Japan is the second best selling country for the ps4

[DialgaMarine]

Normchacho said:

DialgaMarine said:

I see a lot of comments from aggressive Nintendo fans trying to bash the PS4. They seem way too eager to forget that Wii U was a thing, and was actually a direct competitor to the PS4 there, as both are dedicated home consoles and were competing for that demographic. Don’t suddenly pretend that that fight didn’t go well in PS4’s favor. Let’s be honest; if Switch didn’t have the heavy portability factor, and was a dedicated home console like PS4/ Wii U, it’s sales would be significantly different. You’re trying to compare apples to oranges. 

This is true even if you ignore the PS4 vs. Wii U aspect. Japan just by and large doesn't buy home consoles anymore.

 

Hell, the gaming market in Japan is currently more than 75% handhelds not including the Switch (29 million handhelds, 8.8 million home consoles) Look at that compared to the other countries the OP was talking about.

Japan:  76.7% handheld. 23.3% home console.

Germany: 38.6% handheld. 61.4% home console.

UK: 33.7% handheld. 66.3% home console.

France: 50% handheld. 50% home console.

US: 33.4% handheld. 66.6% home console.

 

Nobody else is even close in their preference for handhelds. in most other major markets handhelds account for about 1/3rd of the dedicated gaming market, not more than 3/4 of it. There are several reasons why Nintendo decided to make the Switch portable. One of them is absolutely the shift in the Japanese market.

If Sony is leaving the handheld market, why on earth would Japan still be as important to them? (that's a more general question, it's not directed specifically at you)

Very true, though I would say this thread does prove that there is at least somewhat of a market for home consoles there. Home consoles are at an obvious sales disadvantage, but PS4 can easily sell 10 million + consoles there, which is still no number to scoff at, especially after looking at the home console competition there. I think Sony is handling the market very intelligently by removing their main first party focus from there, but still putting money into third party content so that there is little loss, but still a good amount of gain.