While Yasuda noted that
Japan’s initial PS5 launch allocation was limited because of manufacturing issues, he claims the console’s retail performance is nevertheless troubling.
“Early PS5 trends have shown that the PlayStation brand in Japan is in decisive decline and Ace Economic Research Institute cannot help but be disappointed,” he wrote.
Yasuda concluded: “Looking at the present situation, in which Sony (SIE) has failed to ship enough PS5s to Japan for the year-end shopping season, we cannot help but be deeply concerned for the future of the PlayStation market in Japan”.
The analyst also listed a number of reasons he believes Japanese consumers feel Sony has shown disregard to the Japanese market, including the decision to
change Japan’s default controls to adhere to Western standards and no Japanese narration for PS5’s reveal videos.
A recent
Bloomberg report—to which Yasuda contributed—claimed Sony’s home territory
was being “sidelined” in promotional planning for PS5 and had seen its development teams slashed as the company
placed more importance on the US market.
The report also claimed that PlayStation’s Japan Studio, which co-developed games such as Bloodborne,
Astro’s Playroom and The Last Guardian, had seen the rolling contracts of many of its creators not renewed and developer support teams reduced by as much as a third from their peak.
Following the report, several high-profile departures were confirmed including Bloodborne and
Demon’s Souls producer Teruyuki Toriyama, and Silent Hill and
Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama.
In a later interview published in Edge magazine,
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said called claims the company was marginalising Japan’s role “inaccurate”.
“The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us,” he said. “We have not been as excited about the engagement of the Japanese game development community as we are now for many years.”
Ryan added: “I’d also observe that we’re making a statement by launching in Japan day and date with the US, and that is not what we did with PS4. So I read that stuff. A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan – as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us.”
However, Ace Economic Research Institute claims that PlayStation’s actions in Japan do not match its words.
“The intent of my previous article wasn’t to ruffle feathers with a sensationalist title, but to inform Sony headquarters and SIE of Japanese PlayStation users’ profound feelings of despair,” Yasuda wrote, referencing the Bloomberg piece Ryan responded to.
“Sony HQ has told us directly that they value the Japanese market, a comment that we were grateful to hear. I do think it’s highly probable that Sony does take Japan seriously. That said, while their feelings are valuable, their actions do not match those feelings. That’s why users believe Sony and CEO
Jim Ryan have shown disregard for the Japanese market.”
Yasuda claimed that SIE’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Japan to the US in 2016 had led to its attitude towards Japanese users “becoming rather cold” and causing it to lose its Japanese principles.
“As mentioned previously, Japanese users aren’t likely to channel their dissatisfaction on social media, so US SIE HQ staff might perceive that as the Japanese just politely accepting whatever is given to them, regardless of how cold they have actually become. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth: they’ve simply begun to vanish into the sunset quietly.”
www.videogameschronicle.com
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