Sony's PS4 Not Selling Well in Japan.

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/02/22/launch-day-ps4-stock-readily-available-in-japan/

It seems the Japanese require time to warm up to new consoles.

I think there is a time-zone difference in japan, probably still asleep.

The Japanese console market is dying and the PS4 is just going to be a victim of it. Will handily outsell the WiiU but I see it struggling to out do PS3 numbers.

no they not...

Agreed. It's all about portable gaming in Japan.

The home console market in Japan is dwindling,no surprise there.

Nice damage control you got there.

No in all honesty japanese don't want playstation anymore, they want to play with android phones.

Personally I'm not as dumb as the americans, i'll be waiting a week or so to play DS2 first.

Honestly, Sony needs to be working on or release information about a big JRPG because that is where they will get the biggest interest and push in Japan. In that area I think sony is still slacking trying to please the western market. Hope we hear something this E3

The Japanese care very little for consoles anymore. They are huge into anything they can take with them, i.e. handhelds and mobile phones.

All the Xbox japanese memos I am getting may be to rush in and fill the virtual space left by the poor Wii U sales and the slow PS4 interest.

I just got done talking with a couple of friends I have in Japan a couple days ago about gaming there. If people aren't playing on smart phones, they are on a 3DS or a PS Vita (smaller numbers obviously.). There's nothing they can be done about it. PS4 will still be the best selling console this cycle in Japan though. Some stores are sold out of PS4s and some aren't.

A new PS4 exclusive Monster Hunter title would surely shift some units over there.

Maybe people in Japan are sensible and don't want to spend lots of money to play 3 games.

Consoles aren't as strong as they once were in Japan but tbh, Japan has always had a more gradual approach to console sales.

It'll sell consistently throughout the month while Sony continues to restock them. The numbers will probably still be good.

It's not just JRPG, it's the lifestyle where they are always on the go. Something like a 3DS is far more appealing because you can carry it on the train and play Pokemon. I live in Toronto, but I live in an environment where I am constantly taking public transit, which is plenty of time for me to wind down and play games.

which is why the xbox360 sold so poorly there right?

And considering what you just said, the PS4 should do just fine in japan then.

I expect 1 million units first month.

The PS4 will do decent in Japan but it is a dying console market.....I doubt it does much better than the Wii U. But still, it will be sales that Sony needs. If Sony cannot get the PS4 in China where the rumor is XBONE is already going, that could make the total sales numbers pretty interesting a year after that launch.

The japanese art of discipline explains itself as the "practice of patience". It is part of the culture basically, and something even the west has taken interest in as displayed by both japanese and non-japanese forms of media which are introduced into out very own every day lives.

Now I know a lot of people laugh at the fact sometimes because of the way it's shown, however, the underlying message is still very clear and this is just another example of it.

Yes it will, when the games actually release. I worded my comment badly, what I meant is, "maybe they're not willing to buy a console just to play Killzone for two weeks and then leave it on a shelf for 4 months until something else comes out."

Japanese gamers are not idiots and don't rush onto a platform full of nothing and play The Waiting Game. Western gamers tend to buy games for systems, but Japanese gamers buy systems for games. They'd gladly buy a system if a worthwhile game releases, even if it's last gen (i.e. Persona 4 for PS2 released after PS3 launch).

A summary of what everyone s saying will prove a good explanation:

Most Japanese gamers like handhelds more than consoles, but there are still a lot of instances where the console version of something sells more than the handheld version. Also, a lot of consoles that have been popular in Japan (Wii and Vita) had slow starts, usually things in Japan grow with progression rather than going from the top of the mountain then to the ground.

Please, send this memo to microsoft. Get some games and then you won't have discounted yourself from one of the biggest markets in your industry.

I'll wait til the MediaCreate numbers are in before joining the Chicken Little Brigade. The PS2 moved 980,000 units its first week (first two days sold out). So, depending on where the PS4 sits in line with that, we'll know if we have a PS2 pt 2 on our hands or not. Until then, picture of units on the shelf mean one thing and one thing only. That Sony was right in launching in the West first.

I've been saying it would start off slow for a long time now, but since the early success of the PS4's Western launch, everyone and their mother thought it would sell like gangbusters in Japan on day one.

