Sony hate thread

[Marissa Moira]

What is with you and constantly regurgitating marketing speak. And what does any of the shit about TV and film bullshit have to do with them putting games on PC?


If Sony was making no money putting games on Steam, they wouldn't bother porting over games like Days Gone to Steam. As I said, nobody is going to the Playstation ecosystem because a few games get ported to PC. If anything, it will have the exact opposite effect. There has been no massive jump in console sales, game sales, PS+ subscriptions, or the like when they put Horizon: Zero Dawn on Steam, for example.

Actually yes there was, this was a year after Horizon's PC port.

PlayStation Helped Sony Beat Its Record Q1 Profits - IGN

Sony has broken its own financial first quarter profit records, with its Game & Network Services division (driven by PlayStation sales) also breaking its own revenue records for the same period.

www.ign.com

This media cross promotion thing is a very big long game. Uncharted and TLOU are essentially the dry run but they're doing animated fare as well in 2022. None of this has been out long enough or has not been released yet in order to see the effect. But smaller scale stuff like The Witcher and similar things done by other companies paid off. This is a pretty large and elaborate marketing strategy that the CEO of Sony wanted to do. They restructured the company for this whole operation.

You're also getting people still lining up for PS5's like it's launch day, interest hasn't waned.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Digital stuff is far more popular nowadays.

It's also easier for companies to get rid of with a snap of their fingers (see almost the entire DSiWare library that you can't play normally on an emulator). I for one would love physical media to come back, but only if it doesn't include any DRM bullshit that's in almost everything these days.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Actually yes there was, this was a year after Horizon's PC port.

PlayStation Helped Sony Beat Its Record Q1 Profits - IGN

Sony has broken its own financial first quarter profit records, with its Game & Network Services division (driven by PlayStation sales) also breaking its own revenue records for the same period.

www.ign.com

This media cross promotion thing is a very big long game. Uncharted and TLOU are essentially the dry run but they're doing animated fare as well in 2022. None of this has been out long enough or has not been released yet in order to see the effect. But smaller scale stuff like The Witcher and similar things done by other companies paid off. This is a pretty large and elaborate marketing strategy that the CEO of Sony wanted to do. They restructured the company for this whole operation.

You're also getting people still lining up for PS5's like it's launch day, interest hasn't waned.

Read that article again. There was a slight rise in game sales over the previous year, and an actual drop in hardware sales. 71% of the sales were digital, which would include Sony games sold on Steam. Of the software sold, not even half were first party exclusives - 10.5 million in first party sales, to 63.6 million games sold total. That means that most of Sony's game sales are due to third party games, not to their first party offerings like Uncharted.

And PS5's interest not waning doesn't mean much; the Switch still outsells it hand over fist despite being older, and its game sales are paltry, especially in Japan. The Switch moves far more actual games. The PS5 still has interest because nobody can get one due to scalping.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Read that article again. There was a slight rise in game sales over the previous year, and an actual drop in hardware sales. 71% of the sales were digital, which would include Sony games sold on Steam. Of the software sold, not even half were first party exclusives - 10.5 million in first party sales, to 63.6 million games sold total. That means that most of Sony's game sales are due to third party games, not to their first party offerings like Uncharted.

And PS5's interest not waning doesn't mean much; the Switch still outsells it hand over fist despite being older, and its game sales are paltry, especially in Japan. The Switch moves far more actual games. The PS5 still has interest because nobody can get one due to scalping.

The Japanese market hasn't really been a major point of relevancy for a long ass time. You're looking at the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era for when it stopped being a major market. They switched to mobile phones for the majority around the mid 2000's

The health of a console is decided by the large markets that's where the actual activity takes place and that's where a game's success are put to the test. The entire Soulsborne genre exists almost entirely due to it's western popularity for example. You're getting all sizes of developers wanting to tap into international markets, remaining in Japan as a developer usually means you're going to be doing mobile phone games.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

The Japanese market hasn't really been a major point of relevancy for a long ass time. You're looking at the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era for when it stopped being a major market. They switched to mobile phones for the majority around the mid 2000's

Tell that to Nintendo, who rake in money hand over fist. Japan is still one of the largest gaming markets in the world. It doesn't stop being important just because Sony doesn't do well there.

The health of a console is decided by the large markets that's where the actual activity takes place and that's where a game's success are put to the test. The entire Soulsborne genre exists almost entirely due to it's western popularity for example. You're getting all sizes of developers wanting to tap into international markets, remaining in Japan as a developer usually means you're going to be doing mobile phone games.

Even if we only took into account larger markets, which is basically the U.S., the largest market there is, Sony is still getting stomped by Nintendo, handedly.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Tell that to Nintendo, who rake in money hand over fist. Japan is still one of the largest gaming markets in the world. It doesn't stop being important just because Sony doesn't do well there.

