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OTBWY on 10 December 2021
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Zippy6 said:
OTBWY said:

How can anyone look at this and have any confidence in the PS brand in Japan. How are developers going to cope as the PS4 goes away next year and the PS5, which is a dud, is their only option?

This would only be a problem for developers who only sell games in Japan. Didn't we hear about Capcom wanting to push the Monster Hunter Series more in the west when they were developing Monster Hunter World? Result? Their best selling game ever. Aiming for highest global sales is what every hardware and software manufacturer should do.

Regardless I think it's a bit premature to call the PS5 a dud in Japan. It was ahead of PS4 launch aligned until a couple of weeks ago. Clearly stock is being prioritised elsewhere. I'll wait a bit longer before calling it a dud. What will decide if it's a dud is demand, and what is shown here in sales is supply.

Japanese developers have nothing to worry about.

Firstly, Capcom is not the only developer in Japan. This problem will be noticable with studios of all sizes, very much so the smaller studios that aren't Capcom or SE. The second thing is that the Japanese audience for a long time has been a driving force of what type of games Japanese studios should make, which resulted in the unique games from that country. Third, Capcom already has made it known that they see the PC as a more viable platform (for their more bigger budget titles). This only shows that what might come next is that the PS5 is simply a secondary platform to port to rather than the historic default console it has been in Japan. 

On the second part. I think it is pretty fair to call it a dud in Japan now. Why? Because Sony themselves don't care for the country anymore, as there is no stock in Japan during the month that makes them the biggest bucks. It sold barely 2K in December. That says a lot on many levels. Aside from that, PS5 software sales in Japan are near non-existent. 

"Japanese developers have nothing to worry about."

Ofcourse they have something to worry about. The PS brand was huge in Japan and it has sharply declined, which means that developers that usually rely on the PS console as their default console will have to look for alternatives. IMO, there are already clear indicators, namely more games coming to PC and Switch.