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Forums - Sales Discussion - Famitsu Sales: Week 28, 2023 (Jul 03 - Jul 09)

Soundwave on 14 July 2023
Pinkie_pie said:
Megiddo said:

Sony isn't selling two new releases for 10000 yen when it comes to digital like Nintendo. 

What? You are saying digital is much cheaper than physical on switch? Still why would digital be lower in Japan compare to the rest of the world? They have the fastest internet and their homes are small so it makes more sense they rather not collecting physical games especially PS5 since their game cases are larger than switch. Also around 10% of PS5 are digital version and both versions come with a 1tb of storage compare to switch 32-64gb so of course digital is higher on PS5

Nintendo is running their voucher promotion where you can get 2 Nintendo published games at a discount online, which is causing digital to spike on the Switch, you can easily save a healthy chunk off Zelda's price by just buying it online. Which is why for right now, it's probably not equivalent to compare Nintendo 1:1 with Sony because Sony doesn't have a similar promotion (nor does FFXVI). 



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Pinkie_pie on 14 July 2023
Soundwave said:
Pinkie_pie said:

What? You are saying digital is much cheaper than physical on switch? Still why would digital be lower in Japan compare to the rest of the world? They have the fastest internet and their homes are small so it makes more sense they rather not collecting physical games especially PS5 since their game cases are larger than switch. Also around 10% of PS5 are digital version and both versions come with a 1tb of storage compare to switch 32-64gb so of course digital is higher on PS5

Nintendo is running their voucher promotion where you can get 2 Nintendo published games at a discount online, which is causing digital to spike on the Switch, you can easily save a healthy chunk off Zelda's price by just buying it online. Which is why for right now, it's probably not equivalent to compare Nintendo 1:1 with Sony because Sony doesn't have a similar promotion (nor does FFXVI). 

I see so that's why the high digital rate for totk. But still square announced over 50% of FF16 sold were digital.  Why are we assuming it's much lower in Japan? 

Last edited by Pinkie_pie - on 14 July 2023

Bofferbrauer2 on 14 July 2023
Otter said:
Soundwave said:

The question is going to be how many of these PS5s are actually in Japan? Because I think it's not as much of a reach any longer to think a fairly sizable chunk of the PS5s sold this year have gone to China.

There's no reason for a Chinese buyer to buy a Chinese PS5 (or Switch or PS4 frankly, I guess XBox is just dead in Asia too but if Chinese game censorship was a concern for you, then the last console you'd want is the American one anyway, lol) if they can get a Japanese PS5 instead. 

Honestly I'm surprised people keep ignoring this dynamic, which was well established & reported way back in 2021, partially explains the PS5 software situation which has been very consistent across every piece of software, there is not a single outlier. The actual number of PS5's sitting in Japan is way less than raw numbers suggest. Honestly I think you can go as far as chopping the PS5's userbase in half... So people don't need to keep acting shocked & confused when the software mismatches the hardware.

Digital has a smaller but notable role to play

How much is the price of the PS5 in Japan compared to some South East Asian countries? While China certainly takes the lion's share of those exports, I do expect that at least some are going to countries like Indonesia or Vietnam if importing them is cheaper/more advantageous than buying local.



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Kakadu18 on 14 July 2023
Pinkie_pie said:
Soundwave said:

Nintendo is running their voucher promotion where you can get 2 Nintendo published games at a discount online, which is causing digital to spike on the Switch, you can easily save a healthy chunk off Zelda's price by just buying it online. Which is why for right now, it's probably not equivalent to compare Nintendo 1:1 with Sony because Sony doesn't have a similar promotion (nor does FFXVI). 

I see so that's why the high digital rate for totk. But still square announced over 50% of FF16 sold were digital.  Why are we assuming it's much lower in Japan? 

Where did they announce that? I don't remember this.



kazuyamishima on 14 July 2023

Both PS5 and Switch are exported mainly to China.

The Switch went back to pre-Zelda levels at most regions except…Japan.

The weak Yen is very attractive to a lot of people.



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Otter on 17 July 2023
Pinkie_pie said:
Otter said:

Yep, but that doesn't mean the ratio in Japan is 50%. UK for example was 57%, US I imagine would be even higher. Japan I suspect would be lower based off trend. 

Beyond that I don't think a 35% attach rate is ridiculous. The Final Fantasy XV sold around 800k on a userbase of around 3.2m. FF selling 600k on a userbase of 2m is not unrealistic imo. No shade but what else are Japanese playstation owners going to buy this summer? 

What trend are we talking about? Didn't totw have a 50% digital rate in Japan? A few here posted it sold over 2m first week in Japan but only 1m physical.  You would think digital is much higher on PS5 . Why would digital be lower in Japan? Their internet is fast and their homes are small just makes more sense they buying digital than owning physical boxes in their homes. Anyways 35-40% attach rate for a final fantasy game just seems too high. The best selling game animal crossing has a 35-40% attach rate

Western digital rates are typically higher than 50%, meanwhile in Japan there is no precedent of big titles selling most of their units digitally whereas there are plenty of instances in the west. Most recently Star Wars was 55% digital in Europe. If globally 50% of FFXVI sales are digital, it makes sense to assume Japan is below 50%. Also the vast majority of FFXVI sales are going to be from outside of Japan, which gives room for the digital ratio to be a lot lower 50% since it carries less weighting in FFXVI overall digital ratio.

The bigger the userbase you have, the harder it is to have a high attach ratio. Remember that Breath of the Wild originally had a ridiculous 58% attach rate at launch for the Switch

The comment I made "Honestly I think you can go as far as chopping the PS5's userbase in half..." was more to highlight the extent to which it could apply, not an actual estimation per say, although I  think its a minimum of 30%

Last edited by Otter - on 17 July 2023

Soundwave on 17 July 2023
kazuyamishima said:

Both PS5 and Switch are exported mainly to China.

The Switch went back to pre-Zelda levels at most regions except…Japan.

The weak Yen is very attractive to a lot of people.

Is there any reason to even consider buying a Chinese PS5 or Switch or XBox? lol, just seems like a terrible proposition for Chinese gamers when it's so easy to get a Japanese model.



mjk45 on 17 July 2023
trunkswd said:
Shatts said:

I see forgot about that. I kinda find it funny because that 4000 yen is probably the amount Microsoft raised prices in Japan. So technically it just returned to its former price disguised as a good deal. 
Also do you have an idea why PS4 sales are increasing year to year? 

I don't really know the cause of the PS4 sales being up so much year-on-year. Other than maybe there being next to no stock a year ago and there now being stock available. Though, it does seem like Sony has discontinued the PS4 as they stopped giving shipment figures. 

From what we know it looks like Sony after looking at PS4 sell through rates decided the fastest way to sell the remaining PS4's was by allocating the vast majority of that inventory to Japan, now on increased stock if the decision to prioritise Japan because of the outlook of having better sell through rates there is correct, the stock increase may be a result of Sony pulling unsold stock from other areas like China etc and diverting it to Japan.

Last edited by mjk45 - on 17 July 2023

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