Japanese Charts: Nintendo Switch And Pokémon Diamond And Pearl Remakes Continue To Dominate

Great to see it doing so well, I have really enjoyed my time with Shining Pearl.

I'm starting to think this game isn't a 7/10...

@1ofUs Just because a game sells well doesn't mean that it isn't still a 7/10. The quality of the game is set in stone no matter how popular it is.

Wow Sony really have abandoned the Japanese Market.

When the lowest selling version of the Switch is selling 20 times more than the competition combined you can see why the game charts are dominated by Switch games.

@Harmonie Exactly, otherwise every CoD, Fifa etc would be a masterpiece

No offense to those remakes, but I really, really hope Legends Arceus will be able to at least match those numbers.

@Harmonie to add to what you said, the only new games on that list are Pokemon, Big Brain, and Mario Party Superstars - the rest are fairly old games that almost always sell well.

I'm not exactly disappointed by this holiday lineup - these 3 new games just aren't for me, but it has to be said previous holiday seasons had a much more exciting slew of games released around this time of the year.

1,020 PS5s. I know there are supply chain issues but holy s***.

Holy moly, has Xbox ever been so close to outselling the current gen Playstation in Japan?

Considering 10/10 are NSW you have to wonder where did all that power hungry xbox/psx go now? So it wasn't about whom can out power the other low powered console-guess that turns everything upside down now for NintenDoomed fandom. And look at these sales numbers:
1. Switch OLED Model – 90,076 (582,248)
2. Switch – 59,460 (17,634,683)
3. Switch Lite – 42,799 (4,327,684)
4. PlayStation 5 – 1,020 (998,625)
8. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 113 (190,659)

That tells you gamers in General don't like Digital games based on PS5 Digital edition numbers. And Xbox is basically DEAD LAST overall. You at least expect PS5 to show stronger numbers even if they weren't in the top 10 software sales. If both are chip shortage or created shortages you see $ony being able to muster here.

That is shockingly poor for the PS5 I don’t even think there is that much supply issues in Japan for it. I honestly think people over there just aren’t feeling it over there, hence it not selling well. It’s starting to make the Wii U figures look good.

@Outerdragon Problem is the lack of PS5 games or lack to be creative to make PS5 games. This doesn't give them much legs to stand on saying why you should buy our PS5 because you can play your PS4 games on PS5 that's like for real that's the only reason you made a PS5 to make us spend more or little in return.

@1ofUs the perception of the quality of any game is subjective and sales do not indicate said quality because of that. Tbf, @Harmonie's reasoning for why it doesn't indicate quality is still inaccurate. "Quality" is not set in stone because people have different ideas as to what constitutes "good."

@SwitchForce I don't think its about not liking digital, rather than being able to have the choice - especially of you want to play any physical stuff from last gen you might already have. Sony themselves have said about 70% of games sold are now digital and I think Xbox is about the same so the majority clearly do like digital.

@IronMan30 Eh, I like to think there is some objective quality here. It doesn't really have to do with people's opinions. But even if you think otherwise, my point is that sales and quality are independent of each other.

This is my first Pokémon since Emerald and gotta say I love it! I tried a friends version of Shield and hated that - the animation and graphics were LAUGHABLE even by Switch standards, it's PS2 era levels for sure - at least BD and SP look modern and crisp albeit very cartoon-y.

@Harmonie of course sales don't indicate whether or not a game is good, I already agree on that point.

It's like Sony isn't even trying anymore in Japan...geez.

@Hewitt Yeah it's dire. I read a post somewhere saying this week December 2011 the PS2 had slightly higher sales.

So the PS2's 12th December in Japan was better than the PS5's 2nd.

@IronMan30 There's too much wisdom and logic in your reasoning.

@Harmonie Yeah and to those 2 million+ it says that “quality” is definitely higher then what NL sees for instance.

“Quality” is not “set and stone” when “quality” in itself isn’t even an objective breakdown of what a game is.

It’s each individuals arbitrary breakdown of what makes a game good enough for their purchase.

Starting to see why Nintendo didn’t push for a big holiday title.Holiday is already on lock. Better to let games cook for next year.

@Arawn93 Or all the 2 million who bought it are content with a 7/10 game for their money.
Not like 7/10 is a bad score or anything.

