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[John Dunbar]

disgusting.

 

[SmokyDave]

Devs aret flocking to mobiles because they can make cheap games that are profitable that nickle and dime their customers. There's no reason for them to offer anything more than that on those platforms.

And yet they already are.

There's an audience there, it just sounds like you're not part of it. That's cool, there are plenty of other platforms to choose from.

 

[Aquamarine]

The Xbox One is so dead in Japan.

I fully believe Microsoft realizes how useless it will be to expect a great amount of success from releasing the Xbox One in Japan. That's exactly why they aren't targeting the region until late 2014 at the earliest. It's the future of any sort of console game market in Japan that has me incredibly worried.

With the proliferation of the smartphone game market combined with the 3DS's dominance, and the eminence of handheld games in the retail market peppered with a few PS3 titles here and there, I feel that the Japanese gaming industry has sufficiently transformed into an entity that doesn't desire any more of the imminent, traditional home consoles.

There's a real danger that the PS3 / Wii may be the last successful home consoles in Japan. Besides the history of Xbox consoles flailing in the market and the current apathy towards the Wii U, I'm just not at all confident that Sony has been sufficiently marketing the PS4 to Japanese consumers and smaller Japanese developers (i.e. not Square Enix / Capcom).

The few massive-budget Japanese-style third-party games that have so far been revealed (FF14, Kingdom Hearts 3) don't exactly encourage mid-tier developers to jump on development for the system. Some people here keep making assumptions like "The lineup will be revealed at TGS, everything will be fine," but the paradigm shift seems quite pronounced with news like the massive expansion of the Japanese smartphone gaming market.

And, there's the PS3 to grab all of the existing console development. Try telling a mid-tier Japanese developer that they should release their relatively-small-budget retail title on a console with a small install base and a library that's filled with massive, Western-oriented, big-budget titles...when they could be releasing it on a still-viable, proven platform with a massive install base and with fewer development resources.

 

[That1BlackGuy]

Not surprising at all and businesses would be crazy not to capitalize on the potential profits that this venture can bring, especially in the face of global competition. Smartphones are going to relegate dedicated gaming portables to niche devices which means I'll be stuck playing older portable games (which actually isn't a problem).

Japan as a viable market for home consoles is one and done; I don't believe that the Playstation 4 will move many units, or rather not to the extent of the Playstation 3. The very nature of a home console clashes with the demand of the Japanese market these days. As I've said in the MC Threads, Japan is going to largely be a one console market and their console of choice for the 8th generation is the 3DS.

 

[QaaQer]

Not surprising at all and businesses would be crazy not to capitalize on the potential profits that this venture can bring, especially in the face of global competition. Smartphones are going to relegate dedicated gaming portables to niche devices which means I'll be stuck playing older portable games (which actually isn't a problem).

Japan as a viable market for home consoles is one and done; I don't believe that the Playstation 4 will move many units, or rather not to the extent of the Playstation 3. The very nature of a home console clashes with the demand of the Japanese market these days. As I've said in the MC Threads, Japan is going to largely be a one console market and their console of choice for the 8th generation is the 3DS.

It looks like the console of choice is the smartphone.

 

[AxelLund]

Woah $5.1 Billion in just 1 year! Thats impressive.

 

[Nikodemos]

The outlook is pretty bleak,particularly for the PS4,Wii U and Xbone.

Media Create - Hardware Sales 


        (Jan 1,2007 – Aug 05,2007)                (Dec 31,2012 - Aug 04,2013)
      
NDS	        4,693,678                 3DS              2,210,593
PSP	        1,255,519                 PSV              628,664
GBA	        43,471                    PSP              326,752
	
Handhelds	5,992,668                 Handhelds        3,166,009
	
	
Wii	        2,365,438                 PS3              532,736
PS3	        584,420                   Wii U            399,142
PS2	        488,870                   Wii              51,748
360	        133,122                   360              17,010
GC	        9,000  
	
