Famitsu Sales: Week 25, 2025 (Jun 16 - Jun 22)

In some cases yes. We saw the performance of Switch lead to companies like Konami, Falcom and Cyberconnect2 change their minds and start providing more support than they did at launch.

But in other cases it didn't happen. SMT Soul Hackers 2 and the Persona 5 remake were clearly not designed for high-end hardware, and yet the very strong performance of Switch both domestically and internationally did not change Atlus' decision making. They brought those games to every platform except Switch.

Well, it's Atlus, and apparently they're similar enough to SEGA when it comes to bad business decisions. Maybe they're getting the stick out of their ass now with Raidou, but then we have a case of something like Metaphor which still doesn't have a Switch 2 version announced. If one's not announced by TGS, I assume SEGA & Atlus just don't care about the IP's growth in Japan and potentially globally.

But at the same time, bad business decisions have been a thing with SEGA since the mid '90s, it's ultimately why the Saturn & Dreamcast died and why they stopped making consoles.

100% agreed. Sony really needs to get over this delusion that porting their games to other platforms is somehow a win-win. It isn't. Even for GAAS.

Out of their three competing platforms, Valve, Nintendo, and MS, only one of them followed that path and with catastrophic results. While the other two maintain a complete or near complete exclusivity strategy, and by many metrics are running circles around Sony's platform.

I will continue to stand on the belief that Nintendo has had, by far, the best "multiplatform" strategy of the past few years. Their idea was to simply make some spinoffs based on a few of their IP for mobile, but farm the dev out to 3P studios, and make the games have a built-in shelf life as they were basically GAAS titles like Pokemon GO! or that Mario Kart game.

They purposefully made spinoffs while keeping the main versions (the "real" versions) exclusive to their hardware. That way, if mobile users liked those mobile versions, they'd still be inclined to get a Switch in order to play the other entries in the franchise with their own story campaigns, gameplay, mechanics, aesthetics and even characters. They didn't tie down the mobile versions to their 1P so that those 1P could put all their focus on the console.

Nintendo's strategy had no negative impact on their main hardware, and we can see that today with Switch 2. Microsoft's strategy was the worst by far in terms of the harm it did long-term to Xbox consoles. All SIE had to do was copy Nintendo's method, but they for some reason though a mix of theirs and Microsoft's was better. The problem with that thinking is, Microsoft's approach would always create an inevitability as well as a traceable pattern, not to mention SIE's idea of supporting PC was really just them supporting Steam and Windows, the latter being a platform owned by a company who also owns your direct competitor console brand!

SIE flirted too closely with that and seemed to underestimate a likelihood of MS pivoting Xbox hardware to a Windows ecosystem. Or maybe they thought they could get Valve to block Xbox devices running a version of Windows simply because they had the word "Xbox" in their name. Well, whatever it was, they betted wrong.

There is also a false assumption that has gained ground that a game exclusive to PS5 will either fail or have its potential severely kneecapped, as opposed to Switch or PC exclusives, which are somehow seen as smart business moves. Look no further than the reaction to the From Soft Switch 2 exclusive. Not a single word of protest from the usual PC crowd who cry day and night over Sony keeping DeS and BB exclusive to their consoles. Despite PS consoles being proven JRPG sellers (i.e. just look at how much the Persona franchise blew up on PS4 as an exclusive, where Switch and PC expanded the audience relatively little despite years of port begging).

Yep, people never point out all the exclusives on Steam or Nintendo systems. In some cases those are indeed due to small devs not having a lot of resources, and PC dev being cheaper than console where you have to pay a license and also pay for bare minimum QA to get certification for publishing. But, there are a lot of devs who have the funds to put out console versions, yet don't choose to.

In fact, Valve are one such company easily with enough resources, but they haven't put any of their games anywhere aside Steam over the past 15 years. Half-Life Alyx never got a PSVR2 port. DOTA2 and Counterstrike are still exclusive to Steam. And you know what? That's perfectly fine. Those games are perfectly fine being exclusive. Same with stuff like Smash Bros. or Mario Kart being exclusive to Nintendo consoles.

