You don’t know that, it might still be in secret. Stay positive!

I guess I misused PR in this regard, but what I mean is talk when it isn't followed. Words that hold no weight in regards to how they operate in business. I'm well aware of the meaning of Blue Ocean

And yes I don't care what they claim what they do because actions speak louder than words. I'm not someone that's swayed by words and takes words at face value. I don't care what Sony says or Nintendo says because treating eachother like they don't exist and aren't in competition, they're in denial. I told you where I stand and that should be simple enough to understand. The stuff you bring up isn't relevant to my overall argument that both are competitive, for anyone to say otherwise...yeah. 

As I thought more on the topic I became less vague and focused more on what I actually think, that happens sometimes in discussions... So yes I don't care what either says as Nintendo and Sony about how they are or aren't competitors as both have waffled on the situation. And what topic revolves around what Sony says? This thread isn't about the comments sony recently made... to be honest I'm probably getting off topic.

What a distasteful comment.

Too western? Like asking if JRPGs have become too eastern.

I guess based on the recent 1st party output that Sony has released (i.e., The Last of Us, Uncharted, Detroit: Become Human, God of War, etc.), Sony has become more "Western." I don't think it particularly matters, its just something that Sony ended up leaning towards when it came to software development.

There are various successes in recent years from both a Western and Japanese perspective. While games like Resident Evil 7 (and 2 Remake) and Monster Hunter World showed that Japanese developers can use Western influences to create critically and commercially great games, games like Atlus' Persona 5, Square Enix's Dragon Quest XI, and Platinum Games' Nier Automata show that Japanese-rooted games can also be successful critically and commercially. Hell, Nintendo is home to some of the most recognized IPs in the world and they are mostly Japanese-rooted (outside of a certain few like Metroid).

I do not think people i  the US are biad towars buying XBox.  Maybe with the 360, sure that much is a given.  But until the Switch came out, the PS4 was selling most in the US most of the time.

In Europe on the other hand, it would appear that Playstation is WAAAAAY ahead of the XBox brand.  With that in mind, EU seems to be heavily bias toward Playstation.  X1 lost a lot of traction in EU, but they really did not even have much more last gen than they do now as the EU and Japanese market is the sole reason the PS3 made a comeback to pass 360 in lifetime sales by the end of the generation.  Nintendo has a healthy presence in EU, much better than MS, with the Switch but even then they are the underdog in that market.

I love how forum-goers are more keen on management than the managers and all analysts.

 Westerners in high consumption and highly industrialized nations buy more games, so Sony wants to make money.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with it. The Japanese centric games and Eastern developed games are still there.

Yakuza series
Fist of the north star
Judgement eyes
Steinsgate
FF
SotC remake
Tekken
Street Fighter
SNK
King of Fighters
Blaze Blue
Tons of anime games
Dragon quest games
Musou games
Last Guardian
Atelier games
Gal Gun games
Rez Infinite
MHW
Akibas beat games
Earth defense force
Onichibara games

There is plenty out there, its just that most of the Japanese games are considered niche and don't have the big marketing budgets.

Look how long it has taken for the west to acknowledge the Yakuza games and although Resident Evil 7 was by far the best RE game since 4, but it didn't perform as well as RE5 which was more western.

We've even had Tetris remade, Monster Boy, streets of Rage coming soon, Nier Automata was one of the best games this gen and then we also had Bloodborne and Nioh.

I think considering how big the sales are outside of Japan compared to in Japan, I think the PS4 is doing pretty well in providing games made in Japan, Japan centric games and niche games.

Sony has always followed the same strategy for video games since (more or less) the beginning.  If you understand this strategy, then you can see it is inevitable that Sony would have to focus on Western games/gamers.  Their strategy is basically this:

Hardware - Provide an excellent value.  This means to sell at a loss at launch.

Software - Let major third party studios do the heavy lifting and make first party games to fill in the gaps for their target customer base.

Controller - Stick with the same basic design, but put in new features that Nintendo develops "just in case".  (I.e. analogue stick, rumble, wireless, etc...)

This strategy basically means that Sony needs games that show off their powerful new hardware and how good a value it is.  Most of these games are now Western games.  Western studios focus far more on graphics than Japanese studios do.  So then you get a situation where the games are oriented more toward Western gamers.  On top of all of this Japanese studios are becoming more and more focused on handheld games, and Sony has figured out that it just can't win the handheld battle.  (Again this is because their main advantage is showing off the value/power of their new hardware, which doesn't matter too much in handheld gaming.)


Is this a good idea?  In the short term, "yes".  It has made them a lot of money in the PS4 era.  It is also the path of least resistance, since fighting Nintendo in Japan would be an uphill battle.  And yet, Japanese games are the key to the long term victory.  Western third parties sell their games on a lot of platforms now: Sony, Microsoft, Steam, Epic Games, Stadia, etc....  Too many companies are competing for the top pieces of the pie.  

Meanwhile Nintendo is going to end up with most of the Japanese games over the next few years.  Lots of these Japanese companies were going to make handheld games anyway before they even knew about Switch.  On top of that most of the home Japanese games require less horsepower and are a better fit on the Switch anyway.  Expect PS5 to be mostly shut out of Japan.  The Switch is easily the platform of Japan's choice.  But the thing is that lots of Western gamers like Japanese games too.

When there is that much uncontested strength on one platform (Switch), then what ends up happening is that Western games come to Switch too.  That is why Sony made a mistake.  They gave up a smaller market (Japan), but this smaller market is far too influential.  The Japanese market is small compared to NA or Europe, but it disproportionately makes a lot of games.  That is why it is dangerous for Sony to just give up on Japan.  They let Nintendo get all of those third party games, and then they get schooled.  

Expect the PS5 to struggle for the first few years like the PS3 did.  Just watch, it will happen.  The Switch will be too good of a value when PS5 launches (low price + huge library).  PS5 won't sell until customers get tired of the Switch.