That explains it.

And yeah I haven't played it myself but it is weird that Japanese devs still leave out the country's dominant platform with these kind of releases. They do tend to come later, like Demon Slayer and the Dragon Ball games, but it still seems a poor strategy.

It’s a well known strategy to have consumers potentially double dip after getting the PS4/5 version. I’m just not sure if it works out the way they believe it does. Like Demon Slayers for example. Probably could’ve done better with all platforms at the same launch date (instead of releasing the switch version later when whatever hype of the game already died out months after the movie came out) while releasing alongside the hype of the movie. I don’t remember if the switch version of Demon Slayer even charted in the NPD charts for Nintendo games when launched.

It isn't just a corporate strategy though. It is genuinely quite difficult to port from PS4/PS5 to Switch. A Switch port day 1 would lead to months of delays.

Even PS4/PS5 games to PC requires a dedicated porting developer.

So in your Demon Slayer example, they would miss the hype of the movie regardless.

You’re probably right. But even then, it kinda sticks out considering people talked about the lack of a switch version when it was initially announced. And considering Demon Slayer was a big deal in Japan (and worldwide) people would question it when the best selling console by a large margin in Japan had to wait its turn months later with not as much fanfare since nothing from the franchise was releasing alongside it and a good amount of consumers had their fill with the PS4/5 version.

And I looked up the NPD charts when it released on Switch, it was number 10 on Nintendo Switch for the month it released. So while not bad, it probably could’ve done better releasing alongside the other platforms or at least not too far after they released. So in the end, they still likely missed out on sales that could’ve been.

I'm pretty sure they haven't skipped the Switch. Japanese devs can be stubborn & rigid in behavior. They're not the kind to add a Switch version mid-way through production and delay overall development, so I'm sure they're just porting it late as has been the case for all other big 3rd party titles. And although some of these games don't look demanding, working on powerful hardware means they can be lazy with optimisation, something which makes Switch ports more time consuming. I remember Soul Hacker 2 barely being able to hit 30fps on Xbox One for example, so getting it work on a Switch will be a big task even though it doesn't look impressive

111 times more for the PS4 YTD ?

No the drop for 2011 was 77%. I'm not putting much stock into the production increase report right now since that means nothing if demand keeps going down so my expectations are a steady decline in demand till the successor late 2024. I'm not super confident it'll be under 2017 though so won't really be surprised if it ends up at about 3.6m. 

You wouldn't need to port it if the Switch was factored into the game's production from the start, as should probably have been the case for games like this. We've seen this done for games like Mortal Kombat 11 or Crisis Core.

Regardless, it adds dev time. Crisis Core or MK11 would have released months earlier without extra platforms day 1 whether it be Switch or PS.

Even looking at those games more closely. MK11, I see that it cut corners compared to other games by not being able to be released in Japan.

Crisis Core was co developed by a partner studio Tose and SE.

Hinokami Chronicles was developed by Cyberconnect2, a 250 men Japanese developer specialized in anime fighting games. Where would they get the help to bring the Switch port forward 9 months?

Games from smaller devs release simultaneously on Switch and PS all the time, it's not some unworkable thing.