Japan - Was it really that great of an idea to delay PS4s to 2014?

[pokoko]

Viktor said:

Ignoring WiiU. It still is a stupid idea to miss the holiday season in Japan just to push PSV with PSTV (another big mistake similar to PSPgo) and to cash-in on Gran Torismo 6 and PS3 and missing out the holiday season (PS4). Now we have the data and know that it didn´t work out, especially Gran Tourismo 6 is a big disappointment beeing easily outsold by 3D World.

These are basically the reasons for the delay, because let´s be honest for a second, they could have as easily favoured Japan instead of East-Asia, Brazil and even Saudi-Arabia. They simply were to shortsighted if they really planned this according to post WiiU bundle announcement sales, when its sales had a noticeable decline due to this very announcement.

They simply believed that Gran Tourismo 6 would have been enough to have a decent holiday season in Japan.

I'm really having a hard time understanding your point.

The PS4 is close to being sold out around the world.  Yes, they could have skimmed units from other countries for a Japanese launch but what would they have gained from that?  Especially with no compelling software for the Japanese market?  Net gain would have been marginal at best.

Therefore, the question becomes, what do they have to lose from not releasing in Japan right now?  Will the delay cost them market-share?  Will it somehow allow the Wii U to explode in a way it did not over the past year?  Probably not, to be honest.  The PS4 will do well when it launches in Japan and it won't be panned for having a weak line-up of Japanese games during the launch window--something which they just recently watched the Wii U get criticized for.

The real-world effect either way isn't that significant.