Maybe they sacrificed Japan for bigger Europe and US sales, maybe they didn`t.
i believe their decision was wise: their line-up would be West oriented and it would probably happen to them what happened to Wii U. For a whole year, hoe many japanese oriented games were released for Wii U?
If PS4 had released this year in Japan, not only would they have faced the same issues, they would have to fight PS3 and the incoming  FF games.

Maelstrom is downplaying the PS4 successful launch in his latest blogpost as meaningless. He believe PS4 sales are cannibalizing XO sales hardcore. If buying intent was split 40(XO)-60(PS4) at one point, it is probably now more like 20(XO)-80(PS4) buying intent. 

"While I enjoy the sight of hardcore gamers running around in circles cheering, what the press release is actually saying is “PlayStation 4 has a ton of supply early on.”

A reader might say, “It is record breaking!”

What is actually record breaking is their supply. Selling the first million units is no achievement, I am sorry to say. The reason why is because those will be the easiest to sell. We still don’t know what the actual demand level is. When a console launches, we can’t know what the demand level is at first. We must wait many months to find out.

Wait until February NPD to find out what the North America demand is for the console that launches. I did this for the Wii U and prior consoles. Let’s do the same for Xbox Juan and PS4. February will give a better scene of where the demand level is.

The real question is ‘Is the PS4 cannibalizing Xbox Juan sales?’ I think it is. PS4 will ‘grow’ over PS3 not because it is obtaining people who don’t normally play video games but because it is cannibalizing the Xbox One’s market. Why wouldn’t a Xbox 360 user go PS4? Xbox One has the shitty Windows 8 interface, questionable DRM policies that may come back, comes with Kinect, and doesn’t really offer much in games now.

One thing I have been impressed with Sony is how well they treated their consumers with the PS3. What I mean by this is that they kept supporting the system. Nintendo, on the other hand, pulled the plug on their system. They said, “No more Virtual Console games!” They said, “Fuck you, you Super Metroid lovers. You need to like Metroid: Other M.” “Fuck you, Malstrom. You say Zelda isn’t about puzzles? Well, in  Zelda: Skyward Sword, everything is like a puzzle.” “How dare you buy NSMB Wii! Here is Super Mario Galaxy 2 designed to get you 2d Mario fans to be playing Mario in the proper way: in 3d like Miyamoto desires. Remember, it is what Miyamoto desires and not what you desire that matters.”

I don’t see Sony giving their fans the finger like Nintendo did to their Wii fans or Microsoft did to their fans (with their original Xbox One strategy).

If I wasn’t short on funds and had to buy a console, it would be a PS4. However, the price reduced 2d Mario (and Luigi) bundle of the Wii U looks good. But with no account system (making all the digital games worthless) and hostile developers (the heads of the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid teams despise and hate the fans that originally made Mario, Zelda, and Metroid a success), the Wii U is a no go.

It’s WAY too early to say anything about the PS4 today except that it is ‘well supplied’. Wait until March for the February NPD.

^
I do agree with this.
I think PS4 will suffer the same trend that every console suffered in the past 7 years (except Wii). Great sales on launch due to its fan base, then fading sales in the coming months due to its price.

The one about his PS4 failing?

Should have been more specific Pezus ;)

I like the first two, but that last one just sucks lol.

Sony cannot afford to lose Japan to Nintendo regardless of how strong their base in the EU or NA is. Not a wise idea, at all.

15 Japanese oriented titles by my count courtesy of Wii U games wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_U_games

The software will not be PS4 problems. 3DS/2DS and to some extent the Vita already well established there will be their biggest problems.

Sony releasing a Western centric platform in a region already dominated by handhelds on February 22, 2014 not a good start. I'm expecting even more ports than the PS3 and Wii U had in their dry spells to compensate for this fact. Also FFXHD has been delayed. I wonder why...

Of course that 3DS will cut into PS4`s sales, the same it it`s cutting into Wii U. But that`s because Japan is becoming more handheld oriented.
But that still doesn`t mean that both Wii U and PS4 can`t do well.

Wii U`s problem in Japan is one: software for japanese gamers.
3DS had this problem for some time and sales rose when more games started coming out on a regular basis.

If you take out the ports, what`s left? Wario, Wii Party U and Wii Fit U.
Where are the RPGs, for example? Nowhere to be seen.
And all those titles based on Anime shows like Naruto, One Piece, Gundam? Nowhere to be seen.
The list could probably go on but it shows that companies need certain types of games - especially the big branded ones - to make it.

The difference between western titles on Wii U and PS4 is that the sames titles/genres actually sold on PS3: GTA, CoD, BF. And for Sony consumers the market is there for those titles, even if the market isn`t that big.

Regarding the lifetime predictions of the Nintendo Wii U of John Lucas: I give you just one word: CHINA! In China, only since recently it's offically allowed to sell game consoles. Like everything, the Chinese government will scrutinize every game painstakingly and forbid or censor what they don't like. Guess who of the big 3 is the least harmless and therefore will be favoured by the government (don't underestimate this power)? It's Nintendo. It will take time. Probably not before 2020 they will start to sell big numbers over there. At a time, when we already play with the 9th generation. But the 9th generation will not be available in China by then or would be too expensive for the majority anyway. Please remember that China has a population of over 1.3 billion!

The same is true for India (current population: over 1.2 billion). Although they have an open democracy there, traditional (religious) rules still determine the life. Nintendo with its family friendly reputation will be favoured there.

What is true for India is also true for other evolving Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

Whatever will happen in the evolving (East-)Asian market, one thing is for sure: Microsoft will be the BIG LOSER! Although there's big cultural difference, rivalry and even historical burdening hate between some of the (East-)Asian countries, there was always something like the "East-Asian Alaya Consciousness". I don't wont to philosophize about that but in context it simply means: X-Box (all generations) is not sold by Japanese = X-Box is not sold by all (East-) Asians!

Ever heared about the BRICS states? The term stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. According to economists worldwide these are the 5 countries which will have the biggest economical leap in the next years. I already commented about two of them, China and India, for the other three, Brazil, Russia and South Afirca it's hard to predict if Nintendo will be on top there or Sony or even Microsoft. But in any case, Nintendo will add some nice numbers there in the future. In Brazil they already have a huge price advantage with the Nintendo Wii U over Play Station 4 and X-Box One.

If you think about all that deeply, suddenly John Lucas lifetime predictions for the Nintendo Wii U aren't insane anymore.

Yes they are.

FYI - MS has permission to sell in China, Sony and Nintendo don't. MS is releasing next year I believe.

This is true. They recently started selling Nintendo 3DS officially in China, but through their publishing partner they'll soon start selling rebranded WiiU.. But i'm not holding my breath, as f2p is the dominant form of selling games to the chinese audience.

http://www.ique.com/index.html