Christmas Holiday Console Sales in Japan

[deoxir]

The chart and table shows sales of gaming consoles the week before Christmas in Japan (Dec 18-24). Here are a few things I would like to share with you guys:

 

1. The Switch stormed the market like crazy. After 9 months the Switch is still going strong, and when you take it's small library of games into consideration, I think one can see the strategy Nintendo has been taking for their new product. I think it's become very likely that there will be a Switch 2 and it will come sooner than later.

 

2. Xbox One X sales. 24 is definitely not cool, but the Japanese never really liked the Xbox line up. The same happened to the original Xbox One as well. There are many reasons in relation to the Japanese context that I can raise to explain the Xbox One situation in Japan, but I find it interesting to see the Wii U, which I would call it essentially a failure from Nintendo as a Nintendo fan, and the last-gen PS3, selling better than the Xbox One X. 

 

3. Handheld vs Home Console

Handheld consoles are huge in Japan, but I think the demand just got bigger thanks to the Switch. The Switch, the DS series, even the Vita… With Nintendo dominating the genre I wonder if Sony or perhaps microsoft is willing to compete with them again. I also wonder if the new Intel+Radeon Chip is going to have any impact on the handheld console development.

 

Would like to know what you think on these issues, or you can share what you find interesting about the current console market. 

[Stefan Payne]

Its probably so popular because it is a mobile console and people can use it on their way to/from Work or School.

[deoxir]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Its probably so popular because it is a mobile console and people can use it on their way to/from Work or School.

It's actually very likely that this is the case. Many Japanese spend more than an hour on a single trip when they go for work or school. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

8 hours ago, deoxir said:

It's actually very likely that this is the case. Many Japanese spend more than an hour on a single trip when they go for work or school. 

Although good luck trying to play the Switch on a crowded train

[SteveGrabowski0]

Switch has one of the best first year lineups you'll ever see in a console. Compare it to what XBox One and PS4 had the first year, it's a night and day difference. It doesn't surprise me at all that PS3 still outsells XB1X in Japan considering how many amazing Japanese games there are for PS3 and how few there are for XBox. I would have no interest in the XBox One X even at half price even if I had no PC because of their lack of Japanese games. 3DS and 2DS sales don't surprise me at all considering Japan has a great public transportation infrastructure that makes handheld gaming a lot more viable. I kind of laughed at the 3DS before but after scoring a New 3DS XL for a really cheap price I gotta say it's a hell of a good system on the go, and it has a huge library of both RPGs and quick hitter games.

[SteveGrabowski0]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Although good luck trying to play the Switch on a crowded train

Plus Morgana would kill you if you managed to score a seat on the train and played with your Switch instead of reading a book.

[deoxir]

15 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Although good luck trying to play the Switch on a crowded train

I know that feel. Couldn't even use my phone on a train headed for Ginza in the morning when I was in Tokyo once.

[deoxir]

23 hours ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Switch has one of the best first year lineups you'll ever see in a console. Compare it to what XBox One and PS4 had the first year, it's a night and day difference. It doesn't surprise me at all that PS3 still outsells XB1X in Japan considering how many amazing Japanese games there are for PS3 and how few there are for XBox. I would have no interest in the XBox One X even at half price even if I had no PC because of their lack of Japanese games. 3DS and 2DS sales don't surprise me at all considering Japan has a great public transportation infrastructure that makes handheld gaming a lot more viable. I kind of laughed at the 3DS before but after scoring a New 3DS XL for a really cheap price I gotta say it's a hell of a good system on the go, and it has a huge library of both RPGs and quick hitter games.

I agree. It has the best launch titles since the N64 with the release of BotW and considering the games that have been released in the past 9 months, what the Switch achieved here is simply stunning. Botw, Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2, and 3 AAA game ports from other consoles? All Nintendo exclusives and more than a few third party titles come with localized versions or even language selection since Day 1? Hell yeah Nintendo. I do feel like they really just sacrificed the Wii U for all these though, which is sad but a correct decision to make after all.

I also agree with you on the XB1X situation. The PS4 caters towards the Japanese better than the Xbox simply because more Japanese games, as in no-English-version-available kind of Japanese games, are being released on the PS4. 

I kinda really want a 3DS now. Dang it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

10 minutes ago, deoxir said:

I also agree with you on the XB1X situation. The PS4 caters towards the Japanese better than the Xbox simply because more Japanese games, as in no-English-version-available kind of Japanese games, are being released on the PS4.

Even then, I like Sony for taking more risks on different IPs than Microsoft. Maybe I just don't care about the Xbox camp to dig in further, but it feels like whenever I see news about their game lineup, it's the same thing over and over and over (A new Halo? A new Gears of War? A new Forza? Oh boy!). Whereas when I see something in the Sony camp, there's likely to be a dozen or so different things.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Ah crap, I should probably edit this post out

[TacoSenpai]

I hear Switches are like literal gold over there and harder to find than a unicorn mating with a troll in a volcano.  They have lotteries to win them.

[PlayStation 2]

6 hours ago, LordTaco42 said:

I hear Switches are like literal gold over there and harder to find than a unicorn mating with a troll in a volcano.  They have lotteries to win them.

I know Adam Koralik has said the same thing in his Japan videos, and yeah. The prices they go for are pretty damn astronomical, if you can find them.

Which, good for Nintendo. I'm glad they made a console that's irresistible from the general public.

[TacoSenpai]

16 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

I know Adam Koralik has said the same thing in his Japan videos, and yeah. The prices they go for are pretty damn astronomical, if you can find them.

Which, good for Nintendo. I'm glad they made a console that's irresistible from the general public.

Thats partly where i got that from minus the unicorn mating with a troll in a volcano that was from my imaginative mind.