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JWeinCom on 24 May 2014
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NYCrysis said:
JWeinCom said:
NYCrysis said:
ps4 has very few japanese games atm, why would japanese people buy it if jrpg's are lacking atm??? Wait til ffxv and kh3 to come out and the see the sales reach the himalayas.


People really overestimate how big these franchises are in Japan... The first two KH games sold around a million each in Japan.  FFXIII sold about 2 million.  Definitely healthy sales, but not enough to raise sales to "the himalayas".

well that and monster hunter, ni no kuni, and lots more little and big jrpg's.

Neither of those have been announced yet.  Ni No Kuni isn't a big seller either.  Sold like 200K in Japan.  Again, there is a misconception that JRPGs are huge over there.  They're really not. 

There actually are few console franchises that are big in Japan anymore.  There were all of 2 million sellers for the PS3 in Japan.  The Wii did a bit better with 14ish all but one being published by Nintendo.  That information would seem to bode well for the Wii U ultimately outselling the PS4. 

The rising costs of game development and the small size of the Japanese market compared to US/Europe has made a situation where Japanese style games can't really succeed beyond being niche products.  Nintendo is the exception to the rule as their games still sell in Japan, but even their games are declining with the Wii U.  Sony's big developers (Naughty Dog, Santa Monica) are mostly Western.

The best chance for the PS4 succeeding in Japan is if Western games continue to grow in popularity.  Games like COD and GTA have been selling increasingly well, and if they keep growing the PS4 will be more attractive than the Wii U.