by 
Sony has confirmed that its language-locked Japan-exclusive PS5 console is losing money. The unit – introduced last year – currently sells at a lower price than the much more popular Switch 2.
Speaking with Japanese publication Famitsu, CEO Hideaki Nishino said the company considers this an “important and necessary investment” for its domestic market. Previous management had purportedly ceded Sony’s home region to Nintendo.
The big difference with Nishino compared to his predecessors is that he’s Japanese, and it seems he’s willing to fight for his home territory, even though PlayStation has an uphill battle against Nintendo.
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube170k
At the time of publication, the language-locked Japan-exclusive PS5 retails for ¥55,000 (~$339), which is cheaper than the Switch 2’s ¥59,980 (~$370). Despite this, Nintendo’s hybrid is still comfortably outselling Sony’s console.
Obviously in the current economic climate, with memory prices soaring, the PS5 is extremely cheap domestically right now. And Nishino more or less admitted that it’s losing money for the platform holder.
He said:
“By offering a more affordable price compared to the multi-language Digital Edition, we hope to further revitalise the Japanese gaming community and market, which is a key market for us.
We consider the PS5 Digital Edition Japanese-only model a strategic investment. While we won’t disclose specific figures, we plan to recoup the costs across our entire business operations. Although the business situation differs from that in overseas markets, we hope you understand that this is an important and necessary investment for the Japanese market.”
Nishino continued that Sony doesn’t necessarily prioritise any one market over another, but he admitted a goal for the company under his tenure is to increase the number of PlayStation users domestically.
The problem for the PS5 is that it just doesn’t have a software library that can compete with the Switch 2, especially with key franchises like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy going fully multiformat.
The Japanese market is incredibly unique, and Sony has no answer to the likes of Pokémon or Tomodachi Life.
Console exclusive gacha games like Wuthering Waves and Genshin Impact have performed well locally, while Astro Bot has enjoyed some long legs on the sales charts of late. But it’s not enough.
Either way, I’m pleased to see the company starting to compete in its home country again, and I’m right behind Nishino on this.
Let’s see what kind of success it can achieve – it doesn’t necessarily need to beat Nintendo on its home turf, it just needs to capture a larger share of the market again.