Why do people keep saying that the PS4 is doomed in Japan?

[VanceIX]

Smeags said:

Despite calls of the console being doomed in Japan being premature, PlayStation 4 is doing terrible numbers in Japan at the moment:

	3DS	PSV	Wii U	PS4
1	374,164	322,488	306,462	319,689
2	208,479	74,104	130,928	58,820
3	100,739	41,640	121,933	33,443
4	63,358	39,795	74,054	29,734
5	52,841	17,031	69,705	31,516
6	43,208	14,068	20,912	23,813
7	32,933	18,636	16,373	14,394
8	26,866	17,031	12,976	12,691
9	22,223	14,400	12,212	13,582
10	26,953	11,510	11,652	11,393
11	27,711	11,034	10,303	11,556
12	17,404	10,208	9,469	8,681
13	16,903	9,944	9,712	6,792
Total	1,013,403	601,889	806,691	576,104

As poorly as the 3DS, Vita, and Wii U sold in their first 13 weeks, the PS4 is selling even worse. And as everyone has said, it's because the system is hugely lacking in games that appeal to Japanese audiences. But I don't think it's as simple as saying "Just wait until Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV!", as those are two games with no release dates coming from a company infamous for its long development times.

For now, and for the forseeable future, the PS4 is not going to sell well... because the titles releasing this year are not the ones that sell systems. A bunch of Western games and niche Japanese titles are not going to reverse the trend of the PS4 selling poorly in that reigon. Sony was/is so focused on grabbing the Western markets that it's either forgotten or ignored the eastern one. 2014 is going to be rough on the PS4 as far as Japanese sales go, and there's not much being done to turn that around.

You make a good point, but the Vita also had a pretty poor start (not quite as bad, but still relatively terrible), and now it's been picking up steam since developers are jumping on.

Japansese developers tend to stick with older consoles for the first year as a transition period, and then they start developing legitimately for newer consoles. 

Although, like you said, if major games like Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III take too long it will be a lot harder to recover, but if the rumors are true and Final Fantasy XV comes out either this year or next, I think the PS4 could do just as well as the PS3 did.