how's this for off topic?

...the joker who made this thread is arrogant prick that can't handle other people having discussion.

Moderated - Kresnik.

So what would have happened, if Sony had decided to ship all PS4's to Japan instead of Saudi Arabia, some Asian countries and Brazil, although they have no appealing software ready for that market?

They could have gotten away with that, but that plan could have also backfired big time. The sales in Japan are still in the focus of the whole gaming press... a weak start in Japan would be bad PR for all other markets. Why take that risk, if you don't have to and you can sell every produced unit in other markets?

Then collect your strength for a big launch in Japan with enough hardware units (for record sales), a strong(er) software library for that market and the PR focus on Japan that launch month.

This. He desperately wants people to say that Sony was wrong.

It seems you can´t handle someone not buying into lazy excuses.  The most apparrent one beeing "because of more important markets" also known as "Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Asia".

If you can´t contribute an on-topic argument you should just leave.

@Conina

We are talking about just two months, just enough to miss the holiday season, can you please point to the significant changes? Yakuza Ishin would still have been a launch window game and looking at its release day (the same day as PS4 as far as I know) it seems its date has been influenced by the late PS4 launch anyway.

"Just two months"... that are 8 opportunities for every gaming news page on this planet to requote the Famitsu's and Media crate's hardware numbers, if the PS4 wouldn't measure up to the expectations for Japan. Everybody loves a scandal. 

I was refering to the changes in the software library in these 2 extra months due to the release in 2014 since this seems a rather popular argument. Also who knows what PS4s performance would have been like this December in Japan, at the very least it would have launched in a stronger sales period and early next year helped by it´s launch window lineup including Yakuza. Also I honestly doubt many people care about Japanese sales as much as you think. Do you really think that the current early PS4 adopters in Europe and US wouldn´t have bought one due to sales in Japan? That´s really hard to believe.

Also the opening question wasn´t about how Japanese PS4 sales could have affected "western" sales ;) /jk

look at last gen console sales xbox,ps3 and wii sold a combined 24 million, that should be enough for to understand why sony did what it did.

You're asking two questions:

1) What effect does Sony's decision have on the Japanese market

2) If Sony's decision was a good one.

As everyone else has said:

1) In the short term, releasing the PS4 in Japan would have resulted in the Wii U potentially selling less (how much who knows, we'll need a researcher/economist to answe that) and the PS4 getting a toehold now.

2) But it seems like a good trade off. Like everyone said, there's virtually no big Japanese games in the lineup so the initial launch and the momentum it would create would be small.

You also seem to be implying that there's a network effect with the Wii U and that Sony forgoing sales now would result in greater market share for the Wii U in the long run. Like everyone else said, this probably is not a concern. The Wii U has a different lineup and is more centered around single player/local multiplayer games, and is also targeting a younger demographic. There's little overlap so the people who want a Wii U and a PS4 would get both eventually.

In a nut shell, Sony's marketshare in Japan seems to be guaranteed. The Wii U is not seen as a direct competitor and the Xbox One isn't focusing on Japan either.

On the other hand, it's more important for Sony to get market share in the non-Japanese markets, because those markets do have a network effect factor. Both the PS4 and Xbox One are more focused on online competitive multiplayer games, and most people would want to buy the same consoles their closest gaming friends have.

Does that answer your question? Yes, there is a small negative cost to not releasing in Japan, but that's outweighed by the gain from other countries.

How exactly does this help in selling PS4s in Japan again? Could you please elaborate this?

@Akvod

Just read the opening post already. Japan is the topic, deal with it.

US those 3 combined for over 100 million, samething with europe, thats why sony decided they had to feed the most important markets first. even though the wiiu is selling great at the moment, it still won't even sell a million units for the year in japan and thats what is important, YTD sales not just the holidays.