Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Last month video game magazine Shukan Famitsu revealed that all thirty of the most popular games on its weekly software sales chart were for the Nintendo Switch, an unprecedented degree of domination by a single gaming platform.
While many other kinds of companies in Japan struggled to maintain sales and profits during the pandemic, the gaming industry had an extraordinarily good year in 2020. Covid lockdowns and restrictions forced many Japanese to stay home and isolate, pushing many to look for more sedentary options for entertainment.
Nintendo, in particular, benefitted from this situation.
In the fall of 2020, Nintendo saw its quarterly profits go up by 400% from the previous year thanks to Covid lockdowns and a strong product line. The convenience of the Switch, which allows players to use the console as a hand-held device or on a big screen, contributed to its success.
Meanwhile, competitors such as Sony and Microsoft, which might have ridden the same wave in 2020, were less well positioned to do so.
While Sony’s Playstation 5 (PS5) has seen massive success internationally, Japan’s gaming community has been less excited about the console and its November 2020 release for multiple reasons.
In terms of marketing, Sony had long been shifting away from its Japanese customer base and more towards a global approach. Back in 2014, Sony released the PS4 in Japan over three months after the console had been released in North America.
In 2016, Sony Interactive Entertainment, the subsidiary responsible for PlayStation, moved its headquarters from Japan to the United States. This move by Sony caused resentment among many Japanese players towards the video game giant.
In the PS5 release, Sony even neglected to add Japanese narration to the console’s reveal video, a move that further alienated its customer base in Japan.
Sony’s shift away from the Japanese market, as well as supply limitations, contributed to the PS5 having the worst launch performance of any PlayStation console since the PlayStation Portable in 2004.
In more recent months, PS5 sales have been rising, finally overcoming the PS4 in sales.
But PS5 games have continued to sell poorly in Japan, at least when compared to the massive success of the Nintendo Switch.
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