Since nobody else is going there, I will:

If you think the PS4 isn't selling well in Japan, just wait till the XBox One launches there *badumm boom tiss*

They need to start working on more games. Yakuza and Final Fantasy XIV beta will only work go so far.

Sony probably should have convinced Sega to announce a PS4 port of Persona 5 and Namco-Bandai to announce a PS4 port of the new Tales of... title.

Mind if I bump this thread when actual numbers come out? You seem awfully hasty to jump to conclusions.

Ofcourse it isn't ..... it has no games.... and therefore very little value atm.

No one had ever needed the japanese market to do anything, so I am not sure why people think it's a big gaming market. In fact, portables have always been there "highest" market there since the GB/WS/NGP.

With that said, it would take some very convincing games and a lot of good money to throw in great advertisement, to get home consoles to start selling as well as the PS2 there again or more.

they might be mad because it just released there and see Sony as a traitor. Some heavy cultured society are very strict on these things.

It has knack.

They need more animu games.

Yeah, Japan is now handheld land.

That fact, coupled with the fact that the PS4 had absolutely no compelling Japanese support either at launch or on the horizon (except for Metal Gear Solid, which is also on current generation consoles, and FF15/KH3, which are more than a year away), it's no surprise the console seems to have been met with a tepid reaction.

I expect it to outsell the Wii U, but it will be interesting to see if the fight there is closer than anyone imagined.

Metal Gear has never really been a japanese seller over there. Like Metroid (actually metroid is WORSE over there.)

Now it would be funny that because of this slump that in japan the PS4 and Wii U actually stay close enough that they start to get a lot of support for each system in competition. That would practically save the Wii U.

That would be entirely unexpected and very amusing, I agree.

I'm not the enemy, or anti-Sony. I'm simply showing that my estimates were more real and true than the idiots who thought the Japanese PS4 launch would be exactly like it was in the US and UK.

There's just a lot of new gen arm chair QBs who simplistically thought something along the lines of "Sony is a Japanese company, therefor Japan will buy up every single launch system." without knowing all the facts. It was really annoying.

I've watched launches for many years and I am fully aware that Japanese consumers are much slower to adapt to new consoles, regardless of who is making them.

The first month will be fine, most consoles have good launches. The numbers are gonna crater in about a month though. If you follow Japanese sales at all this was obvious. Bump it when first week numbers come out but you might as well bump it week 5 as well because that and going forward is what is gonna tell the real story.

It won't have a strong out-of-gate presence, but it will sell over time. I mean the PS3 sold around 10 mil in Japan, and PS3's total sales are what, around 80ish mil? That's 1/8th total sales. The console market may have dwindled, but can still push numbers to a degree.

we will see,

final fantasy XV better come out this year,

or a dragon quest game,

maybe a earth defence force mmo type game.

something

It's a dying console market but I still expect PS4 to outsell every console released there this gen. They will have decent sales but not crazy like gens past. I guess it's the reason Sony launched there last. Having Japan is still an advantage though as last gen proved, they may not buy the most consoles but they'll still add significantly to worldwide numbers.

It will outsell Wiiu and Xbone there so in the end SONY wins and thus SDC.

Amen. As long as SDC is sustained that's all that matters.

But there is a good chance it will fail to outsell the PS3 if it is not compelling enough for japanese gamers.

Japan represents what, 10m PS3 sales? Given the way the PS4 has sold so much better in the US it could make up those sales across the generation there pretty easily.

Anyway, not much of a surprise to me. One of the podcasts i listen to commented on how the lineup for Japan is pretty much just western ports bar like one title a few days back. At least here you can rely on the multiplats but in Japan there's pretty much no big games.

They're a more reliable region for picking up consoles for killer titles though so all it'll take is a game like MGS5, maybe with some exclusive DLC or a nice bundle and i think it'll rocket. They did announce the MGS inscribed console or something for Japan? That might help.

You think americans are dumb because 10% of the people who brought consoles last year brought consoles up front? Judging from wii U sales and rumored PS4 sales, 10% of the japanese people who brought consoles last gen also brought consoles up front this one.

Seems you are insulting yourself here sir.

Of course it will, because Sony makes world class exclusives, fake boy.