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theprof00 on 26 December 2013
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Viktor said:
Michael-5 said:
Viktor said:

Was it really that great of an idea to give WiiU all this freedom this year in Japan?

Had Sony not focused on USA & Europe, XBO might have sold better in USA. USA is twice the size of Japan, and a much more competetive market, I think it's a priority for Sony to top MS in Microsoft's main territories. Since PS4 is selling better then XBO in USA/UK/Europe, I think Sony made the right move.

If Sony released the PS4 in Japan this fall, it could have done more harm then help. Without any major Japanese oriented exclusives, the PS4 would come out with a bad image.

Plus, no matter how well WiiU does, PS4 has a different audience in Japan, and this is deomonstrated by strong PS3 sales (which aren't much lower then Wii's).

First of-all how does this help building a PS4 userbase in Japan in a significant manner (the question in the opening post)? While some publishers actually try to differentiate the demopgraphics, it´s quite obvious why Sony went from a userbase of 22m PS2 to 9-10m with PS3. Of course some are in denial and love to ignore the competition. But looking at the availbale data we get a less subjective picture of what actually happened.

PS2 22m + GC 4.5m ->26.5m

PS3 9.5m + Wii 12.5m -> 22m

Sony down 12m while Nintendo UP 8m

 

The difference of 4m between the two compared generations can be attributed to the rising popularity of handhelds last gen. Seeing this data it´s quite obvious that Sony actually lost mind and marketshare to Nintendo last generation.

 

It also seems you really haven´t kept up with the thread. If you didn´t know, PS4 launched not only in Europe and US this year but also in far less important markets than Japan. Instead of releasing the PS4 in the already mentioned (read opening post) less important markets. They could have simply shipped those units to Japan instead if they hadn´t had other plans in Japan (PSV2000+PSTV). US and Europe wouldn´t have been affected this way.

Look Japan is going to need many hundred thousand consoles for launch..somewhere in the area of 300-500k. They simply don't have this much available. Looking at the data, it's roughly 1/6th of all consoles shipped so far. You can't seriously say that they have 300-500k in countries like brazil. It's more likely those countries got maybe 30k a piece.

Look, publicity wise, it's more important to beat xbox right now than attempt to challenge nintendo. Do you realize even, that with supply constraints, it is possible that even the WiiU could outsell ps4? And wiiU isn't even tracking up with the gamecube. Surely, that would be a huge mistake. No, no, no. You go into USA, outsell the king, go into Europe, dominate everything, then wait for march, then dominate Japan.

I know you want to think about only Japan, but the fact of the matter is, they cannot afford to fight for Japan right now. They have limited resources, and their biggest competitor right now is xbox, not nintendo. Letting xbox get a bigger install base early is a big mistake, letting wiiU sell some consoles in one country is not. It's also illogical to think that current wiiU sales would have been ps4 sales. People in Japan know when ps4 is coming out, it's not like gamers are going to give up waiting and just buy a wiiU instead.

As far as those numbers are concerned, WiiU isn't even tracking to meet those gamecube numbers, so....

WiiU: 3m + ps4: 16m  -> 19m

Yeah I could see that happening.