@MajorTom Your assuming they are scoring a game “quality” the same way Nintendo Life scores “quality” for this game. For instance those 2 million+ don’t see Exp share as a negative or chibi art as a negative. Would not be surprised if a lot of them see this at least a 9/10.

You are also assuming that a lot of them will compare to a 2006/2007 release when this is likely their first time playing Diamond/Pearl so they are not making arbitrary comparisons to determine score

@Arawn93 That doesn't change a single thing about what I said.

Besides, it's quite a generalization to say that about all of the purchasers. A lot of them were probably parents who just bought the game for the children because it said Pokemon and knew absolutely nothing else about it. Others might have purchased it not even expecting to think it was amazing, just that it's something to do.

Also, lets break down what 7/10 even means. It could go two ways: If it's like the US school grading system, that means average, which is really kind to this game. If it's more standard, where 5/10 is average, then 7/10 is an even higher score, meaning well above average, but also saying "this game has some issues and could have been better" (which is even more charitable to a game that doesn't deserve that).

Either way 7/10 is not at all something to complain about. As I said, I don't think the game even deserves that. I don't care to think these things, but I'm really beginning to think that some people just don't like any criticism toward their favorite franchises at all. 7/10 isn't harsh any way I look at it.

@Arawn93 Who says all the 2 million don't see Exp share as a negative? For that matter they all would have liked a toggle for it, but it will likely not be a end-all condition for them to skip it.

For that matter a lot of those 2 million are likely also children who don't have much opinion on quality in the first place. Pokémon is the biggest multimedia franchise of the world, many children obviously get the game because their friends got it. Same goes for FIFA and CoD.

@Harmonie

That doesn’t change a single thing about what I said

The irony that you are talking about “generalizing purchasers” when your initial comment was most of those purchases see this game as a 7/10 regardless of sales

Who cares about your arbitrary 7/10 rating? Most purchasers are not gonna use the same exact score breakdown that NL or you for that matter uses for this game. Let’s be real NL can be inconsistent for instance Let’s Go got a 8/10 and people will definitely argue that BDSP is a better game then Let’s Go from that alone to show that “it’s all set and stone!” is complete nonsense

It’s not even about the exact score. It’s that 2 million+ don’t give a flying care about an arbitrary score standard when each individual has their own subjective standard for “quality”

@MajorTom Who says a good bulk of them don’t see it as a positive/non issue? This isn’t one week sales. It’s been a month at this point and news been out for this for a while, but it doesn’t became a deal breaker.

Fact of the matter is Exp share may not be much a “demerit” for an individuals “quality” rating as some people here might think

How is that relevant? Are you still gonna use that same “it’s the children!” cop out for a children targeted series if this game theoretically addressed all the “problems” NL listed for their sense of “quality”?

@Arawn93 No, I am saying that most of the children that buy it don't have a big grasp at quality assurance and mainly buy the games because it is the biggest multimedia franchise of the world.

@Arawn93 Where on earth did I say that? I said that quality =/= number of sells/popularity.

What I am saying is that this game's 2 million purchasers wouldn't all argue with this rating, not all of them like it. Now you literally did say that the 2 million purchasers do disagree with the rating, which is a generalization.

I put BD/SP and LGP/E both in the very same category: Cheaply made, rushed 2.5D games that are not worth even half of their asking price. LGP/E suffers from gameplay issues that BD/SP doesn't (forcing motion control for catching and not having the traditional catching mechanics, for one) BUT LGP/E also had a lot of care put into the visuals compared to BD/SP, which look like they were made far more cheaply than LGP/E (which says a lot).

Either way, both games are poor experiences altogether and are not worth my money.

Inconsistent reviews? LGP/E were released back in 2018, BD/SP in 2021. Do you think that all reviewers on NL are all the exact same person of the exact same mind at all times in the past and current?

I do think that the quality is set in stone, because there is no amount of people that can purchase this game that can change that. There is no amount of people saying that these games are amazing that can change that. At the end of the day, they are the same overpriced cheaply made remakes with ridiculous flaws for no reason (like Exp Share not being optional - seriously, there is absolutely no reason for that) and nothing can change that. Because the games themselves can't and won't change and they're all that matter.

