“The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us. We have not been as excited about the engagement of the Japanese game development community as we are now for many years.”
– Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan discusses the state of PlayStation in Japan
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has responded to claims that it has depriortized the Japanese market for the PlayStation 5, telling Edge Magazine (via VGC) that those claims are inaccurate.
That original Bloomberg story, found here, cited sources within Sony that said the PlayStation 4’s disappointing performance in Japan has led the company to shift more of its focus to the US for the PlayStation 5 generation.
A Sony spokesperson denied that refocus in Bloomberg’s reporting.
Ryan’s comments to Edge echo some of what that spokesperson told Bloomberg, with Ryan saying Japan both remains an important market and that now is a particularly exciting time for game development in Japan.
He goes on to say that the end of the PlayStation 4 generation saw an uptick in attention from Japanese developers. Ryan adds that momentum is trending up in these early days of the PlayStation 5 based on current partnerships between PlayStation and the Japanese developers and publishers.
“I’d also observe that we’re making a statement by launching in Japan day and date with the US, and that is not what we did with PS4,” says Ryan. “So I read that stuff. A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan – as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us.”