What isn't fine is how certain CEOs and paid shills, and in some cases SIE themselves, have promoted this narrative that only PlayStation aren't allowed to have exclusives, or that PlayStation exclusives aren't economically viable. However, those narratives would go away pretty quickly if SIE actually committed to having more genuine exclusives for their console and put out some real statements regarding such a business decision while dismantling the typical talking points.

The issue I see here is the risk. With Japanese development getting more and more multiplatform, how many team ate going to make PS exclusive GAAS games?

And even if you do, there's no guarantee that moves the needle for PS in Japan (just look at Foamstars for instance).

Yeah, it'd be very difficult for SIE to convince a 3P pub to make such an exclusive GAAS title. That's why SIE would need to do it themselves, either with an internal 1P studio, or in a partnership co-development fashion with a 3P studio, or combined dev between a 1P studio and 3P studio.

It'd also require having a better eye for what'd make a quality hit. Foamstars ain't it, and how SIE thought that was worth pursuing over something like Duskbloods is absolutely insane to me, even still.
 
If we've learnt anything from Switch it's that lots of Japanese games will skip your platform even if you sell well in Japan.

I don't see this happening, given the market trends outside Japan. The future of Japanese AA development is on Switch 2, but for Japanese AAA the focus will remain on PC and PS. Switch 2 might get more ports than the the original Switch got.

For this type of release, it matters where the original game came out.

As a remaster of PS2 game, theres more nostalgia for it in the PlayStation audience.

After nearly a decade of constant fuck ups, Level 5 has an actual success. Hopefully the same happens with Inazuma 11 and Professor Layton.

Permanently?
True, I forgot how long Level 5 hasn't really put out bangers.

That was such a strong team during the PS2 days.
 
Japan disagree with you.
Nahhhh

Some of the biggest AAA titles like RE4 remake, FF series, Monster Hunter, Elder Ring, Yakuza series, Tekken lol Dat Persona 3 REMAKE, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Valkyrie Elysium, Tales of Arise nahhhhhh WE EATTING GOOD SIR

So many moved millions upon millions of units breaking records for so many publishers without a Switch version..

So...I don't know what to tell you man. They doing just fine in the AAA area lol

MGS3 remake coming, Persona 4 remake coming, KH4 coming, RE9, Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill 1 remake confirm, Onimusha 5, Astrobot, Death Stranding 2...once again... ...WE EATTING GOOD

I don't know what else we could get regarding AAA games from Japan for anyone to make any claim we didn't get fed this gen or last or something, we are getting damn near fanfiction levels of AAA Japanese games lol
 
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Nahhhh

Some of the biggest AAA titles like RE4 remake, FF series, Monster Hunter, Elder Ring, Yakuza series, Tekken lol Dat Persona 3 REMAKE, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Valkyrie Elysium, Tales of Arise nahhhhhh WE EATTING GOOD SIR

So many moved millions upon millions of units breaking records for so many publishers without a Switch version..

So...I don't know what to tell you man. They doing just fine in the AAA area lol

MGS3 remake coming, Persona 4 remake coming, KH4 coming, RE9, Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill 1 remake confirm, Onimusha 5, Astrobot, Death Stranding 2...once again... ...WE EATTING GOOD

I don't know what else we could get regarding AAA games from Japan for anyone to make any claim we didn't get fed this gen or last or something, we are getting damn near fanfiction levels of AAA Japanese games lol
The only record AAA Final Fantasy games have broken in this gen is by selling less copies than SNES Final Fantasy games despite ballooning budgets that subsequently force SE to change their company approach for AAA game releases.
 
The only record AAA Final Fantasy games have broken in this gen is by selling less copies than SNES Final Fantasy games despite ballooning budgets that subsequently force SE to change their company approach for AAA game releases.
lol, yet you only really have 1 IP from the list to cry over

AAA games from Japan will be just fine..

FF in general will be just fine.
 
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