@MajorTom You are implying

1. Children don’t buy/play other games either. Smash Bros Ultimate got high sales too, but I guess that game doesn’t have “big grasp of quality assurance” just because a bunch of kids play that too.
2. That it doesn’t matter if Pokemon game is “quality” game or not, but because they got high sales it means it’s low “quality” due to “it’s the children” blanket that could be applied to plenty of games
3. That adults/Teens didn’t buy Pokémon over in Japan which is sheer irony considering it’s a bunch of adults here arguing over Pokémon “quality”. Regardless demographic statistics breakdown says otherwise. It’s not just a bunch of children buying Pokémon in Japan.

@Harmonie
No. Someone implied that those 2 million+ sales don’t overall see this game as a 7/10 which is a fair enough assessment when you look at the numbers/positive feedback from them and then you went “high sales doesn’t mean high “quality”!.” High sales doesn’t mean low “quality” either btw so you pretty much made a non statement

Problem is you don’t see “quality” as a subjective rating in itself. Can you deny the possibility that they gave this game a high “quality” rating based on their own arbitrary standards that don’t align with yours?

Yes that is what inconsistent means. Shows how little value review scores matter because they follow an arbitrary inconsistent standard that could change anytime since there is no objective guidelines to follow. Ironically this place is on the lower outlier for reviews for this game regardless. The fact that one person saw Let’s Go a 8/10 while another saw BDSP and rated it lower proves my point that each person has their own arbitrary sense of “quality”.

Uh yes they can change that because your “set and stone” arbitrary scaling could be a wet fart to someone else.

I hope SMT V is still doing well.

PS5 really struggling to take off. Yes blah blah supply issues, but you're telling me a new console in the run up to Xmas can't sell 13,000 games in a week?

Edit - 3,500 even. No PS5 games in the top thirty.

@Arawn93 I am not sure if you are just trolling or are not reading any of the arguments given to you. I am saying they buy the game because it is the biggest multimedia franchise of the world, in Japan even more. Almost every main city in Japan has their own Pokémon store. Like I said before, many sales are based on friends having the games like FIFA and CoD here in the west. Japan is very handheld focussed and adding that to the biggest multimedia franchise of the world the games will obviously sell. They are yearly games with max 2 year development time. This means that they cost far less to produce than most projects.

@Arawn93 The individual that I responded to didn't say anything about the people who bought it, they said that because it's sold so well it can no longer be considered a 7/10 game. That is straight-up "sales = quality", and that's why I responded.

Again, with reviewers being people, they can end up being biased to overlook the objective flaws of the game that are just bad design. This happens a lot, especially in communities that are biased toward one company/franchise (like this one is Nintendo). Reviewers are always people. I'm not even saying that the 7/10 rating is accurate, but it is better than what many other people gave it.

Notice, what I said in the last parts there was that the games can not change. You just said that they can change because of other peoples' opinions. That makes no sense. The games will always be the games they are, peoples' opinions can not change a game, because that's not how reality works at all. lol. (Yes, sometimes patches can come out and fix flaws, but overhauls like that are rare, and BD/SP are poor quality beyond repair. And even with that said, that is still not opinions changing a game, it's developers changing the game. Games can not be changed by opinions. That's reality.)

@Harmonie not really. Quality is subjective to everyone's different tastes and appeal. While it is true that sales do not equal quality, sales are a quantifiable and objective measurement while quality is not. You call these games ridiculously overpriced, cheaply made remakes. Millions will disagree with you. Are they objectively wrong? No. Are you objectively wrong? No. Ot is all down to preference.

@MajorTom I’m not sure if you are trolling if you are implying “ you are not reading” cop out just because I’m picking apart flimsy reasonings

1. You are implying that Pokémon sales are not all over the place and people are hivemind to consume when they see Pokémon on the title. Last I checked Pokémon Snap, Pokemon Rescue, Pokken, etc on Switch didn’t have stupid high sales. Not to mention there is history of Pokémon games flopping
2. Even among the mainline titles there are still “gaps” between them to again suggest people don’t hivemind buy
3. You are implying that people that buy/enjoy CoD/FIFA/ etc don’t see them as “quality” games based on their own arbitrary scaling which is a bit presumptuous to make claim

@Arawn93 I never said they aren't quality games, I even said that 7/10 is a good score in general. You are the only one that seems to imply that 7/10 can't be quality enough for a consumer.
Edit: Also Pokémon had their dips in exposure in general. The switch is the hottest system all around and pokémon made a big comeback with Pokémon go.
Also rescue seems to have sold at least above 1 million and snap above 2 million. Would have likely been a success for their production cost.