Japan has 4-5 other markets ahead of it.

Nintendo hasn't been able to get western mainstays like sports games on their platforms. It also has been left with higher end games not being able to run on it. It has some pretty major weaknesses when it comes to any type of longstanding dominance.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Japan has 5 other markets ahead of it.

Name them. Irrelevant in any case.

Nintendo hasn't been able to get western mainstays like sports games on their platforms.

Also irrelevant. This has done nothing to hurt Nintendo in terms of console sales or game sales.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Name them. Irrelevant in any case.


Also irrelevant. This has done nothing to hurt Nintendo in terms of console sales or game sales.

More than half of Japan's game spending comes from mobile games so you're looking at somewhere between 60% and 70% of the 20,615,000,000 total being mobile games which puts it at a similar level to most European countries if you're talking console sales.

The US market in turn is more than double of what japan does in total.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

More than half of Japan's game spending comes from mobile games so you're looking at somewhere between 60% and 70% of the 20,615,000,000 total being mobile games which puts it at a similar level to most European countries if you're talking console sales.

Once again, hardly relevant. Nintendo shows that there is money to be made in that market. Sony's just not making it.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Once again, hardly relevant. Nintendo shows that there is money to be made in that market. Sony's just not making it.

Except many Japanese companies are partnering with sony for international exposure. That's kind of what they've been doing.

Nintendo is even doing it themselves and establishing themselves in the west way more by starting themeparks and cutting multi-movie deals with western companies to get their products more established elsewhere.

There's international demand and a far larger audience abroad than at home. It's kind of why Sony bought Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia which is why Warner is also getting stuff for HBO max like the live action TV series based on playstation properties.

the future of non-mobile Japanese games exists outside Japan. Most of the population will forego consoles entirely.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Nintendo is even doing it themselves and establishing themselves in the west way more by starting themeparks and cutting multi-movie deals with western companies to get their products more established elsewhere.

The only Nintendo theme park thus far...is in Japan. Not to say that Universal won't build more. But its telling that the first one they built was in Japan. As for the movie deal, it a simple multimedia deal. Nintendo isn't shifting away from Japan. Its the type of multimedia deals companies do all the time.

There's international demand and a far larger audience abroad than at home. It's kind of why Sony bought Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia

Sony did that because they want to corner the international Anime market. They won't but that seems to be their end goal.

 

[Marissa Moira]

The only Nintendo theme park thus far...is in Japan. Not to say that Universal won't build more. But its telling that the first one they built was in Japan. As for the movie deal, it a simple multimedia deal. Nintendo isn't shifting away from Japan. Its the type of multimedia deals companies do all the time.


Sony did that because they want to corner the international Anime market. They won't but that seems to be their end goal.

Nintendo is shifting away from Japan, their majority of profits come from western markets by a large margin.

Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Zelda, all way more popular in the west.

Sega did it, Capcom did it, Square did it, BandaiNamco did it. It's been a trend for a long time.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Nintendo is shifting away from Japan, their majority of profits come from western markets by a large margin.

Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Zelda, all way more popular in the west.

I'd like to know where you are getting THAT idea from, because nothing Nintendo has said or done even remotely suggest that they are shifting away from the Japanese market. If anything, the Switch seems tailor made to appeal to that market.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I'd like to know where you are getting THAT idea from, because nothing Nintendo has said or done even remotely suggest that they are shifting away from the Japanese market. If anything, the Switch seems tailor made to appeal to that market.

Switch really isn't tailor made for the market, because if it was it would be fully mobile like the DS and 3DS was and the DS had a bunch of features that were only viable in Japan.

The console aspect is so it wouldn't be viewed as something lesser compared to the other consoles in the US market.

There's actually a difference in views about the switch in the US and Japan, they don't view the console in the same light. It makes me wonder just how much those views will impact their next console since it seems to be already in development.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Switch really isn't tailor made for the market, because if it was it would be fully mobile like the DS and 3DS was and the DS had a bunch of features that were only viable in Japan.

The fact that its mobile at all will appeal instantly to the Japanese, as its sales have shown. Also, the small form factor really appeals to them, considering that the average Japanese person lives in a cardboard box.

There's actually a difference in views about the switch in the US and Japan, they don't view the console in the same light. It makes me wonder just how much those views will impact their next console since it seems to be already in development.

I have my own thoughts regarding what Nintendo will do with their next console, but I won't get into that here.

 

[Marissa Moira]

The fact that its mobile at all will appeal instantly to the Japanese, as its sales have shown. Also, the small form factor really appeals to them, considering that the average Japanese person lives in a cardboard box.


