I'm not talking about boosting sales. I'm talking about sales being high ever since Zelda released with it only really dropping the week before Mario OLED. It's normal for sales to bounce right before a new model is introduced. It's not normal for sales to drop with a new model and game release. I'd expect flat sales at the bare minimum even if it's in its 7th year.

Both PS5 and Switch sales are noticeably lower than they have been. It could be for a related reason.

Perhaps they don't need the sales to China at the moment, because most of the growth this year are probably exports anyway. Also Spiderman 2 isn't really doing anything for hardware in Japan, but could boost hardware massively everywhere else.

Sony have most likely already shipped the new PS5 model to Japan retailers. They're just sitting in the backroom because they can't sell them until the official release date, which is next week.

The old model which is no longer produced is the only thing left to buy for now.