This November, the PlayStation 4 is launching in Australia, North America and Europe. Know where it’s not? Japan, that’s where.
While Sony is a Japanese company, the country won’t see the PlayStation 4 until next February. On the official Japanese blog, many commenters seem disappointed by the news. Some are angry, while others are resigned to the fact.
Sony said the reason for the delay was that they’d like to have a strong line-up of Western titles (they need to be localised, you know!) as well as Japan-specific games.
Here’s a sample of comments (note that these are not indicative of all Japanese gamers):
“This late launch is truly disappointing. But looking at the launch line-up it does seem like putting the console on sale this year would be hard.”
“Promising pre-orders abroad there weren’t enough machines for this country, so it was pushed back!”
“Well, this is a disappointment.”
“I don’t want to play a half-localised game, so the two-month wait is a valid excuse.”
“Too late.”
“I was excited about getting the PS4 and Battlefield 4 at launch, but it’s two months later than the U.S. and Europe. I totally lost interest. Thanks! I’m not going to buy the PS4 until there’s a price cut.”
“This was unavoidable.”
“This is a Japanese game console, I wanted it to launch in Japan first. I don’t care about the number of consoles or the launch line-up.”
“I wanted to play the PS4 over the New Year’s holidays.”
“Change the date at the Tokyo Game Show, you incompetent lot.”
“I thought if it was late, it would be December, but geez, we have to wait until February… Are gamers who don’t play Western titles going to buy this at launch [in Japan]? I don’t think there are many of those.”
“This is neglecting Japanese gamers.”
“I seem to remember Japan getting the Vita two or three months before it was released abroad.”
“The Japanese game industry is no good.”
“It can’t be helped, and February is fine.”
“That was a great press conference. Save for the PS4 release date.”
“This is the result of Japanese gamers being a lower priority.”
“I’m really envious of Xbox One players. Microsoft listened to fans abroad and made improvements. Sony Japan isn’t doing anything like that at all.”
“That’s a lie that localisation takes time. The PS3 versions of some of these games are going on sale in Japan this year.”
“The PS4 launch date was a letdown, but I enjoyed what I saw. Also, the Vita TV they revealed is amazing!”
“Guess they’re going to run an amateur sales operation again.”
“Isn’t the PlayStation a Japanese console?!”
“I understand, and I can wait. But if they could sweeten that first edition bundle a little more…”
“February is too late. Forget the PS4, I’m getting a PC.”
『SCEJA Press Conference 2013』を終えて～SCEJAプレジデント 河野弘からのメッセージ [Sony via IT Media]
Comments
15 responses to “Japanese Gamers Are Disappointed About The PS4 Launch Date”
The one time that we get a Sony console before Japan and they’re all up in arms about how unfair it is…. Japan, you’ve let me down
“That’s a lie that localisation takes time. The PS3 versions of some of these games are going on sale in Japan this year.”
This guy makes a decent case. I thought Sony really took care of their Japanese fans, I guess I was wrong!
Having worked on localisations – no, it really doesn’t.
The difference between localising the PS3 and PS4 versions is likely the same as PS3 and 360. Rebuilding menus, etc, is hard and not transferable between code bases.
Fair counter point.
Not Japan; Gamers. All gamers are whingers, lets be honest.
EDIT: Woah didn’t realise it was a delay back to Feb! Wow that sucks; reckon that’s a risky move too. JP is Sony’s biggest market isn’t it?
No, it’s Sony’s smallest market. PS3 sold about 1/3 the units in Japan that it did in the USA and Europe. Vita sales there are about on par with USA / Europe (presumably because of Japan’s drift towards handheld consoles in recent years), and they got the Vita before everybody else.
So Japanese like… Nintendo most? Arcades? haha
Japan isn’t the market it used to be, Europe is the most important market for both Sony and Microsoft as by size it’s actually larger than the US, it’s just much more fragmented. It’s also Sony’s strongest territory.
I’d be pissed at Sony, too.
Sadly, I think it’s probably a reflection of the state of games development in Japan – Sony seem to think that Western games are going to generate more sales than local content.
More to the point Sony has a genuine battle to fight in Western and Euro markets. Japan is essentially a pre-existing position of market dominance for them at this point, Nintendo’s offering is a generation behind at the technology level and isn’t selling and Microsoft has never been popular in that region.
Lol they can just watch all the share videos to tie them over till its released 😛
I live in Japan so I’m pretty disappointed. I was going to get the console here and import the games from back home. Wanted to play Watch_Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV on PS4 on launch so badly…
Why do they need to release it when we get it, they have no real competition there. Focusing on areas where they do have decent competition makes sense. They may be complaining now but come next year they will still be lining up for a PS4 not XBone and anyone wanting a Wii U would have already gotten one by now.
Wow, what a level headed and stoic bunch the Japanese gamers are, if the PS4 was delayed untill next year here or in America there would be no end of the butt hurt nerd RAGE.
i wish they would stop making so many sports games as starting titles i can kick a ball any where
It’ll be ok – they can download the Playstation app and watch us live while we play *grin*