Here's Why Sony Is Making a Japan-Specific PS5 Console

How does locking the language and region lead to such a dramatic price cut? My layman's guess would be that this is just a software issue, and that it would be cheaper to just have one operating system for the PS5, with all supported languages available, rather than have to maintain separate operating systems for multiple regions.

Ok sounds good, so why can’t we do this in all regions and bring the cost down around the world?

Additional no components have changed so it goes to show how much us gamers are getting mugged off price wise.

@OldGamer999 The ironic thing is, you having Switch 2 as your profile pic, I'm sure you are aware Nintendo also did a regeion locked SW2 for Japanese customers too? Look I know you are very pro consumer (which is great) but unfortunately that just isn't how the world works, it should but it doesn't .

@Oram77 oh he knows...

@StrickenBiged so other regions doesnt buy it out on bulk and make proffit when reselling around the world. It is to deter people by software locking it. In general, it is long term "sale" in Japan to boost PS5 playerbase

@StrickenBiged Sony/PlayStation doesn't save any costs by "region locking" the PS5 to Japan. They might be losing money on this. But the business strategy is to get more people to buy their console in Japan, by losing some money. It might help them also improve the PlayStation brand with developers if the Japanese userbase is bigger.

What they want to avoid though is those cheaper consoles being sold outside of Japan. That's what the "region lock" is for. I guess it's not a true region lock in a traditional sense where only games from that region would work on the console.

Fells like we are back in the 90's where USA games didn't work without modifications in my PAL PlayStation.

So, if in my region PS5 sales drop they will surely make a PS5 that only works with say Italian, Greek or Turkish accounts, right?

I'm sorry, I have to agree with the sentiment that this is not a good look.

Firstly, I understand that this is a good thing to boost sales in Japan, and that Nintendo has done similar. I also understand that cheap consoles bought in Japan could be sold worldwide, though doesn't the PS5's price vary across different markets anyway once currency is converted?

But, I can't see how a unique region locked SKU is going to be much cheaper to manufacture, so they are doing this via subsidising.
If it were cheaper to make, why aren't they doing a cheaper English only variant for UK/US.

@StrickenBiged It's because it's a subsidised console meant only for the japanese(Japanese Exceptionalism?).

Previously they just made the Japanese consoles cheaper than other regions, but then people in mainland Asia just bought Japanese consoles and imported them. A lot of PS5's, and very likely a huge number of Switch's, sold in Japan actually got exported to places like China.

A cheap region-locked model basically means they’re selling it at a loss (or with a very small profit). The idea is to sell more hardware and make up the profit from game sales. Japan is an important market, after all. I suppose it makes even more sense for Nintendo, since they produce many first-party games that sell extremely well.

Hey Sony, release English only console in europe for discount too. I also don't want to pay for other languages I even don't understand.

@belmont
Just going off memory, at least part of that was due to the way in which UK TV's worked differently.
PAL worked on 50hz
NTSC worked on 60hz
I believe some TVs supported both.

@Rich33 I suppose piggy backing off what others have said, a English only version would be extremely easy to export, and if region locked console are sold at a loss, it would be magnified with this version by like 10x.

The biggest issue I have with this is that there are plenty of third world countries in the world, and none of them get special subsidised consoles. A lot of the time they don't even get proper regional pricing in software, and that' can be discounted without incurring a loss.

@Oram77
Yep I know Nintendo did it as well.
Yes around the world and not just consoles the pro-consumer era has disappeared.
That’s why I always try to stuck up for us the customer.
The bigger problem console world is owned by so few so they can control the market and prices more.
It’s not like cars or washing machines, where there is much more competition and the South Koreans etc joined in many years ago.

@Rich33
Most modern TVS support 60hz.
Even in my NeoGEO days I could get 60hz TVs in the UK, but limited to a few models.

@Rich33

But, I can't see how a unique region locked SKU is going to be much cheaper to manufacture, so they are doing this via subsidising.
If it were cheaper to make, why aren't they doing a cheaper English only variant for UK/US.

It's being subsidized in Japan. They aren't cheaper to make (probably it adds costs as they now need to manufacture an additional SKU and test the devices).

Call it a "strategic investment", Sony invest money to get the Japanese playerbase to grow and hopefully they get a return of the investment via sold games, subscriptions from the players and increased support from Japanese developers.

It's not much different from the case where Sony raised the prices of the PS5 in Europe and Asia due to the US tariffs, but kept the price the same in the US.

@SeaDaVie

The biggest issue I have with this is that there are plenty of third world countries in the world, and none of them get special subsidised consoles. A lot of the time they don't even get proper regional pricing in software, and that' can be discounted without incurring a loss.

