At this point I'm not expecting them to restock Japan this year. They'll have to reboot the market in 2022 get some shipments ready when games that appeal to the Japanese market begin to drop all of these are coming Jan-March: Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West, Dynasty Warriors 9, Elden Ring, Babylon's Fall and then Forspoken in May.

So they definitely have the chance to get the ball rolling again but why both PS5/XSX completely cut shipments for Japan is bizarre to me. I mean if they want to prioritise holiday shipments for the west that's one thing, but I don't get taking what they were normally shipping from Japan. What difference does taking 18k/4.5k from Japan really make? It's a drop in the ocean especially for Xbox. Makes me wonder if something else is causing both Sony and Microsoft to be unable to supply Japan with the new consoles. An Issue with local shipping/manufacturing or something. Because pulling out of a region so you can ship just 4.5k more to USA/EU just seems silly, as does 18k.

I was thinking just a bit ago that sacrificing some sales in EU for more in Japan is probably a good trade since I imagine Sony will get less money per PS5 sold in the long term from the poorer countries in Europe compared to Japan so unless that is actually untrue it really is bizarre.

NSW and the NSWL are so very close in numbers. Is the original model sold out?

From installbase I got some interesting info on an interview with Kondo from Falcom. They recently decided to start bringing their games to the Switch themselves and here's a quote:

Q　製品部門の売上が落ちていて、プレステが振るわないために、スイッチへの移植を始めるとのことだが、なぜやや古い『那由多の軌跡』から始めるのか。なぜ看板タイトルのイースや軌跡シリーズではないのか。どのくらいの販売を見込んでいるのか.

Q: You said that you will start porting to the Switch because the sales of the product division are declining and Sony PlayStation is not performing well. Why are you starting with the slightly old "The Legend of Nayuta"? Why not a billboard title of the Ys or Trails series? How many sales do you expect?

近藤：最初に『那由多の軌跡』を選んだのはライセンス部門との兼ね合い。最新作はライセンスで契約してしまっていて、その後にスイッチ参入を本格的に決めて動いたから。まず動かせるのが『那由多の軌跡』だった

Kondo: The first choice was "The Legend of Nayuta" as a balance with the licensing department. The latest work has a license contract. After that, we decided to move into full-scale entries on the Switch. The first thing that could be moved was "The Legend of Nayuta."

近藤：スイッチ移植は『那由多の軌跡』で終わらせるつもりはなく、後続のタイトルも準備を始めている。目標の販売本数については、具体的な数については営業上の課題もあるのでここでは差し控えたい

Kondo: We don't intend to end Switch porting with "The Legend of Nayuta," and we're starting to prepare for subsequent titles. Regarding the target number of units sold, there are business challenges reporting specific numbers, so I would like to refrain from doing so here.

But this is the most interesting part:

近藤：現時点の原因は、クオリティももちろんあると思うが、振るわないPS市場や

Kondo: "I think the cause [of poor sales for Kuro] is, of course there is quality here, is the dull PlayStation market..."

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe now has the longest top 30 streak at 242 weeks.

And then they announce Kuro no Kiseki 2 for PS4/5. It will be interesting to see if Nintendo consumers in Japan actually show up for Falcom games once the late ports stop. Right now it's the same ~6kish result for those releases. 

ACNH at 7m retail and RFA just shy of 3m retail.

All hardware is down this week except for X|S. In spite of that I think Switch has an even bigger market share than the week before. Also, most software in the top 10 is up WoW. I guess software sales are somewhat independent of hardware sales at this point.

Animal Crossing passes the impressive 7m mark for physical only. I wouldn't be surprised if it is the best selling game of all time when digital is factored in. If it isn't there yet, then it will be there soon.

#Team2020 won in the end, unless a miracle happens the next two weeks.

Dat boost for Momotaro.

The PS5 numbers , they just keep getting worse and worse, the way Sony keep neglecting Japan just like that (I mean, it kinda makes sense since they have a hard time stocking in the West where there's way higher demand, and they'd prefer to send all the consoles they can there, but still).

I don't think you understand what the words low stock means? Sony is selling everything they can produce atm. Its not going to improve till next FY where they expect to sell 23M.

Ahh yes, what a coincidence that the rest of the sentence was omitted

" the decrease in the number of print media in the process of publicizing the product, and inadequate PR activities may have been the causes. "

lmao so transparent