Forum - View topicNEWS: Japan's Video Game Rankings, August 9-15
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1223 |
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Wow, all games in the top 30 are Nintendo Switch games, this already happened last week as well, but the last time that the top 30 games came for the same hardware was back in 1988. Despite the record breaking sales worlwide, Sony has lost a major chunk of the Japanese market, obviously developers like Square-Enix and Bandai Namco are still developing software exclusively for them, but their Japanese sales are declining. Konami, of all people, are thriving in software sales in Japan, Momotaro Dentestu is becoming their best-selling title in Japan and the lastest Yu-Gi-Oh! did very good numbers (not as impressive as the Game Boy games, but still good).
It's kind of amazing how well the Switch is selling in its home country, but it feels weird that very few developers (except maybe Capcom, Atlus and Konami) are not making more ambitious titles for the system. |
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 714 |
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Yep it is weird to a point. Japan has mostly moved on to mobile (cell phone and Switch) games. Also helps that the Switch is tiny compared to the tall Xbox Series and the fat ass that is the PS5 when space is limited and/or expensive in Japan. While Graphics are nice I think 4K gaming is overrated compared to the new ideas that small indies studios are pumping out. However I can understand when BIG Japanese studios like Capcom and SE need to cater to both markets since the Western market is huge compared to the east market. The west want's fancy looking things with high production values and the east want's what I assume short bursts of gameplay while they are on the move.
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1223 |
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Of course that studios like Capcom, SE, SEGA and Namco are making high-budget titles with a western focus, but I still feel that some of them are not achieving the results they were expecting, Namco was pushing Scarlet Nexus but it failed to attract the playerbase that they wanted, though Tales of Arise is their big title and it seems that it could be their FFVII, MH: World or Persona 5 (a game series that was popular in Japan but it exploded in the West). However, there're some smaller studios that primarily focus on the PS ecosystem and now are selling very few copies, mostly small RPGs, it seems that Sony doen't care about small titles, although today they announced that they're still investing in external Japanese development.
I also failed to notice that the hardware sales for the PS5 in Japan are even worse considering that they were celebrating Obon and usually hardware sales tend to increase during holidays. The PS5 has to get a really important game in order to sell more hardware, and I don't think that Tales of Arise or Demon Slayer will be the ones, even Final Fantasy has decreased in popularity in Japan. |
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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The thing is there's not much exclusively on the PlayStation these days for fans of Japanese games. The only game I have for PS5 is FF7:R, and I only have that due to the Yuffie DLC. Otherwise it collects dust while I play on PC and Switch most of the time and contemplate me spending 500 bucks just to see Yuffie and console myself by saying it's an investment for future games that will eventually come out.
Resident Evil Village, Guilty Gear Strive, Devil May Cry, Yakuza, Nier, Tales of Arise... You could get them on PlayStation 4/5 if you want, but they're not exclusively bound to Sony consoles and are available on PC as well, which is what I usually do. Meanwhile you have a lot of games that are exclusive to the Switch and aren't on PC. |
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ZelosZoidberg
Posts: 714 |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14886 |
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Or get the Steam Deck that could play Steam (PS games) and Xbox
Or use the Series console to play Nintendo, Steam (PS games), and PS1/2 games (totally legal) 
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1223 |
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Just recently I saw a list with the best-selling games and publishers in Japan up to August 9 of this year and Nintendo has a market share of 42% followed by Capcom with 23% and Konami with 10%, menawhile Square Enix is is the 7º spot with 3% followed by Bandai Namco with just 2%, it seems that SEGA isn't in the list. In terms of hardware, Nintendo has a market share of 95% while Sony only has 3% and Microsoft just 0.5%.
As I said before, it's weird how publishers like SE and BN are not trying to take advantage of the Switch's installbase, Nintendo had always had problems with 3rd party support but for consoles like the N64 and GCN it had to do more with how few consoles they sold, while their portables had a lot of support, and considering Switch's hybrid nature and sales is weird how little support from major developers who are missing potential sales. SE has at least tried with games like Octopath and Bravely Default II, but they didn't gave them a lot of publicity and NEO TWEWY outright bombed. BN only successes on Switch have been Taiko Drum Master and Fishing Spirits, but they tend to do a lot of late ports like Jump Force and DB which don't tend to sell well. It's obvious that now companies are more dependent on Western sales, but Japan is still a major market and they're missing a lot. |
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