by We’ve all seen the Famitsu sales data by now, and we know Sony hasn’t got a hope in hell of fighting the Switch 2 at this point.
That’s despite the manufacturer copying Nintendo’s homework and introducing a cheaper, language locked console model for its home region. It’s helped stop the rot, but it’s still getting comfortably outsold.
What to do next, then? Well, in case of emergency, break the VTuber panic glass. It’s teamed up with stars Kaminari Qpi and Shiranami Ramune to produce a trio of montage videos, spotlighting the PS5’s upcoming lineup.
Watch on YouTubeSubscribe to Push Square on YouTube171k
Among the games featured include the recently released survival horror Resident Evil Requiem, upcoming gacha NTE: Neverness to Everness, and Capcom’s uber-promising sci-fi shooter Pragmata.
You can watch all three of the videos within this page.
How much is it going to move the needle? Probably not a lot, but Sony is increasingly leaning on celebrities to promote its products in Asia.
Last Christmas it teamed up with rising stars QWER to produce a holiday song in Korea, and earlier this year it revealed Le Sserafim’s Kim Chaewon as an ambassador for the region.
[source youtube.com, via youtube.com, youtube.com]
Comments 53
If Sony wants to try to have a more significant presence in Japan...it will have to have exclusives that interest the Japanese.
Obviously, the future portable console is a good thing!! But it won't be enough when on the other side there's a console with exclusive Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon games.
They need to invest...and I'm not just talking about Japan. Steam and Nintendo, in the medium/long term, will become bigger threats to the Playstation.
This is very good, maybe even excellent.
Money well spent 😎
Not a bad idea to be honest, VTuber fanbases would find a way to resurrect extinct species if their oshi told them to do it XD
@INeedGoodGraphics So...they lowered the price of the PS5, I believe it was Nishino's decision.
The question is: How far will this desire to be relevant in Japan again go? Will they be willing to acquire Japanese studios/studios that make games for a Japanese audience?
In my mind, and this is just my opinion...considering that games are so expensive to make in the USA and that Playstation needs more games/studios...this investment makes sense.
@INeedGoodGraphics Maybe PlayStation could build up a studio in Japan which focuses on artistic Japanese games, similar to Ico, Shadow of the Colossus or The Last Guardian. I liked those games.
@Reyzore Still blows my mind that Sony hasn't capitalised on the anime gacha market yet outside of a single limited-time collab with Genshin and Horizon a couple years back. Gacha games like Hoyoverse's output are consistently some of the top-performing games on the PS Store, Sony's desperate for a proper live-service hit and people have been wanting Sony to break away from hyper-realistic visuals for their games for quite some time now (Astro Bot being a particularly prominent example of the success such a move can have from recent history).
Vtubers is the current trend since they have big and diehard fanbase. Sony doesn't need to pay a lot for them to promote PS.
@INeedGoodGraphics The problems with Japan are very complicated from shrinking traditional home console market to weak Yen. For Sony, they can't rely a lot on Japan market anymore. Hence why they're focusing on bigger market like China, Korea, Asia, and the usual US and EU.
@TrollOfWar The thing is, creating a studio from scratch these days is complex... the time it takes to create something. It might be cheaper, but at the same time it takes a long time and its success is uncertain. I feel that Playstation will have to invest in something already established and/or bet, for example, on the growth of Team Asobi (two teams, for example).
I'm old, and had to google Vtuber.
I think I lost a bunch of brain cells, watching a clip...
@Fizza I personally just want the Playstation to have a balanced game catalog.
I'd like to see RPGs/JRPGs...
I'd like to see a more arcade-style racing game (like Motostorm).
I'd like to see more games like Astro Bot...
I don't want Playstation to completely abandon realistic games either...because that's also part of its identity.
Sony should try doing something really crazy like make games that appeal to their Japanese fanbase maybe. That could help too.
Do the Japanese view Sony as more Western minded at this point and that’s part of the problem? Surely it can’t help them that Capcom and Square are starting to give more support to other platforms at this point. Requiem and Pragmata launching day and date on Switch in particular probably hurts Sony.
I'm going to say it again they should have stuck with Kato Konatsu her photo shoot last year got a lot of buzz and the video of hey simply buying a PS5 got over a 1M views.... just saying.
I think Sony need to do the following to get some market share back on Japan.
1, Acquire a big Japanese dev/publisher.
2, Use that developer to create JRPG's with a decent budget.
3, Bring out a native handheld.
4, Develop or Co develop anime games based off the current biggest anime shows, and make them exclusive.
5, Go all out on getting any new gacha games to release on Playstation day one, and even get them as console exclusives if possible.
6, Create more strong partnerships with third parties like they have with Konami.
I wonder to what extent them moving their HQ from Japan to California has made a difference?
@UltimateOtaku91 I mean they had Japan studio and closed them down. It felt like they didn’t give a crap about Japan for a good period of time which of course isn’t true but how it looked by their actions.
