TOKYO: Japanese gamers are getting the shortest end of the joystick, as Sony Interactive Entertainment has prioritized American and foreign consumers in its PlayStation 5 marketing strategy.
PS5 has been scarce in Japan since its release in November, frustrating many domestic fans. Sony did not increase local supply of the device even during the year-end shopping season, the hottest time for video game consoles.
Even more unpleasant for Japanese gamers is that Sony has stopped shipping all but one PS4 model.
The supply crisis was highlighted on January 1 when Tokyo’s famous electronics store, Yodobashi Camera, put PS5 units on store shelves, despite growing concerns about coronavirus cases in Japan. The pandemic has forced stores to make the popular gaming console available primarily through an online lottery. The industry has adopted the online lottery formula to avoid large crowds in stores and reduce purchases to resell them with significant profits.
Japanese gamers were blown away by a report in early January that said Sony had stopped shipments of most PS4 models to Japan, with the Twittersphere exploding on the news. “It was earlier than expected,” a tweet said. “I need to buy PS5 now,” said another.
PS5 is still sold out to many retailers in Japan.
In fact, Sony stopped domestic shipments of three PS4 models and a premium version of the PS4Pro in late April 2020. In September, the company stopped shipping all but one PS4 model to retailers in Japan. .
Sony is expected to take similar steps to eliminate PS4 in foreign markets, but has declined to provide details.
Sales of new game consoles generally remain on the rise for several years before peaking. Annual PS4 sales, which were released in 2013 and amassed global sales of more than 100 million units, reached 20 million units in 2016.
Even after PS4 hit the market, Sony continued to ship PS3 until 2017 to alleviate upgrade issues to users. The company has taken the same approach to phasing out PS4.
PS4 peripherals and games will be kept on the shelves so that Sony can continue to make profitable revenue. The company’s gaming business is now a major winner thanks to recurring online gaming fees paid by 46 million subscribers.
The decision to reduce PS4 supply before the PS5 release aims to encourage upgrading to the new model, especially among PS4Pro users. This power game makes sense for Sony’s management, as the PS5 console is compatible with most PS4 games, a big change compared to the transition from PS3 to PS4, which was not compatible with previous games.
But PS5 sales in Japan have been sluggish, with only about 266,000 units sold in the first eight weeks, according to Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. This accounts for about half of the PS4 in the same time period and less than 60% of the PS3, whose initial sales also suffered from a lack of supply. It should be noted that PS5 sales barely increased during the Christmas and New Year shopping season.
But that’s because of the design, as Sony is focusing on the U.S. market, where nearly 2 million units have already come off the shelves, according to VGChartz, a gaming information website. The company faces stiff competition from the region’s new Microsoft Xbox consoles, making a deep supply of PS5 there essential. According to VGChartz, nearly 1.5 million new Xbox phones have already been sold in North America.
The latest Xbox also has a strong presence in Europe, where 700,000 consoles have been purchased since its launch last November, compared to the 1.6 million PS5s.
In contrast, Sony does not feel the heat in Japan. Despite relatively modest home PS5 sales, sales of rival Xbox consoles have not been much better, with only 30,000 sold so far, according to Famitsu. In other words, Sony does not have to worry about the conquest of Xbox by the Japanese market.
Microsoft is also struggling to get a stable supply of consoles due to the lack of processing and graphics chips that most of the world suffers from. Executive Vice President of Gaming Phil Spencer recently asked the head of Advanced Micro Devices (an American chip maker that supplies Xbox and PS5) to keep up with demand. “I was on the phone last week with [CEO] Lisa Su at AMD [asking] How do we get more? Spencer said, according to CNN.
Apparently, AMD can’t keep up, as the demand for chips used in home entertainment is increasing due to the pandemic.
Both PS5 and Xbox depend on the chips supplied by AMD, such as the Ryzen CPU processing unit shown here.
Sony expects to sell more than 7.6 million PS5 consoles worldwide by the end of March, surpassing PS4 sales record in the first year. The target seems within reach, as 4.5 million units have already been purchased, according to VGChartz.
Solid sales were also expected for Japan, as consumers spend more time at home. But supply shortages are bothering some Japanese players. More than a few have lost their passion for PS5, while others have migrated to PC games.
This shows that Sony’s strategy of pushing people to PS5 by phasing out PS4 can cause a negative effect at home.
Still, the company seems fearless, launching another PS5 unit overseas in India on January 1, hardly an encouraging sign for frustrated Japanese gamers and perhaps indicating a significant loss of prestige and confidence. at home.