Over the past week there has been lots of discussion revolving around the Playstation 4 Slim and Project Neo, now known as Playstation 4 Pro. To say the announcement of PS4 Pro was mixed would be a giant understatement and rightfully so. The two biggest complains among gamers are the lack of 4K Blu-ray support and the November 10 release date. There are many things that just didn’t make a lot of sense including the fact that Sony decided to announce both less than 2 weeks away from one of the largest video game conventions in the world Tokyo Game Show. I’m going to admit that at first glance I agreed with many of the complaints and don’t really see a point in these existing. It wasn’t until I let time pass and took a step back that I realized that maybe this isn’t nearly as bad as what it seems. One of the largest markets for Sony, and consoles in general, is the land of the rising sun Japan. This raises the question, are PS4 Pro haters overlooking the Japanese market?
Like I mentioned above, the console market is still very strong in Japan, especially Sony. If you follow us here at Gaming Conviction, you would know that we cover games from developers throughout the country with many coming out for Sony systems. There are still lots of games released on the PS Vita and even on the Playstation 3. While both of these systems have been fazed out in America for being old are lackluster sales, they are both still going strong over there. You will still see tons of game announced for the systems this week during Tokyo Game Show.
While some things are wildly successful in the United States, some are flops in other countries. One of the best examples are Xbox consoles. Since the original Xbox was released, it has struggled to gain any traction in Japan. At one point Playstation TV was outselling the Xbox 360 in the country. You can even go back to the 1990s where the Sega Saturn sold very well partly in part due to the Arcade market being at its apex within the country. The Saturn focused heavily around the arcade scene and the fact it came packed with Virtua Fighter was a huge plus as it was the most played fighting game in arcades at the time.
All in all it really just comes down to culture. Lots of things that are considered the norm here in the United States aren’t in other countries. Much like how Americans are proud of the ‘Made in America’ idea, Japan also feels the same way about products made there. Japan has also had there fair share of exclusive bundles and color schemes. Anyone remember the Red Playstation 2? While I believe that the PS4 Pro will do decent numbers in the West, I believe it will do its best performance in its home country of Japan. Only time will tell just how much better it will be.
