There have been intense conversations lately about PlayStation status in Japan. Sales statistics show that, aligned with the launch, the PlayStation 5 has a lower performance than the Nintendo Wii U – although the console is exhausted worldwide. Some believe that the small hardware deliveries signal a lack of interest in its home territory from the Japanese giant, and this feeling was aggravated by a series of profile departures from its Japan Studio development team.
The head of PlatinumGames, Atsushi Inaba, feels different, however: “To be honest, we don’t feel it so much, or at least I haven’t felt the impact yet,” he told VGC. “That being said, I understand that the console industry in Japan is not what it was before and when that happens, the priorities of these big console manufacturers will change and that makes perfect sense to me.”
He continued: “I don’t know if this is an opinion that exists and I don’t have any personal investment, but just because the PlayStation is from Japan doesn’t mean it should focus on the Japanese market. I don’t feel that way. At the same time, I don’t think he’s American now either: I think he’s international and he doesn’t really belong to any country. That’s how I feel as a developer. ”
However, in the same interview, Devil May Cry designer Hideki Kamiya highlighted Sony’s decision to break with the PS5’s default controls as a sign that things can change internally: “My pride is not hurt as a Japanese – it’s just more moreover there are two camps that had two ways of doing things and I think they bent myopic in one direction. I do not understand the reasoning behind this. ”
He added: “It’s just a little disrespect for gaming cultures that has existed for decades as part of so many people’s lives. I feel like the PS5 interrupted that and I don’t know if it was significant to do that. ”
But Kamiya concluded that he did not foresee “an avoidance of Sony by the Japanese [game] producers at all ”. He said: “It’s so hard to get a PS5 right now that I feel we don’t have enough accurate data on how it will eventually go in Japan.” Unfortunately, the lack of stocks is expected by the end of the year, according to AMD.