hardware sales in Japan for PlayStation consoles:

PS1: 18.85M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PS2: 21.99M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PSP: 19.69M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PS3: 10.47M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PSV: 5.86M (sell-through by Famitsu)
PS4: 9.39M (sell-through by Famitsu, as beginning of December 2021. Still somewhat active.)
 
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kingfey

Banned
What are you saying?Persona 5 did somewhere between 4 to 5 million units just that one game. SMT 4 was the best selling entry and while we haven't heard anything yet, its almost garanteed that SMT V will smash past it.

XC 2 is around 2,5 million units, a far cry compared to XC and XCX, which apparently didnt break 1 million. Tales of Arise did 1,5 million in just over a month, being the fastest selling entry by far.

FF XV is the third best sellin entry, and Pokemon Sword and Shield is the second or third best selling Pokdmon Game.

So no, RPGs and JRPGs are doing better than ever.
The report states that Persona 5 Royal has now shipped over 1.8 million copies, while Persona 5 Strikers sits at 1.3 million copies. Together with the original Persona 5 — which had sold more than 3.2 million units last we heard — the Phantom Thieves have clearly stolen a lot of hearts.Jun 30, 2021

(Cant read the website, since its blocked in my job)

Unless you mean this.
Including Royal, it has sold over 4.6 million copies, making it the best-selling entry in the overall Megami Tensei franchise.
 

Woopah

Member
Were the Sony portables popular in Japan? Because if so, they're sure missing a trick here.
PSP was Nintendo's best competition, like ever.
PSP sold 19.69 million and PS2 sold 21.98 million. Sony's main problem isn't form factor, it's that it hasn't had any breakout software with wide appeal in recent times
I can see a future where Japan devs will only make games for Nintendo and PC. I can live with that personally because I have an okay laptop.
There's very little reason for developers to put things on PC but not PS. Developers focused on Japan will make Switch exclusives, everyone else will mostly be multiplatform.
 

Nautilus

Banned
The report states that Persona 5 Royal has now shipped over 1.8 million copies, while Persona 5 Strikers sits at 1.3 million copies. Together with the original Persona 5 — which had sold more than 3.2 million units last we heard — the Phantom Thieves have clearly stolen a lot of hearts.Jun 30, 2021

(Cant read the website, since its blocked in my job)

Unless you mean this.
Including Royal, it has sold over 4.6 million copies, making it the best-selling entry in the overall Megami Tensei franchise.
Yes, that proves my point regarding Persona at least. It did 4,6 million, while all other Persona games usually did 500k to 700 k.
 

kingfey

Banned
There's very little reason for developers to put things on PC but not PS. Developers focused on Japan will make Switch exclusives, everyone else will mostly be multiplatform.
Main advantage of the pc, is just digital edition. No physical copies for them. Which makes their job easy.
 

kingfey

Banned
Yes, that proves my point regarding Persona at least. It did 4,6 million, while all other Persona games usually did 500k to 700 k.
The article states the need for the overseas sales, compared to home sales. They are basically saying, people arent buying our games here. We need outside sales.
 

Woopah

Member
Main advantage of the pc, is just digital edition. No physical copies for them. Which makes their job easy.
They could do physical on Switch and digital only for PC and PS4. That's exactly what Capcom did for the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.
 
Looks like Sony and MS are prioritizing the US and EU for Christmas. My guess is they'll try to get more stock to Japan in time for New Years.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
Mario Party Superstars sold 40,668 copies in Japan that week. It might sell more the next couple weeks is my guess

Pokémon dominating the game
 

Deerock71

Member
PSP sold 19.69 million and PS2 sold 21.98 million. Sony's main problem isn't form factor, it's that it hasn't had any breakout software with wide appeal in recent times

There's very little reason for developers to put things on PC but not PS. Developers focused on Japan will make Switch exclusives, everyone else will mostly be multiplatform.
He was asking if Sony portables were popular. That's what I was talking about.
 

Nautilus

Banned
The article states the need for the overseas sales, compared to home sales. They are basically saying, people arent buying our games here. We need outside sales.
They needed overseas sales to reach that high, not that japanese sales are irrelevant.

You know, like any franchise. The kind of logic that selling Everywhere, including inside your homeland could be beneficial
 

kingfey

Banned
They needed overseas sales to reach that high, not that japanese sales are irrelevant.

You know, like any franchise. The kind of logic that selling Everywhere, including inside your homeland could be beneficial
guess there is still some interest then.
 
The psp sold similar to the ps1 and ps2. The ps vita sold like half of the ps3 and ps4.

