Japan sales (Week 15): Media Create/Famitsu/Dengeki - April 9 - 15, 2018

[Bofferbrauer2]

Faelco said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Switch sales are still pretty good considering the lack of big releases apart from Kirby this year yet.

PS4, on the other hand... I can't believe that Sonys stocks are so low that they can't deliver more. Considering the problems between Sony and Amazon in the west, I suspect something else is the reason.

Now this is just speculation or a theory (a game theory!), but possibly Sony tried to cut down on the retailer cut of the sales and they are not allowed to make this public. So they protest by ordering as little as possible from Sony, so that Sony can't do anything against the retailers but on the other hand it results in heavy supply problems for the console and some of their games. In the West, only Amazon seems to play along, but in Japan, all retailers doing so ensures horrible availability on Sony hardware and first party software.

Of course, the reason could be something totally different, but it really starts getting suspicious that something must be afoot with those low supplies.

A business disagreement is more likely than retailers saying "PS4 is not selling enough, let's stop ordering it, but let's keep ordering accessories like the PSVR, and the Vita even if it sells at least twice less". Could also be an issue in the local factories, like they had a couple of years ago because of an earthquake, or some parts procurement issue.

But would't those affect worldwide sales instead of just Japan? And how about the first party software (though that could be Amazon only, but still)?