They have tried, but their decline in Japan shows how vulnerable you can become when the selling point of your console in a country is just third party games, all their first party games are made in the west for mostly western markets, so when the Japanese third party games that used to sell people on PS in Japan like Final Fantasy are in steep decline there, that left them with no answers to Nintendo in Japan So PS is mostly a victim of Japanese gamers changing taste over the years, a few decades ago something like Animal Crossing was an ultra niche game on N64 in Japan at the same time Final Fantasy sold people massively on PS1 there.

Interestingly it is also only digital making physical sales harder to show up in the future..

I agree with you. Sony own internal studios have a terrible track as well. Sony was a brand built on the backs of Square and Capcom. Neither are releasing earth-shattering hits in Japan as they once did in the 90s. The decline of those games in Japan started by the end of PS2 life/start of PS3 life with DS taking Japan by a storm, and the fact is Sony never really recovered the lost market share

Vita was released and it could be moderately successful in Japan eventually if it had a proper Monster Hunter, but it bombed so hard elsewhere it became impossible to keep the console afloat. By the early 10s smaller third parties at the time were refusing to create games for PS4 and wanted Sony to keep producing PS3 (long dead console that never really take off in first place) and Vita, simply because those consoles were cheaper to develop for

Sony was slowly becoming a brand to play AAA games and western games, and even this niche they are losing to PCs since the end of PS4 life

While true the is a bit more behind it as tastes changed yes but that is a straight forward problem they could navigate with some effort the major issue was the change in gaming habits this is a strong factor in why PSP became a thing to begin with, portable platforms were becoming a better fit for Japan's gaming habits and Sony saw this and did make moves to tackle that with PSP and Vita but this came with a host of new problems they didn't anticipate as it was entering a new market with new factors at play with the most notable being how hard it was to support two platforms at once something even Nintendo themselves in the end couldn't go on doing albeit they solved the problem.

The move to be the brand for AAA was understandable as a result the problem is that back then they at least kept Studios like their Japan Studio to put out titles that had potential to be hits in Japan for example why Gravity Rush was never pushed as a major IP is something that is baffling and it's the same case for most of Studio Japan's games which is bizarre considering their output.

I had already wondered about that regarding LATAM as well. As for Brazil, I’ve learned that import duties on consumer electronics are very high. Brazil is clearly trying to apply pressure to ensure production takes place within the country. However, this in turn brings other major hurdles, above all a complicated legal system (including labor laws), not to mention sluggish and sometimes corrupt authorities. Otherwise, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would likely have established a proper foothold for their console business in Brazil much sooner, thereby laying the foundation for other LATAM countries.

Are there any announced games incoming from Nintendo after Tomodachi Life?

Nintendo really needs a new direct where they formally announce 1-2 of their heavy hitters.

Fire Emblem.

Yeah looks like Requiem got a restock; sales are almost equal this week between the PS5 and Switch 2 versions.

Rhythm Heaven is confirmed for July 2nd. That pretty big in JP (judging by the 180k likes on the JP Tweet revealing the release date lol). There’s also Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem, alongside a rumored Star Fox, Switch Sports NS2Ed, and Pikmin 4 NS2Ed (yet another big game for JP).

Also… pretty sure they’ve already announced one of their heavy hitters: Pokémon WiWa. It’s only a matter of time before we see the others. We just got Pokopia, after all.

And the Vita's problem in Japan once again relates back to their reliance on third party for system sellers.

Sony actually put in a relatively strong effort first party effort with Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Little Big Planet, Tear Away, Killzone Mercenary, Sly Cooper 4, Soul Sacrifice, PlayStation Allstars,  Freedom Wars. The bold really made with the Japanese market in mind.

The problem is none of these IPs or games really clicked despite all being solid efforts. There could honestly be a whole thread about Sony making games that are good but not quite good enough or marketable enough. Like even in the west AAA fans of uncharted don't really care for a watered down, portable spinoff like Golden Abyss. For a JRPG that would be a different story though.

If you replaced  even half that list with Japanese Mainstays like Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest etc this system would of sold 3x as much and then received even more support. 

/

On the topic of first party PlayStation games in Japan I was pleasantly surprised to see Astrobot is likely to crack 100k at retail this year in Japan.

https://www.frontlinejp.net/2026/01/29/the-top-100-best-selling-games-in-japan-2025/#google_vignette

84. Astro Bot (PS5) – 37,317 (93,498)