Maybe now people will stop acting like sony is doomed. The reality is market's where xbox competes > where xbox doesn't like Japan. Sony aren't competing with the switch.

Ireland got an insane amount of supply this last month. Never seen anything like it. There's still huge demand though. Japan's stock basically got sent to markets where xbox is competing.
Germany and Spain is also completely dead on the supply side.
Sony has supply issues all over the place. It's not like US and UK supply is above PS4 supply at the same time in their generation.
It's just other regions being way below.

Sony will miss their PS5 forecast so hard unless the can ship 5m units in Q1 2022 which is quite impossible, too
 
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Sony's whole strategy towards Japan since Jim took over has been down right terrible.
No one can deny that. There was zero need to change the button solution, making Japanese devs jump through western hoops to sell their games is nonsense and not supplying consoles to Japan when games like FF sell 10% of their physical releases in Japan is insane. Not to mention that Monster hunter sells 30% of its sales in Japan.
Just down right nuts to abandon a market for more FIFA and COD sales.

Just remember Sony denied they had any issues with production before this console launched.
 
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Woopah

Member
Sony's whole strategy towards Japan since Jim took over has been down right terrible.
No one can deny that. There was zero need to change the button solution, making Japanese devs jump through western hoops to sell their games is nonsense and not supplying consoles to Japan when games like FF sell 10% of their physical releases in Japan is insane. Not to mention that Monster hunter sells 30% of its sales in Japan.
Just down right nuts to abandon a market for more FIFA and COD sales.

Just remember Sony denied they had any issues with production before this console launched.
For FFVII remake I think some like 25% - 33% of its sales came from Japan.
 

Kerotan

Member
I don't need to believe, I just have to look at the numbers.

Nintendo kicked Sony out of Japan, Switch won for 37(Cant quite remember the number) consecutive months in the US, if NPD is to be believed. It might change now with the PS5 but the Switch is entering its twillight, and the PS5 is still just a baby, so thats to be expected.

You want to believe that what Nintendo manufacture is not a videogame console but rather a toy, so that ypu can say that Big Boys dont play with kids and you feel better with yourself with Sony's abysmal performance in Japan, but Nintendo is the oldest player in this game, and will remain to be. Switch is kicking the PS5 butt(in Japan), and there is nothing Sony will do about it. If this is not Nintendo smacking the competition, I dont know what else it would be.
Nintendo are staying firmly in their lane. You won't see a powerful traditional home console rivaling the PS5 because they got sick of losing to sony.

Sony are doing their best ever and the only threat to ps5 is supply not competition from a rival console.
 

kingfey

Banned
I've bought 2 ps5 and next summer I'll buy a 3rd. Basically I just buy a new one to replace the old one and get brand new warranty, console, controllers and headset.. I was even able to bundle my 3 year old TV in with it and buy a new one. The demand is insane.
Stop it. I am already dying inside. No more stabbing.
I am looking for 1, and you bought your 3rd.
Sad Rafa Nadal GIF by Tennis TV
 

Nautilus

Banned
Nintendo are staying firmly in their lane. You won't see a powerful traditional home console rivaling the PS5 because they got sick of losing to sony.

Sony are doing their best ever and the only threat to ps5 is supply not competition from a rival console.
And you wont see a versatile and flexible console rivaling the Switch because Sony doesn't have the know-how to do it and knows they cant beat Nintendo when it comes to... anything, really. Not me saying, just having a quick glance at the numbers(Both software, genre of games and hardware) and anyone would reach this decision.

Sony IS doing their best ever, and even then Nintendo is handlingly beating him in most territories, starting in Japan, which they admitelly just did an Xbox week in terms of numbers.Because lets face it, Sony sold only 1800 units during the holidays not because they couldnt ship another 8200 units, but rather because they couldnt bother, given the gigantic hole they are in already in Japan.
 
Sony's whole strategy towards Japan since Jim took over has been down right terrible.
No one can deny that. There was zero need to change the button solution, making Japanese devs jump through western hoops to sell their games is nonsense and not supplying consoles to Japan when games like FF sell 10% of their physical releases in Japan is insane. Not to mention that Monster hunter sells 30% of its sales in Japan.
Just down right nuts to abandon a market for more FIFA and COD sales.

Just remember Sony denied they had any issues with production before this console launched.

Yup, I think it's a foregone conclusion that Sony/Playstation, under the leadership of Jimbo, will not make any extra effort to win Japan back. I think their priority is in this order: North America, UK/Europe, Japan/China, then rest of the world
 
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