@datamonkey Less than Nintendo merging their handheld and console operations into one instead of having separate machines. The Switch changed everything in Japan. one machine, more sales, every Nintendo game is on one machine. Everyone wins apart from Sony (Microsoft in Japan are a rounding error)
Let's be clear, Nintendo's handhelds were outselling Sony in Japan well before Sony reorganised their operations ( Sony's wider Japanese operations went through huge restructuring some years ago, which may or may not be part of PlayStation's HQ moving to the US). We should assume Switch sells more units from being portable in Japan than as a tv console.
@datamonkey That'll be the Japan studio making games the Japanese buyers weren't exactly buying in droves? Japan Studio's success dropped off hugely after ps2 and the studio went through several internal reboots. The only really successful Japan Studio games were the ones they produced for outside developers. There is a reason they expanded the Astro Bot team and removed everything else (external producing for Japan is now handled by Xdev, who were already doing Europe and the US)
@Reyzore if only they had some kind of "Japanese Studio" that could make games like that... seems bizarre to me that they never thought of this 🤣
Nothing wrong with teaming up with vtubers, they have big fan bases and they're pretty recognizable.
Hell even Kojima put a vtuber in Death Stranding 2 lol.
@somnambulance
Requiem sold 4x more copies on PS5 than Switch 2 in Japan. 38k on Switch 2 doesn't seem that much for a 4.5m install base. It's half the number of Switch 2's sold that week. I don't think it's a big issue for Sony.
Switch 2 getting more big budget and technical games is more down to having a decent hardware spec this time. It's more than good enough to handle these games in portable mode. I think it's fine, some games will just sell more on one or the other but they aren't necessarily fighting over each others meal. DQ VII remastered is pretty much split between the two but other games will sell more on PS5 and others more on Sw2.
I think there is room for market expansion rather than Nintendo necessarily biting too much into Sony's sales.
@Exerion76 i could see why youmger people might like it but its very cringey to me.
Hmm. It's a tough nut to crack. Personally, I think PS5's problem in Japan is very simple: the game catalogue. There are very few games on PS5 that appeal to Japanese gamers and that you can't play anywhere else... it's the polar opposite to the situation Nintendo's in.
Or you make good games. There’s that.
@INeedGoodGraphics It's a bit chicken and the egg, with different things happening at the same time.
But Japanese PLAYERS started moving away from PlayStation home consoles long before PlayStation became a more Western company, that forced Sony to pivot, so they set up base in USA and start making games that appealed more to Western audiences. Most would have done similar, seeing their local business crumble.
Unfortunately in doing so they also lost a bit of the magic that made PlayStation PlayStation, that weird Japanese quirkiness etc. Thankfully they seem to be trying to push more in Japan, and I think this is all a push towards next gen and the handheld.
@INeedGoodGraphics The trouble with Gacha games like Genshin is that they take a HUGE amount of money and resources to make. Genshin alone has cost over $1bn USD to develop to this point and MiHoYo has over 5,000 employees (as of 2022, rumoured to be over 6,5000+ now) working on just a handful of games. For comparison that's more than half of all of SIE's workforce.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea, but it is a HUGE and risky undertaking, plenty of these games don't succeed.
EDIT: Though Sony does publish the massive Fate/Grand Order since they bought Aniplex (Sony Music Ent. Japan) so they are making some money in this space.
@LowDefAl That’s ignoring the fact that Requiem’s sales far exceeded Capcom’s expectations for the title in Japan and it reportedly sold out of physical copies and Nintendo doesn’t publish the digital data, so we’ve got some unknown variables currently. It very well could catch up on Switch 2 in the region.
Globally in the first week, the Switch 2 launch was a little more than half PS5’s sales, but still… the Switch 2 has been out less than a year and it got halfway to the PS5’s sales for the game. Would that 800k-1 million sales have shifted over to the 1.6 million PS5 or 2.3 million PC sales if a Switch 2 launch didn’t exist (or would they have contributed to the 300k on Xbox 😂)?
I do think Nintendo is starting to bite into Sony’s sales for higher profile games with the Switch 2 and it will continue as the Switch 2 install base grows and Japanese publishers are more aware of how sell through occurs with their stock and prepare more accordingly.
A smaller more aesthetically pleasing console would do wonders for the Japanese market. Space is at a premium and having a gigantic monstrosity sitting in the room isnt ideal. And then there are the games. Don't know how much of the Japanese audience is looking forward to wolverine or saros, but im sure it isnt helping.
What does "Age Age" mean? I feel like the FBI is going to barge in at any moment.
Have they considered actually making games that interest the Japanese? Most games made with them in mind also appeal to Westerners in 2026, so it seems like a no brainer.
Well, they shut down their big Japanese studios, don't take creative risks anymore, and don't have quirky unique little games coming out. Maybe instead of relying strictly on marketing they focus more on increasing the output of AA budgeted games.
For those saying that all Sony needs to do is make a handheld, you're wrong. The wonderful PS Vita sold 6 million in Japan throughout its life. The Switch 2 has sold 4 million in less than a year.