@MajorTom No. I’m implying the consumer could very well rate this a 8/10 or a 9/10 or a 10/10 because everyone has their own way to gauge subjective “quality”. I don’t dismiss the possibility a game could get a high “quality” score just because sales are good

Here we go again.
The arguments of Pokemon BDSP.

About the machines sales, looks like Japanese gamers do not like Digital only machines from PS5 and XBOX was practically dead brand in Japan.

@dmcc0 no, I think it's they don't give you the option of even getting a Physical cd/dvd/bd game option is the real reason. Trying to say they go on Digital when that is all your offering is misleading from $ony and Micro$oft.

@tkdboy1889 There are some things I think are beyond people's opinions. Like I don't think the visuals are up to par, and I know you could just say "that's your opinion", but I don't feel like it entirely is, because you can compare this to other games on the Switch that retailed for the same price, including Pokemon titles. The standards are higher than what BD/SP gave us.

Someone could like that style for some reason, but can you really tell me face to face that BD/SP really match up to the standards of other games of the same retail price, system and company? Every time I see footage of this game (the battles themselves look okay, I will say that) the environments and models scream "cheap". They are not crisp, they do not match the standards of other Switch games. They do not even match the standards of LGP/E. To be blunt, they don't even come close to LGP/E.

And then we have something like the Exp Share All feature. There are people who don't care that it's forced, but I think it's silly to give their opinions too much, because Exp Share can be completely optional, and always was before Sword/Shield. The fact of the matter is that Exp Share being optional would benefit more people, whereas the people that don't care about it or want it always on are shutting down the other peoples' playstyle for no reason.

At the end of the day, the company could have produced a better game and all of the same people would have still bought it, but people like me who are more critical, also would have been able to. That's the problem with cheaply made games like this... Things could be better, and more people could be happy. And it's not even rocket science in a case like this. Some games do little bad things and get a lot of flack from some people, but you can't look at them as a whole and feel like they are just cheaply made games that don't deserve their price (BOTW is a great examplee of this, some people bring it down for the weapon durability system, but the game itself was held to much better standards than BD/SP). But BD/SP were clearly just made with pure profit in mind, and that's a bad thing for all of us.

I remember thinking, Minecraft is gonna hit one million physical in Japan… now it’s on its merry way to 2.5million! Animal Crossing has passed 7million, Diamond/Pearl have passed 2million, MK8D 4m+, Smash 4.5m+, Ring Fit is gonna hit 3m+, Momotaro 2.5m+, absolutely insane milestones. Fantastic stuff.

@Arawn93 I don't see anyone argueing about how other individuals can't rate it higher than a 7. The original argument was that NintendoLife gave a too low score, because it sold well. Which you seemed to defend.
Your comment at #23
"Yeah and to those 2 million+ it says that “quality” is definitely higher then what NL sees for instance."

This seems to imply that a 7 is not enough for the consumer, since you said that all 2 million+ would consider it higher quality than NintendoLife. I said that all could consider a 7 good enough for their purchase for that matter. Some obviously would rate it higher since it is partly opinnion based and there will likely also be some dissapointed customers who rate it lower.

Like I said ,great quality games are what sale a system, that is the only type of game that Nintendo makes is great quality, something that Sony knows absolutely NOTHING ABOUT. the proof is in the pudding, sorry haters you cannot stop REAL GAMERS from buying great quality games, and the haters lose again, the oled is selling great, so much for the switch pro. And I am so happy for how well Big brain academy is selling. Thank you nintendo for making such great quality games, Sony could learn alot from you.

@MajorTom I don't think all games just sell better by being on a hot system. The jump from GBA to DS was 80million to 150million Pokemon's sales only went from 16 million(R/S) to 17million(D/P). That's a huge boost in exposure only to receive a minimal increase in sales.

Then when it well to 75million on 3DS the sales only fell down to 16million.

Yet from 3DS to Switch. 75million -->95million. it went from 16 million(Su/Mo) to 22 million (Sw/Sh). Exposure alone isn't going to increase sales otherwise the DS games would be the series best sellers.

