1. Japan is a smaller population, what were you expecting? Japan has always bought more units than their population would indicate, until recent years.

Did I say third-party devs abandoned the PS3? Where, please, did I say this? Third-party games alone will NEVER sell a console by itself, especially when most of those third-party games are relatively low-budget, niche games. It is up to the first-party devs to make quality content, and Sony couldn't do that. Period. They couldn't build up interest in their system by releasing quality games. If the west never got Uncharted, Infamous, Halo, Resistance, Fable, Gears of War, etc., I'm sure a lot of us would have moved on from console gaming.

What you're not getting is that there is a reason the Japanese buy more PS3s than PS4s, even now. Sony hasn't released any good content on the PS4 for Japan. They ignored Japan for the most part with the PS3 and still got a decent amount of sales from them. Japan isn't making the same mistake again.

2. And why the hell not? The US has smartphones. Europe has smartphones. The console in dustry is doing just fine in those countries.

Look, there is a reason smartphones replaced consoles. And it's because consoles didn't have nearly enough quality content to be economical.

1) Reason ps3 sells more than ps4 is because of the games, but JUST LIKE PS4, games that appealed to japanese gamers took quite some time to start coming at a healthy level in japan, when it launched here we had resistance fall of man, motorstorm, lair and some other crap.

Basically, i am answering the threads key question with "no" shifting focus to a healthier market is not "abandoning" it is simply shifting focus, and for good reason.

2) patrons in the US and EU do not game anywhere near as much as smartphone users in asia, hell I would be willing to bet more people in japan alone game on their smartphones daily, than in EU and US combined, despite, as you brought up, the smaller population, but hell, why not actually come here and see it for yourself?, a few years ago all the kids would have psp's or DS's on trains playing the latest games, more often than not now you have people on their android or iphone devices playing Popopang, Puzzles and dragons, Bubble bobble, Line pop, and so on.

For every console/handheld game advert on TV, there are 10-15 mobile game adverts, I see the google play advert showing nothing but android games at least 20 times a day if i leave my TV on.

I guess the difference here is scope, playing armchair analyst is a lot easier when debating a country, if you're actually living there, as apposed to not living there.

Spartphone gaming is plenty present here, I'm not sure what you're getting at? It's not that smartphone gaming is all that much more poular in Japan, it's just that console gaming has decreased in popularity.

And the PS3 weekly sales were stronger than the PS4 when it launched if you consider weekly sales. PS3 launched with Japanese titles like Ridge Racer, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Genji, while the PS4 launched with Knack, which is a western-oriented title.

The Japanese reception to the PS3 was actually suprisingly warm when you consider the insane price-point. Their reception to the PS4 is downright terrible, even with the much lower price. A HUGE lack of Japanese games, with little on the horizon, is the reason why people don't care about the PS4.

And why has it decreased? could it possibly be because people think "i dont really need it i have good games on my phone"? hmmmm

Sales were okay for Japan for ps4 at launch considering the higher tax band on retail products here now, the time of launch (yes, japanese do celebrate christmas too), and the declining favor of consoles in general.

That said, the decline is squarely down to the boom in smartphones in japan and asia, with japanese publishers, that were once the reasons to buy games consoles, now releasing mobile games in japan, cleanly negating the need to buy anything more than a smartphone which most people already own.

Again, try visiting and seeing for yourself.

My friend went on an internship to Japan this summer, and I'm planning on going either next summer or the one after. Pray tell me, how does noticing that the Japanese have smartphones and games on them (just like the rest of the world) make them any different?

Look, mobile games aren't much more popular there. The major publishers do make mobile games, yes, but those are hardly costly for them. Publishers like EA and Activision do the same thing here with mobile games and sell millions. Mobile games are cheap to make, you don't see console quality mobile games even in Japan, unless you consider ports like Final Fantasy or Monster Hunter. Major devs can easily make console games along with mobile games if they wanted to. There simply isn't a market for it anymore, and Sony/Nintendo are responsible for that.

I'll say it again: People in the west refuse to buy a Vita because of the lack of titles and support, with most decent titles being Japanese niche titles. Put that scenario with the PS4 in Japan and you'll understand what's happening.

How are you making this assumption? You are arguing with a guy that lives there.  Mobile gaming is huge in Japan and is probably the number 1 in revenue.

Why would SONY spend millions on making a game for the Japanese market when they can use that money to cater to the West? Western games are what appeal to everyone outside of Japan and allow for a  lot more profit and growth especially trying to compete with the Xbox One in the United States.

People are going to buy a PS4 when KH3 and FF15 come out andMS isn't even gonna try in Japan.

Console gaming is dieing in Japan and so is handhelds.

He lives in the UK -_-

And see my Vita example to show why you're wrong.