Home Consoles	3,580,850                 Home Consoles    1,000,636


Total	        9,573,518                 Total            4,166,645

Looking at those numbers, there are some interesting things I've noticed. Nintendo lost over 50% in handheld sales; comparatively, Sony's handhelds are doing proportionally better than they were in 2007 (950 thousand to 2.2 million, as opposed to 1.2 million to 4.7, at a net loss of ~25% of 2007 sales). In home consoles the PS3 is, oddly enough, selling about as well as it ever did; Nintendo's losses are terrible (they're selling about 1/5th the number of consoles they did in 2007) and "I can't believe the 360's sales numbers" said no one ever. Nintendo's massive loss of market share is troubling, especially since it looks like their main competitor had a much smaller decrease. This tells me that it was them who lost the largest userbase percentage in favour of mobile games.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Capcom and SE trying to make that paper.

 

[Shengar]

I still don't understand why these companies don't treat their phone releases like handheld releases and continue to make handheld/phone exclusives.

I mean, why not release something like Square's Final Fantasy remakes on 3DS/Vita/iOS/Android? It seems to me like that's just leaving money on the table.

I guess Japanese company is too ancient to realize that mobile and console is separate market and treat them as one and same.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

I wonder how the PS4 will fare in Japan.

A lot of people seem to assume that Wii U's problems are tied to hardware (pun intended), but seing these numbers makes one wonder about the future of console gaming as a whole, at least in that region.

 

[SmokyDave]

I wonder how the PS4 will fare in Japan.

A lot of people seem to assume that Wii U's problems are tied to hardware (pun intended), but seing these numbers makes one wonder about the future of console gaming as a whole, at least in that region.

Sony know which way the wind is blowing, that's why they're designing and building a western-facing console this time.

 

[thewhitehawk]

Sony know which way the wind is blowing, that's why they're designing and building a western-facing console this time.

To be honest I don't think the PS3 was eastern-facing either. It had an easter-mentality to it, in the way it was designed, but that didn't pay dividends for either western developers or eastern ones.

 

[Shengar]

Sony know which way the wind is blowing, that's why they're designing and building a western-facing console this time.

I respect western companies because they know how to treat both market as different entities, developing games for them with different team at the same time. This make me not worry about too many jump the bandwagon because they will still develop (quality) game for console market.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

Sony know which way the wind is blowing, that's why they're designing and building a western-facing console this time.

Yeah, that much is certain. Just looking at the launch line-up makes one wonder if they have disregarded Japanese gamers completely.

In this regard it would be interesting to see similar numbers (Smartphone vs Handheld/Console SW market share, and HW sale in general) for NA and EU.

Fortunately for Sony PS4 at least has some chance in the region, with the WiiU doing terrabad and the X1 being DOA.

It does not look (to me) like they're very eager on taking that chance however.

 

[BadWolf]

Sony know which way the wind is blowing, that's why they're designing and building a western-facing console this time.

The 360 has shown that a console can be very successful even if it completely bombs in Japan.

Fortunately for Sony PS4 at least has some chance in the region, with the WiiU doing terrabad and the X1 being DOA.

 

[Screamapillar]

Meanwhile, during the same period of time, Nintendo released Animal Crossing New Leaf in November 2012, a dedicated handheld exclusive, and it sold over two million, physical retail, in less than seven weeks.

Oh wait, I forgot... "handhelds are dead", though. Nevermind!

 

[QaaQer]

Meanwhile, during the same period of time, Nintendo released Animal Crossing New Leaf in November 2012, a dedicated handheld exclusive, and it sold over two million, physical retail, in less than seven weeks.

Oh wait, I forgot... "handhelds are dead", though. Nevermind!

It is about market relevance and market trends. How many more copies would animal crossing have sold has a multiplat release? How much more revenue as a multiplat game with in-game transactions? Is the additional revenue generated by developing and owning a platform worth it?

These are the kinds of questions that will be asked by executives, analysts, and shareholders. And, going forward, gamers and game hardware company fans may not like the answers.