There's more nuance to why Pokemon is seeing record success now and leveraging the Switch audience better than the DS one. Bandying about the game score and acting like it's inevitable that a remake is doing as well as mainline games just because it's Pokemon doesn't really explain the series sales history.

@mariopartyfan68 The Last of Us and Remastered combined sold 24M, Spider-Man 20M, Uncharted 4 16M, God of War 19.5M, Gran Turismo 5 11.9M.
Yeah I guess poor Sony doesn't know quality, especially if the argument is sales = quality.
Don't get me wrong, I have played almost every single Pokémon game in the main series but come on, that is such weak bait

@mariopartyfan68
You keep repeating the same thing about boasting yourself as real gamer and roasting Sony / PS5 for no reason. 🤨
Nintendo / Sony don't need real gamer.
They just need customers / any people who bought their products.
Sony don't know how to make their games ?
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart said hello to you.

Why did Sony think not having a big game out for the holidays was a good idea?

Nintendo has Pokemon, Microsoft has Halo... Sony is just twiddling their thumbs in a corner.

@Dr_Lugae I think that the succes of Pokémon Go took a big part in the growth of Pokémon. The series got a big return because of that game.
Edit: Also the sales history does not really show any Pokémon game doing badly. The lowest sales that you mentioned were 16 million which is far more than most series would dream to achieve.

If things don’t pick up soon for SONY, or their shortage situation doesn’t improve, the OLED model will outsell the PS5 on its own.

Will SMT V ever return to the top 10 again?

@mariopartyfan68

Sony’s 1st party studios makes fantastic games. Just as many as Nintendo in fact. During the PS4 generation Sony’s 1st parties released one objectively mediocre game. The Order 1886. Everything else was either really good or off the charts fantastic.

The one key difference (and it’s a big one) is that Sony’s best internal efforts are directed at Western customers, specifically North America and mainland Europe. They don’t cater to Japanese players much anymore, who have drastically different tastes than Americans, Canadians, or Europeans.

Nintendo’s secret sauce is that their 1st party franchises have cross ocean appeal. Zelda is just as popular in Europe as it is in the United States and Japan. Same with Mario. The only Nintendo franchise I would argue is fairly regional is Metroid, which has always been aimed at Western gamers and has sold most here. It always flopped in Japan.

Sony doesn’t have that level of cross appeal with its franchises. Which is fine. Being an American gamer, Sony’s line-up fits me fine. I love Nintendo as well. Both companies make great memorable games.

It’s just that the hard truth is that as much as they deny it, Sony doesn’t really target Japanese gamers anymore with their exclusives. And honestly, that’s fine. Nintendo has the advantage of so many of its franchises having worldwide appeal since the 80s. Sony doesn’t have that; their franchises are far more recent and were built with western gamers in mind.

@AmplifyMJ

It’s going to happen regardless of what Sony does.

Too many people are ignoring the elephant in the room. Japanese lifestyle and culture. Portable gaming dominates Japan. It has for twenty years now.

Nintendo offers Japanese gamers the perfect platform for their lifestyles and home sizes and gaming tastes. Sony’s hardware doesn’t fit that mold at all.

Sony lost Japan to Nintendo during the PS3 years, when the DS took a dump on everything else (including Nintendo’s own Wii). The PSP, while no DS, sold crazy well on its own there. Because it was portable. Even the Vita was a success in Japan. I think out of the 18 million units sold more than 12 million were sold just in Japan. A system that flopped hard everywhere else did ok in the Japanese market.

I don’t see PS5 sales or lack thereof in Japan as an issue. The PS5 (nor the Xboxes) weren’t designed for that market. If they were they’d be primarily portables.

@mariopartyfan68 Whats up with you and your hate boner towards sony?

@KirbysAdventure

Because Sony has internally recognized the truth that Microsoft still denies.

If your system isn’t portable, you aren’t going to do hot in Japan. That’s the cold hard truth. And I think Sony is going to abandon Japan for the most part. They’ll still sell consoles and games, but they are going to actively give up on competing with Nintendo. It doesn’t make sense anymore to try and sell home consoles there. Eventually Microsoft will get that lesson through their heads as well.

Nintendo owns Japan. It has since the Nintendo DS. Because Nintendo builds the world’s best handheld systems and games. No one else can compete with that. Sony tried twice and despite some success, they still couldn’t touch Nintendo.

