Japan sales (Week 50): Media Create/Famitsu/Dengeki - December 11-17

[Alkibiádēs]

Zekkyou said:

OTBWY said:

It's about which sells the most. That's the primary reason for support. When the Switch in Japan has more than double the sales of the PS4 in a few years, you can be 100% sure that the Switch will get more support than the PS4.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, for example the attitude Falcom has displayed is one of loyalty to Sony (which it has a close relationship with since the PS1). The same can be said for certain studios and Nintendo. Some will simply not switch sides out of pure loyalty and not burning bridges in favor of making new ones. 

And lastly, there will surely be exceptions of titles that do break the exclusivity rule, like Valkyria or Inazuma Eleven. Or of course outright buying exclusivity like Sony has done with certain titles or Nintendo has done with Bayonetta.

While that's often true, there's usually a soft limit to how far sales stay relevant in this context (as we've seen with the PS4 and X1). I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch does get more support in some capacity (at minimum more sales do lead to a better position to make deals), but i expect the difference to be considerably smaller than it has been in previous generations. Few Japanese PS4/Vita titles make use of tech high end enough to cause significant porting problems to the Switch, and many 3DS developers are about to be pushed into HD development. Combine that with the the Switch's inevitable domestic strength, and the PS4's existing global (and decent domestic) reach, a developer would need a good reason to not support both by default. I think even the X1 will see an uptick in Japanese support over the next few years.

- Travis Strikes back: No More Heroes

- Bayonetta 1 + 2 Collection

- Bayonetta 3

- Shin Megami Tensei V

- Project Octopath Traveler

These are all exclusive to the Nintendo Switch so far. 

Sony also lost exclusivity with: 

- Dragon Quest XI (home console version)

- Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2

- Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2

- Valkyria Chronicles 4 (never before on a Nintendo console)

Nintendo lost exclusivity with: 

- Monster Hunter World (and that's more due to Capcom's stupidity than anything else)

As the Switch userbase continues to grow, Nintendo will receive more exclusives and games that used to be exclusive to Playstation. This will not end well for the Playstation in Japan. 

So far, Bandai Namco and Capcom are the only two major Japanese companies who seem to still not understand that the Switch is here to stay. Their loss I suppose.