Famitsu sales: Week 33, 2021 - (9th August - 15th August)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

IcaroRibeiro said:

curl-6 said:

There's still time for them to wise up; we've already seen some companies pivot in their support of Switch, and others should follow as it becomes more and more impossible to ignore which way the wind is blowing in Japan.

I get some of their concern however. Switch is far underpowered when compared to other platforms, many of them want their games to be competitive with western games to sell well on PCs and whatnot. 

In big scope, Switch domination in Japan will further deep the already immense distance between big Japanese studios and mid sized Japanese studios. Only the big ones will remain competitive in western space, which was something that always happened but was changing last generation with more and more Japanese games getting traction outside Japan. 

Perhaps Monster Hunter Rise PC port sales will be my ultimate measurement to know if there is any hope for Japanese developers to make any breaktrough while still prioritizing Switch. If it sells fine, then I can see Switch-designed japanese games can still having market in West, if not then I must JP market and Western markets will evolve to be completely different from now on, except by Nintendo first and second party games 

I'm pretty sure the opposite will be true.  The small and mid-sided games have trouble getting discovered, because they don't have the budgets of the big games.  Therefore they get overshadowed on Playstation where budget size matters a whole lot.  On the Switch the small to mid budget games don't compete directly with the big budget third party games.  RPGs on the Switch don't compete with the latest Final Fantasy and horror games don't compete with the latest Resident Evil.  This means that if a "smaller" budget game has exceptional gameplay then it will have an easier time getting discovered on the Switch.

No one knew who From Software was until Sony gave them a chance with Demon's Souls.  The next type of From Software-like phenomenon will be on the Switch though.  Sony isn't looking for this kind of studio from Japan anymore.  A small to mid-sized Japanese studio that gets surprise success will be on the Switch.

Switch's dominance in Japan actually gives the smaller studios a chance to shine and get discovered.