It has recently been revealed that Sony’s PlayStation 5 is selling worse in Japan than any other home console in the country’s recent history. This news comes after many Japanese fans and analysts publicly accused Sony of not taking the Japanese market seriously.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan denied the validity of these accusations, but recent developments have suggest otherwise. Outside of Japan, the PS5 has been incredibly popular, resulting in console shortages right from the outset of its launch (although finding a PS5 should be easier this year). Of course, the PS5 also faced supply shortages in Japan due to COVID-19 production difficulties, but it seems that the console has not been met with the same widespread praise in Sony’s home nation.
A translation of a GamesIndustry.biz Japan Edition article by ResetEra user SinCItyAssassin reveals that the PlayStation 5 is currently on pace to become the lowest-selling home console in recent Japanese history. Part of the translation reads:
“PS5 sales in the 4th and 5th weeks are around 11,000 units, while the 6th week is 17,000 units. These sales are far too low. Total sales of 240,000 are by far the lowest in the history of PlayStation home consoles. If this were to continue, lifetime sales of PS5 would perhaps end up at less than half of PS4.”
The article notes that Japanese players may feel this way due to a variety of factors, including Sony’s censorship of games for Japanese audiences, the PS5’s reveal from this summer featuring no Japanese narration, the DualSense’s controller’s confirm button being changed from O to X (this was already the case in other countries outside of Japan), and the original launch allocation of PS5 units in Japan being barely more than that of the PS3, which prevented early adopters from procuring the new console.
Despite the PlayStation 4 being so well received globally, according to the above graph, it sold less than both the Nintendo GameCube and PS3 in Japan and only narrowly outsold the Dreamcast (which was only on the market for three years), a trend that could continue with Sony’s latest console. For the PlayStation 5 to be lagging so far behind its predecessor is likely not something Sony wants to see occur in its own backyard.
On the other hand, perhaps Sony is ok with this being a side-effect of its more global approach as of late. Surely, the company knew there would be backlash when it made decisions like swapping the X and O buttons, or moving PlayStation’s headquarters to California. This is to say, maybe Sony is indeed ok with its latest console to have fewer lifespan than the Dreamcast in Japan if it means having the type of sales success in other countries that the PlayStation 4 and 5 have had.