@TheRedComet
If your system isn’t portable, you aren’t going to do hot in Japan. That’s the cold hard truth.
That's completely baseless if you don't produce games to support the hardware you won't get the sale. Hardware and Consoles go hand-in-hand.
@TheRedComet
They’ll still sell consoles and games, but they are going to actively give up on competing with Nintendo.
This line is rich as well and when NintenDoomed always talk that Nintendo should compete with $ony.
@TheRedComet
Sony tried twice and despite some success, they still couldn’t touch Nintendo.
Wrong they had Vita but their stupidity of exclusive RAM and unwilling to invest in Vita is what killed it. They had a Portable system that could compete but choose not to. That's fall squarely at the feet of $ony.

@TheRedComet I disagree a bit with your statement.
Sony has always done very well in Japan considering that its 'home market' and its been an established brand for years.
Thats why all the playstation consoles have sold and continued to have sold well in Japan for every iteration.

If your system isn’t portable, you aren’t going to do hot in Japan. That’s the cold hard truth

Every playstation console would care to disagree.
Also I think microsoft has never done well in Japan is because one the console library appeals more to westerners and two because Japan is pretty close minded or even xenophobic when it comes to other brands.

Nintendo owns Japan. It has since the Nintendo DS.

I agree that now Nintendo owns Japan because of the switch seeing how it dominates every software and hardware sales.
But it never truly dominated until the switch came.
Sonys attempt at handheld gaming was still a really good try imo, the PSP selling 80 million on their first try at the handheld market is pretty good. Its just that nintendo doing what it doe best.
For the vita failing that was due to Sony's own incompetence.

Now regarding whether Sony should quit Japan altogether is a different story. I personally think they're fine as it is since Sony is still a big and well established Japan there. I blame the PS5 falling so short in the potential sales it could have due to the stock issues its been having since launch and Sony being unable to keep up with demand. If this wasn't an issue then the PS5 could be selling much better than it already is.

@SwitchForce

1. Yes they do. But Sony’s strength lies in its highly cinematic AAA titles. They are the best in the world at it. But those games never dominate Japanese charts. But the type of hardware makes a difference. Each PlayStation console since the PS2 has had a decline in sales in Japan over its predecessor. I believe one key reason is that portability is key for the Japanese market. You can’t pack your PS5 on a train to a workday that last 12-14 hours or more. They work longer hours on average than anyone else in the world.

2. I’ve never said Nintendo should compete with Sony. I think Nintendo is genius for creating the market they did with the Switch. It has cross age, cross sex, and cross gamer appeal like no other console ever has. The PS5 and Series X are aimed strictly at hardcore console gamers. They don’t have a lot of appeal outside of that market. The Switch appeals to everyone by doing everything well enough to satisfy the market. It’s the perfect secondary system for hardcore gamers (like myself), it’s perfect for women (who have always loved handhelds), it’s perfect for kids (thanks to many of its games; you don’t see many AAA games that appeal to both kids and adults on other platforms), and it’s perfect for the gamer who travels a lot (thanks to portability).

3. The Vita did ok in Japan. Imagine a home console that had the same fundamental flaws as they Vita had? It wouldn’t have even cracked a million units. The Vita outsold the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and the GameCube in Japan. All three were considered successes in Japan despite relatively low world wide sales overall.

@iLikeUrAttitude

Each PlayStation has had declining hardware and software sales in Japan since the high point of the PS2. Consoles have consistently gotten weaker and weaker there relative to handhelds, which have consistently grown over that same time frame.

I agree that hardware shortages are a serious issue with PS5 worldwide. I’m lucky I was able to get on launch day. I’m not sure how crazy demand is in Europe, but over here in the states it’s completely out of control.

The Switch is selling like it's still in it's infancy. When Nintendo say half way through it's life, they aren't kidding.

Could this be the worst performance ever for a new console over the holiday period? Don't rush to defend it, I know perfectly well all the factors contributing to such abysmal sales, but the fact remains, SONY are in trouble over there. (Microsoft not so much. They have enough money to regard Japan (in fact gaming as a whole lol) as nothing more than a punt.) I'll say again. if they only managed to aquire 1000 consoles to sell this time of year, then someone isn't doing a very good job. And if the inventory level is purposefully low, they have lost Japan for a very long time. Either way, their company (like many others to be fair) has proven to be unadaptable or inflexible when something like Covid presents itself and listen to me boring myself to sleep.