I guess it's because most of the players in those "third world" countries cannot afford the expensive games and definitely won't subscribe to PS Plus. So in that case Sony wouldn't make their money back on the subsidized consoles if the playerbase only bought 1-2 games and are mostly playing free-to-play games like Fortnite and COD Warzone.

@Oram77
I agree - I just think this dispels any notion that they are locking to Japanese for any form of cost saving, so its all coming from subsidisation.

Allow me to explain in simple terms.

Sony sell in multiple markets where they face different competitive conditions.

In Japan where consumer tastes are different to the West, consoles like the Switch provide more direct stiff competition.

In the West, consoles like Switch sell well but it's not a direct competitor to PlayStation, and Sony have a virtual monopoly in the AAA home console market. Xbox was the competition in the West but they are dead.

Region locking allows Sony to compete aggressively on price in Japan, whilst still being able to exploit their monopoly and charge a premium price and have a larger profit margin in the West.

Simple as that. Anything else anyone says is plain wrong I'm afraid.

@TrollOfWar So the subsidised consoles should be sold in the USA and Western Europe, right? Those are the territories that buy the most high margin items. Japan is famous for everyone using the PS5's to play F2P games like Genshin Impact and Apex Legends.

@OldGamer999
The person I was replying to was referencing the 90's - im sure you could get TVs in the UK that supported PAL and NTSC (I think mine did), but it wasn't guaranteed, so they needed 2 types of console - 1 that supported PAL output for UK (and possibly other regions), and 1 that supported NTSC output.

All TV's for a long while have supported various refresh frequencies - your PS5 will even tell you what your TV supports.

@Rich33 In the late 90s most TVs supported both formats. The issue was in the console. You had to install a modchip, do swap tricks etc.

the yen is weak and for people that import from japan the ps5 would cost 300$, rising the price was to stop these people from importing cheap, but in return it screwed japanese gamers, for japanese people the ps5 slim costs went up to 800$.

so this is a good thing , the price goes down to 500$ as it should be.

Thanks all, I get the idea now.

@StrickenBiged
This has less to do with software and more with logistics.

Its easier to do logistics if a console is region-locked, stock management, shippment, distribution, etc. You could even manufacture some components in said country too to get some tax discount.

Not only that, but even advertisement, collab oppotunities and other stuff can be made easier by going that route.

If this ps5 falls to sell then it's safe to say PC gaming is also not a thing considering the 9060xt cost like 55,000 yen.

Console gaming is also on a decline in jp. But at least the more people that can buy a PS5, the more people for the JP developers to sell too and also stop making PS4 games

@Rich33
Yep I remembering importing consoles like from the USA and an N64 from Japan.
60hz TV was a must for that.

@SeaDaVie Well, traditionally consoles prices have been subsidized in US and Western Europe, and usually over the span of a generation component & production costs would decline, which resulted in big price reductions in past console generations. I'm not familiar with the buying habits of Japanese players, but I guess Sony sees how many games Nintendo and other publishers are selling in Japan and they want a bigger share of the pie.

I think Sony doesn't need to further subsidize the price of the PS5 in the West (Europe and US), because the PS5 is already selling damn well. Consumers have shown that they are willing to pay the current prices and more (remember the scalper prices at launch?) and Xbox as a console isn't competing anymore. In Japan though Nintendo is dominating the market.

It's also unclear to the public how much a PS5 truly costs to manufacture. Sony has said shortly PS5 launch that their consoles are sold at a profit and still released several revised versions with "cheaper" internal components, while Xbox admitted a subsidized loss of around $200 per Xbox Series X console.

@belmont
It was a problem for console producers at the time, as TV NTSC compatibility wasn't guaranteed until after the PS1 launched I believe. Thankfully TV's moved on to support all ouputs (I think they still support 50hz now).

My point was only that there was an additional tech reason back then, but that doesn't apply here.

I applause Sony's effort to gain more sales in Japan. But i think Japan is a lost cause for home console market.

The era where Japanese bought home console like PS1 & PS2 era already long gone. I can boldly claim home console in Japan will become niche like Arcade cabinets.

Right now Japan goes full handheld & mobile which really fits with their lifestyle. If Sony wants PS to gain a big foothold in Japan again, they need to make PS6 like Switch; a handheld x home console hybrid. But that means PS6 will be a direct competitor with Switch 2, which will be difficult for PS6. The time PS6 release in 2027, Switch 2 already sold a ton in Japan and probably the main choice for Japanese devs...

