For generations now, PlayStation consoles have been the place to go if you loved Japanese-developed games, but there’s some concern that might be changing. The PS5 is off to a slow start in Japan, and Sony has shifted priorities since Jim Ryan took over Sony Interactive Entertainment and moved the division’s head offices to California. There’s an undeniable feeling PlayStation is increasingly becoming a Western brand, so could that mean fewer exclusives from Japanese developers like Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, and others?
In a recent interview with Video Games Chronicle, Platinum Games co-founders Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya were asked about Sony’s drifting priorities, and neither of them seemed to be too terribly concerned about it. For his part, Inaba doesn’t think PlayStation is becoming American so much as international.
I do understand that the console industry in Japan is not what it used to be and when that happens the priorities of these big console makers will change, and that makes perfect sense to me. I don’t know if this is an opinion that’s out there, and I don’t have any personal investment, but just because 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 it’s American now either: I think it’s international and doesn’t really belong to any country. That’s how I feel as a developer.
As for Kamiya, he doesn’t see Japanese developers breaking away from Sony at all…
I don’t think […] Japan is going to break away – I don’t see that. I don’t see a shunning of Sony from the Japanese makers at all. And really, it’s so hard to get a PS5 right now that I feel we don’t have enough accurate data on how it will ultimately fare in Japan yet.
Of course, Platinum Games likes to play the field and are currently working on a PlayStation console exclusive (Babylon’s Fall) and Switch exclusive (Bayonetta 3). Platinum doesn’t stick to tradition for the sake of it, so if they say they don’t foresee Japanese devs shunning Sony, I’m inclined to believe them. If you have a few minutes, do check out VGC’s full Platinum interview, as it’s filled with a lot more interesting tidbits than we can cover here.
What do you think about this? Will we see an exodus of Japanese Developers away from Sony this generation, or will it be business as usual?
