PlayStation Japan Sales 1

For decades now, PlayStation has been the home to Japanese games – particularly the countless smaller projects that come out of the country. However, in recent years, software sales have been dwindling domestically – and with the PlayStation 5 continuing to be supply constrained, one unnamed executive has insinuated that Sony’s stranglehold is steadily transitioning to PC.

The Japanese publishing source told Bloomberg that “players who used to buy PlayStation versions of its games are now gradually shifting to the PC version”. It’s unclear whether he’s referring to a local or global trend, but more and more PlayStation associated franchises like Yakuza are making the shift to multiformat environments, and are proving incredibly popular on PC, so it’s not a huge surprise.

There’s been much hand-wringing with regards to Sony’s treatment of its native Japan among PlayStation fans of late, which reached fever-pitch when the firm shuttered its legendary Japan Studio. Whether the manufacturer wants to fight for a market it once dominated, however, is up for debate – after all, the platform holder is even porting its own first-party games to PC these days.

[source bloomberg.com]