padib said:
Do you realize that Nintendo is headquartered in Japan and both Sony and Nintendo are japanese companies. Japan is not just some small country, it's where modern console gaming as we know it today is born. Even if many games do not compete on the respective platforms worldwide, the coexistence of these two manufacturers in an equal space means that many important factors are competing towards the success or lack thereof for each console one against the other. As a small example, the Square Enix purchase by Sony that has been rumoured will be a difficult sell because many SE franchises are cash cows on the switch that are paying for funding of bug IPs for SE such as Kingdom hearts and FF, which are very expensive to make. While these are playing a major role in giving an edge to Sony, Nintendo's dominance in japan will make the buyout more complicated than it would have been had Nintendo lost to Sony in Japan. An example among many others. A small other example: not everyone in the US has the money to buy multiple consoles so often people will chose between Switch and Playstation. This purchasing decision is mutually exclusive. Among many other obvious ideas that the consoles compete directly for consumer trust and purchase. |
Japan may be historically important for gaming, and for Nintendo, but it's really not that important to Playstation any more, as any sales PS5 loses to Switch compared to PS4 won't be enough to matter much on a worldwide scale.
