linkink said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:
Add to that that despite all this, the Wii U was still initially outselling the PS4. And again, the reason wasn't because the PS4 ain't portable, but because Sony had neglected Japan so much that Knack was pretty much the best thing they got for over a year over there. No console sells without games.
Had the Wii U better software support, especially early on, I'm sure it would have outsold the Gamecube WW and the PS4 would have had a much harder time to overtake the Wii U in Japan.
But here's another problem with Japan and videogame sales: Games that cater to Japanese gamers are increasingly niche games and not produced by the big publishers, even Japanese ones. You get less than a handful of AAA games that do well in Japan each year as the whole industry is turning to the western markets, leaving Japan to mobile - and increasingly PC (still niche in Japan, but constantly growing numbers).
Since the games the Japanese people want to play are generally more niche, they get released on handheld devices as the production costs on these devices are much lower than on a home console, meaning the chances of recouping the costs are higher. As a result, handheld gaming exploded in Japan while consoles falter; and handheld already had a big advantage there because of the work and living culture (long transits and work hours, small homes with limited space for consoles).
In other words, Japanese play handheld mostly because they are always mobile and because the big consoles shunned the games they are playing. But if those games would come back to consoles, the consoles also would sell better again, though the still have the cultural disadvantage.
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That just adds to why japan doesn't care about consoles, what's the point of owning a stationary console, if they don't care about graphics, and AAA games, it would make sense to vastly prefer handheld, especially with the cultural thing and life style.
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These games could be made as AAA console games, but that's on the publishers not doing so, with some exceptions like Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter.
Japanese gamers care about the games, but they don't care where the games get released. If it's a handheld device, then so be it, if it's a home console, then gotta buy a home console.
Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 02 June 2019