I have my own thoughts regarding what Nintendo will do with their next console, but I won't get into that here.

Form factor for even the OLED is debatable, the thing needs it's own bag to carry around because it's not pocket sized and they seem to be sticking with the larger model than going smaller for new revisions.

It's larger than the game gear in width and the game gear was big for a handheld. Battery life is also ass, so portable mode means you got to have it plugged in.

Compared to a phone it's not as convenient.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Form factor for even the OLED is debatable, the thing needs it's own bag to carry around because it's not pocket sized and they seem to be sticking with the larger model than going smaller for new revisions.

It's larger than the game gear in width and the game gear was big for a handheld. Battery life is also ass, so portable mode means you got to have it plugged in.

Yes, those have always been issues with the Switch because of its hybrid nature, but those issues have not stopped almost half of its userbase from using it purely as a handheld (the majority of the other half using it only as a home console).

 

[Marissa Moira]

Yes, those have always been issues with the Switch because of its hybrid nature, but those issues having stopped almost half of its userbase from using it purely as a handheld (the majority of the other half using it only as a home console).

Yes but in comparison to phones they make up more than 30% of all mobile IOS/Android game purchases worldwide. It's not the same for consoles. That's where the Japanese have the largest felt impact is within mobile games, it would be a different story if they were having 30% of all console sales world wide.

Mobile Games Market Spotlight: Japan Accounted for Nearly a Quarter of Global Revenue in First Nine Months of 2020

Games published by Japanese companies hit a record $1 billion from international sales in 2019, Sensor Tower data shows.

sensortower.com

This is kind of why console game devs are looking to branch out internationally. You're not getting the same types of games they make with mobile.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Yes but in comparison to phones they make up more than 30% of all mobile IOS/Android game purchases worldwide. It's not the same for consoles. That's where the Japanese have the largest felt impact is within mobile games, it would be a different story if they were having 30% of all console sales world wide.

Numbers in regards to mobile don't really matter for Switch. Just like PC sales don't really matter. They are different markets, and Switch's sales are more than sustainable for it at this juncture.

 

[BananaSplit]

The whole "Japan is an irrelevant market" is nothing more than a sony fanboy excuse for the sole reason the Playstation brand no longer hold a part of the domestic market like it used to be.

Woopty-fucking-do, that's still terrible, as the article you link to attests.

Even the article that he linked just end up confirming Famitsu's report.

The latest Famitsu boxed game sales data shows that the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game combined sold 149,884 copies in the first week in Japan, which is significantly less than the 231,188 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard managed in 2017.

As shown by historical sales data held on Game Data Library, the only times a main entry in the Resident Evil series had a worse opening weekend were the original Resident Evil on PlayStation (which sold 148,904 copies) and Resident Evil 4 (which sold 145,533 copies when it was a GameCube exclusive). Recent installments Resident Evil 3 (189,490) and Resident Evil 2 (265,324) also enjoyed stronger debuts in Japan.

UPDATE 14/05/21: According to Japan-based analyst and investment adviser David Gibson, Resident Evil Village also sold some 150,000 units digitally in Japan, for around 300,000 copies in total.

The article update clearly doesn't state how the speculated number is divided among platforms (as RE:Village came out for the Xbox Series and PC as well). Digital sales don't make the majority of total sales in the nippon market and physical copies quickly dropped in price so the retailers could clear up the stocks, so I would take Gibson's report with a grain of salt, especially when used for the current PS4/PS5 performance in Japan.

01./00. [PS4] Resident Evil Village # <ADV> (Capcom) {2021.05.08} (¥7.990) - 111.171 / NEW <40-60%>
04./00. [PS5] Resident Evil Village # <ADV> (Capcom) {2021.05.08} (¥7.990) - 38.713 / NEW <40-60%>

01./01. [PS4] Resident Evil Village # <ADV> (Capcom) {2021.05.08} (¥7.990) - 35.045 / 146.216 <60-80%> (-68%)
12./04. [PS5] Resident Evil Village # <ADV> (Capcom) {2021.05.08} (¥7.990) - 6.083 / 44.796 <40-60%> (-84%)

Percentage represents the approximate amount of the shipped stock sold to japanese customers, within the two first weeks of release.

Yes, those have always been issues with the Switch because of its hybrid nature, but those issues have not stopped almost half of its userbase from using it purely as a handheld (the majority of the other half using it only as a home console).

Form factor is only a part of the Switch's success. It's mainly the games that keep people interested into the system.
Also I take it Marissa Moira is basing his knowledge of the battery life off the V1 model, the V2 refresh and OLED model both have increased battery life (specifically the OLED lasts longer on higher brightness and games using lot of pure black colors than the V2)