Japan is the second best selling country for the ps4

[Mnementh]

Kyuu said:

Meh, Sony just doesn't care much about Japan anymore, which may hurt them in the long run. They left it on their brand power and Nintendo's blunders to do a lot of the work for them..

Those "niche" Japanese games that some love to disregard and trivialize when it's convenient, play their part in making Playstation such a reputable brand, even when they don't seem to sell all that well on paper. When the average gamer frequently hears that "PS4 has more and better games!!! IT'S THE BEST PLACE TO PLAY!!" they'll subconsciously want to get the system, without necessarily realizing or caring that their purchase wasn't really too different from Xbox, seeing as north 95% of the games they'll buy are also available on Xbox. So those excellent games that are setting PS apart from Xbox, end up boosting hardware sales via pure reputation, without them necessarily selling gangbusters (they mostly serve to add to that narrative that it has MORE and BETTER games!) A consumer wants the console with the more options and potential regardless of whether or not these options are right up their alley. This little extra something makes a difference.

With Switch being a huge success, it may not only double or triple PS4's install base in Japan, but potentially, a large group of the third party Japanese crowd who are typically associated with Playstation, might migrate to Switch as more multiplats are made for the system, resulting its becoming the lead platform for many Japanese third parties. And that could play such a big role in building Switch's and Nintendo's reputation not only in Japan, but worldwide, while Playstation gradually loses some of what made it an exceptional platform.

One thing that went wrong with Sony is that -unlike Nintendo- apart from Gran Turismo (and Crash?), they never developed or published a series that did exceptionally well in both Japan and the west. If IPs like PaRappa The Rapper, Arc The Lad, Everybody's Golf were as successful in the west -during the PS1 generation- as they were in Japan, Sony may have ended up being a lot more Japanese than it is right now!

Sony's lack of Japanese-ness is the long term result of their Japanese titles consistently failing to please or reach players outside of Japan.. they couldn't expand their Japanese studios or the budget of their Japanese IPs because of that frequent failure.

"Not caring for Japan" is a lot more critical to Playstation's growth and brand power than people think.

Exactly. I think Sony is aware of that, that's why they secured Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter. Also smaller titles like Code Vein could be have Sony behind to push more games that let them stay relevant in Japan.