@TheRedComet

Well from the PS2 to PS3 yeah its been declining. But you could also apply that to handheld gaming as well since every handheld console for both software and hardware sales have been declining since the ds.
For reference the switch is only at 92 million hardware sales and 681 million software sales vs the ds' overwhelming 154 million hardware sales and 948 million software sales.
One thing to mention though while I guess console gaming may not be at its peak there is still a high demand and market for it and its actually kind of growing in a way too since video games are the highest grossing entertainment industry now.
Back to Sony though the PS4 may not have surpassed the PS2 in hardware sales (I don't think any console will ever do that again), it did surpass the PS2 in software sales. ( 1.562 billion+ vs 1.53 billion+).

Yeah the shortages are really bad and aren't going to settle down anytime soon since apparently its a global shortage and multiple essential parts for the PS5 are having supply issues.
If this keeps up I could see the PS5 selling only PS3 numbers, maybe even lower.

@iLikeUrAttitude I think that's down to how they're counting sales. Nintendo's official figures do not count download-only software.

So virtual console and download-only games aren't actually counted towards their figures which would skew every system from the Wii onwards downwards compared to everything up to the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo managed to record revenue during this generation despite lower sales than the 7th generation and having 1 console vs two likely due to the digital only titles they don't report in the sales report.

@Bizzyb Didn't they give up the Japanese market and become a full blown American company?

@GrailUK This is if Sony is even trying to reach Japan anymore. Last I heard they were switching to the American market, and ignoring the Japanese one intentionally.

What happened to the UK charts this week? I was looking forward to finding out what position Halo Infinite ended up being.

@VoidofLight That is a real shame if so.

@GrailUK It's a shame, but I'm still glad Japanese games still exist on the platform at least, since I'm not a huge fan of those big "Western blockbuster" type games.

@VoidofLight
Japanese company trying to be Western company is like people try to deny their original nationality.

@Outerdragon of course is that, sony is dead in japan, you just see sonyers talking about stock issues because they wont accept reality

@Anti-Matter It's like western companys going for an anime style lol.

Sony is officially dead in Japan, I don't see Dragon Quest XII coming to that console anymore, same with the Xbox brand. If Square Enix wanted the Dragon Quest franchise to succeed just make the whole series exclusive to Switch and PC from now on.

@Specter_of-the_OLED If sales are good enough in the West to keep bringing DQ to PS/Xbox then they will.

When is the last time a title in the Japanese charts was in the 7million range? Not in the 20 years I've been following the charts I think??

Top 30 was announced.

Switch:30 Other:0

Incredible!

@TheRedComet Thats not true the Psvita sold
6 million in japan. The Ps4 a home console sold better than the Psvita. The Ps5 is even selling faster than the Vita did.

Rounding up, Nintendo sold 100% of the hardware and 100% of the top 30. The thing I like about Nintendo being for kids is that they even make the sales analysis and maths super easy!

@GrailUK Funnily enough I did predict before it came out that if the PS5 didn't have any software that appeals to the Japanese people then it would end up doing Xbox type numbers over there, regardless of what specs you throw in the box. Sony seems to know this and doesn't seem to care.

@WiltonRoots I have a hard time believing SONY don't care. Sounds like sour grapes to me more than sense if that's what they say.

@GrailUK mad when you look back at the games they used to have coming out of Japan (not that I've ever owned a Playstation), they used to have a really diverse library.

@WiltonRoots It will be interesting to see how PS5 grows over there, that's for sure.

@WiltonRoots,

Some of the people on here are priceless, once again getting upset over a Pokemon doing good numbers because they themselves do no personally like it, and you always get the same old mantra, call of duty sells well but is not a good game, it's the same old subjective opinions stated as objective facts, we all can't like the same things, what entertains one person may bore the pants of an other etc.

My issue with all this is not weather a game is good or bad, or how many copies it sells, it's the condescending way certain people post, suggesting anyone who does not agree with them are somehow not to be trusted or sheep.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that if this new Pokemon game was selling poorly, it would be a vindication of all their complaints etc, but it will never work the other way round.