Sony Announced the Japan-Only PS5 to Counter Nintendo’s Dominance and Stop PlayStation’s Decline at Home Turf
Sony Japan recently announced a Japan-only PS5 Digital Edition, arriving in stores on 21 November for about $350. That’s a very low price, putting the PS5 only about $20 above the Nintendo Switch 2 in Japan.
That move was widely anticipated by people who track weekly console sales: the PS5 has struggled to keep up in Japan, where the original Switch consistently outsells it by a significant margin. Since the Switch 2 is already doing so well, many expected Sony to lower the price, and some say it should have happened sooner.
Sony Acts on PlayStation Decline in Japan
According to a recent TV Tokyo special that looks behind the scenes of this new Japan-only PS5 console, Sony is not happy with the decline of the PlayStation brand in its home country and decided to take action to reverse the situation.
For five years, many Japanese PS5 units were shipped to China because these models had no restrictions. This happened because the mainland Chinese PS5 has strict content rules and very few playable games, so the unrestricted Japanese PS5 sells for very high prices in the resale market.
To stop this, Sony chose to follow Nintendo’s strategy and release a console aimed only at Japan. Along with the big price cut, the console only includes Japanese, so people are less likely to export it to China.
The idea for a Japan-only PS5 started after Sony learned that Nintendo was preparing a Japan-only Switch 2, which led Sony executives to say “we should do the same.” The large price cut was then approved in only four months.
The price drop is so big that it is suggested Sony will lose a lot of money on each unit sold, showing how worried Sony is about the PlayStation’s decline in Japan. Before this, some inside Sony felt that it was acceptable if the Japanese market kept shrinking, because global PS5 sales were still rising. This changed when Hideaki Nishino, a Japanese executive, became the new CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
According to the TV Tokyo special, there is now a strong sense of urgency inside Sony. Nishino and the Japanese team pushed for Japan-focused measures to increase PS5 sales, counter Nintendo’s dominance, and slow the decline of the PlayStation brand in the country.
It’s also worth noting that Sony raised the price of all PlayStation 5 models in the United States by $50 in August this year, saying it was due to a “challenging economic environment.”
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