By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Otter on 12 May 2021
Edit Thread
noshten said:

The digital excuse for Japan, is just that - an excuse.

Returnal was the top selling game in April on the PS5 digitally - at retail the game sold 6.5K, even with the best case scenario of 50% of launch sales being digital we are talking about the top selling game on PS5's storefront selling 6.5K in April... in the UK Returnal had 60% digital share and that market has been far quicker to adopt this method of purchasing games since they don't have a huge second hand market.


It's very likely that Resident Evil: Village on the PS5 will struggle to surpass 50K sales this year physically, third parties that are focused on Japan and Asian markets will look at the situation and be making their plans based on the figures they have access too. In Taiwan & South Korea the situation is very similar - so we are talking about the rapid decline of Sony in the region. 

Last year they had around 25% of the Software Market this year they will struggle to get to 5%. 

You're conflating a lot of data and talking points here

We're talking about why PS5 hardware is disproportionately bigger than software in Japan. Remember its now outselling the PS4 in Japan LTD, so what games are people playing?

60% of Returnal sales being digital is significant and makes a huge impact on charting positions. So in discussing why PS5 games are charting worse compared to PS4 games, there is no way you can refer to digital as an "excuse" unless the digital ratio is low or if you thought PS4 games were also selling at a similar ratio in 2014. Your best case scenario of 50% is not low, and much higher than what we've seen for Switch games for example. MHR which has been heavily supply constraint, thus pushing people digital is only 33% digital in Japan.

However as your source mentions, 60% digital in the UK isn't especially high by UK standards. This result is likely because Returnals cost $90 in the UK and its been a huge point of contention, the only way to get it cheaper is through physical. Its digital price in Japan is more in line with regular software, so your base case scenario may be low balling but it's still huge. We simply need real data from the japanese market.

Also returnals was the not highest selling digital game on PSN globally, I'm not sure where you got that from?

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/05/10/playstation-store-april-2021-top-downloads/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Its No 3 in the US and No 4 in Europe (albeit after 1 day of sales)

If you have a source for it being the highest selling digital game in Japan (or anywhere for that matter) for the month of April, please share.

Last edited by Otter - on 12 May 2021