Sony is trying to woo Japanese game fans to the PlayStation 4 home console that went on sale in November in the U.S. and Europe, but didn’t arrive at stores here until February.
Atsushi Morita, who heads Sony Computer Entertainment’s Japan operations, acknowledged Monday the momentum for the PlayStation 4 in Japan wasn’t catching up with the West, although its cumulative global sales reached 10 million recently, the fastest pace for any game console.
The PS4 accounts for 78 percent of the home-console market in Japan, thrashing Microsoft Corp. of the U.S. and local competitor Nintendo Co., but Tokyo-based Sony Corp. won’t give a regional breakdown of recent sales.
Microsoft’s Xbox One is set to go on sale in Japan Thursday, also much later than its November sale in the U.S. and some parts of Europe.
Morita told reporters software games are in the works, mostly for early next year, including a revamped “Dragon Quest,” a game series that is extremely popular with Japanese. A “metal slime” PS4 model, a tribute to one of the game’s characters, will also go on sale. Pricing and other details were not disclosed.
“We are determined to expand in this market,” Morita said at a Tokyo hall, showing trailers of dozens of games spanning genres including sports, car racing and shooting.
Many powerful game franchises were born in Japan such as “Super Mario,” ”Monster Hunter” and “Final Fantasy” so it’s a tragic reversal to have the industry struggling here.
One reason: People around the world are increasingly turning to social networks, games played on smartphones and tablets, and other online entertainment.