I like the energy in these trailers, but like some people already suggest there is a better way: actually make some games for them.
Not for a single second have I looked at a vtuber stream and thought 'yes this is clearly better than a real human face'.
A small youtuber guy I used to watch became a vtuber, same dude voice but now coming out of 3D anime girl. It sucks. Even a perfectly nice looking girl youtuber I used to watch did the same thing. It's so weird to me and I'm like a real anime otaku so I'm not some "normie" against anime ***** lol
@Theamazing1 @Exerion76 It's not so much a young person thing as it is an anime geek thing. The average kid has no idea this exists. I only know about it because the only person I know that watches this stuff (or even knows what it is), a 43-year-old man that's never had a girlfriend, likes watching it. Even in Japan, anime isn't really mainstream. You get kids' stuff put on right after school, then the more otaku stuff that's typically on from about midnight to 3am. Some stuff breaks out into being genuinely mainstream, like how The Simpsons became an American institution, such as Doraemon, One Piece, and Studio Ghibli films.
Making exclusive games that appeals to the Japanese would make better results.
@Fizza Sony owns Grand/Fate order.
@INeedGoodGraphics I'm pretty sure Sony Interactive Entertainment is an American company, not a Japanese one, since their headquarters are in America.
@themightyant Sony didn't buy Aniplex. It was made in-house.
@Questionable_Duck Skny Interactive Entertainment is a Japanese company that moved to the US.
They started in Japan after all.
@Vyse_the_Legend Yes, it was originally Japanese (and you can still consider the PlayStation brand as a whole Japanese), but the company itself is now American.
I mean, even the Wikipedia page says that they're an American company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment
Not that the distinction really matters much, but I think this is why SIE is more Western-focused than Japanese-focused. The only console manufacturer whose headquarters are in Japan is technically Nintendo.
It was never going to happen overnight but this is what they should do. Nonstop marketing and try to appeal to Japanese gamers again.
@Questionable_Duck Wikipedia can be wrong though.
But still even if SIE was American in the past, they are more Japanese now with Nishino who definitely cares about Japan, unlike Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst.
And Japan Studio used to be called Sony Computer Entertainment before being renamed to the Japan Studio in 2006 which means anything they made Sony did as well.
The same I would say with Team Asobi as well since they are a successor of JS.
That seems fine, but they pretty sure know the reason why PS5 doesn't sell in Japan is because:
1 - The system is bulky, even the slim version.
2 - Not so many japanese developers making japanese games for the japanese audience.
Basically the same problem PS3 had.
Hopefully PS6 can fix that, but I don't see a future for PS5 there.
My opinion is that the problem with the ps5 is that it's huge and not very appealing. The Switch is completely portable and the Xbox Series S is quite small. I think the problem is atheistic over anything else is Japan.
They already had Pekora for the 30th Anniversary Project: Memory Card last year.
https://blog.ja.playstation.com/tachyon/sites/7/2025/03/410f0233686b9da75337765fa4261e357b1fac32.jpg
Pekora was even featured in Death Stranding 2, which is also published by Sony too. You guys covered this lol they're very famous.
Bonus: Sony even has their own Vtuber group called VEE.
It’s not just the games. Sony won’t get back market share till it launches a handheld console. Maybe save the V-tubers budget till thats ready for launch.
@Rodimusprime13 You’re right. Switch is portable the others aren’t. I don’t think it’s just the size as the Series S sales are even more miserable.
@SMJ Kind of cherry picking. PSP sold 10m units and 550k in a single month alone. Nintendo pretty much sells well in Japan irrespective of handheld or not. One word, Pokemon.
@badbob001 read as Ah-geh Ah-geh. Means like feel good/exciting. The two girls are "gyaru," (a fashion/personality. Often lots of makeup/accessories/dyed hair, chill/party attitude)
Which "age" is associated with gyaru so the catch-copy plays on that as well as gyaru speech patterns when they talk.
In case anyone's interested, they're from VSPO!, the third biggest VTuber agency in Japan, which focuses on e-sports.
I like and am subscribed to a handful of Japanese VTubers, though I mainly just watch the odd clip. I know it's the intersection of the idol and streaming cultures, but I don't understand how people can pick one creator and watch tens of hours of content from them each week.
I think it would be cool if PlayStation showcases could be presented by VTubers rather than disembodied voices or guys in suits. I'm a lot less enthusiastic about English-speaking ones though.
@UltimateOtaku91 If you release a native handheld please no weird storage cards.
@SMJ If they released it with the weird storage cards and made it a bit cheaper i think it would have made it.
They had so many cool titles on there Soul Sacrifice such a waste it got lost there. I know these titles didn't break the bank but we had so much diversity in games.
I miss that in Sony now that is the reason I play on Playstation. With the billion they lost on chasing fads they could have remade smallers games.
Wild Arms with a smaller budget, Syphon Filter. Legend of Dragoon that is something i want just release it in a good state and put a PS1 sleeve around it as preorder bonus.
Twisted Metal only needed a multiplayer add some characters over time and when its dying off release a complete package.
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