They should say it for what it is: region-locking the console doesn't make it cheaper in itself, it's just a weird way to implement a price drop while disencouraging us foreign vultures.

It’s effectively just a price cut for Japan only. That’s the only reason it’s in Japanese language and requires a Japanese psn account so people don’t import them to other markets.

By limiting it like this Sony haven’t miraculously found a way to produce them cheaper which is what the article implies.

@themightyant " if successful, we will get more Japanese games on PlayStation" and that right there is what I'm hoping for the most.

@Dodoo the PS5 digital launched at 39,000 yen but the yen lost value on the global market. Buying things in Japan has not necessarily gone up as much as the ps50did which was over 30,000 yen and the feels like the PS5 went up by 300 dollars to the Japanese consumer.

Sony could've just cut the price of the console, reversing some of the self-inflicted damage caused by their constant price hikes. Altering firmware and OS details will not reduce the price of a PS5.

I'm still waiting for Sony to reduce the PS5 by the £30 that they said was due to exchange rates but they've never price corrected down, money grabbing bar stewards.

@Oram77
Sorry, I should have added that I do think Sony are in a bit of a Catch22 situation. Region lock a subsidised console and risk slightly upsetting other markets (which have just seen price rises) vs improving flagging sales in Japan.

Under the current management, I feel like we're starting to see PlayStation trying to improve their standing in the home market/industry, and this fits perfectly into that strategy. It's something I've felt since that State of Play back in June where the first 20 minutes were all about Japanese studios, and then they finished it with the Marvel Tokon announcement.

I have to say I'm a big fan of this direction. The last 15 years or so, we've seen PlayStation get increasingly westernized, perhaps losing a part of its original identity in the process. I'd like to believe this is them course correcting a bit, and that we might get some of that old PlayStation weirdness back.

I like how you completely forgot to explain the logic of the language lock and just focused on the obvious stuff that needed no explanation.

This is surely a preperation for the PS6 and their handheld version of that.

Have you seen the price of rice in Japan lately? Forget a 70k yen console. Those guys are struggling to pay for necessities. Like Sega increased the entry level salary to 330k yen a month that's 2100 USD. Where the heck will they afford a PS5 at that price. Rent ain't cheap in the major cities either.

I just can not be more happy that I hardpassed PS5 generation all together. It is an extremely expensive era, all along.
As a very happy owner of PS1 + PS3 Slim + PS4 glacier white edition, I gave total of 0 (zero) penny for PS5 console and PS5 games.
I lost nothing (on the contrary, gain so much) and I am happly ready for PS6 era.
Lets roll on to it...

if people manage to find an exploit for the japanese SKU (i.e. remove region locking), sony will have a problem on its hands... although i imagine sony will block international shipments from japanese retailers, such as amazon japan etc to make it more difficult to import brand new.

Raising the price to the rest of the world only to make it cheap in Japan doesn’t look good. Understandable why the cheaper price there, but also feels like the rest of the world are paying higher prices so they can do so

@lazymike yea this is precisely it. The price rise last year was huge at a time when Japanese wages are stagnant and food prices are steadily rising. I can only imagine that sales have been very low this year.
It’s sucks for us foreign gamers who live in Japan and want an English language version, but it is what it is.

As a gamer in Japan who switches between English and Japanese on my console regularly I’m worried about ps6 and the upcoming handheld being language-locked at release

Likely it's too little too late. I personally am not a fan of the Switch 2 but it's bigger advantage is that it's portable and can be played when you're taking a bus or train which can be a big benefit in Japan. Given most non Sony games are available on the Switch the ps5 is a hard sell.

So all these price hikes for the rest of the world were neccesary apparently but now they can massively discount it in Japan. Just another slap in the face for existing customers

@Blaze215 The thing is, PS5 units sells well in the rest of the world. People seemingly are willing to pay higher prices for PS5s. Sony wants to increase the sold units of PS5 Japan, where currently the numbers aren't there where Sony would like.

@TrollOfWar I completely understand why they are doing this. The point is maybe all the price hikes weren't necessary and we could actually be getting cheaper consoles 5 years into the ps5. So Sony is price gauging in areas where they can while making up excuses as to why they are hiking the price for customers that actually buy their products

In a world where most games have multiple different languages for subtitles and even voice acting, I wonder how this will work out. Surely if it’s just the UI that’s locked to Japanese it’s the matter of a quick Google search to find what everything is. Or Google video translate.

Will Sony try to get devs to release their Japanese versions of games without other languages included? Maybe stop other country PSN accounts using them?