PlayStation 4 – now available worldwide

Despite a declining market for home consoles the Japanese launch of the PS4 appears to have gone well, outselling the PS3 launch total.

A decade or so ago it would’ve seemed inconceivable for a Japanese-made console no to launch in its home country first, let alone three months after North America and Europe.

But times have changed a lot since the era when the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2 saw 630,552 consoles sold in just two days.

The PlayStation 4 has done relatively well though, with the launch on Saturday amassing a two day total of 322,083.


That’s half of what the PlayStation 2 did back in 2000, but it’s almost four times what the PlayStation 3 managed in 2006.



The initial shipment for Japan is estimated at around 350,000, which means it’s practically sold out already. Which is especially good considering February is just as quiet period for the Japanese games market as it is for the rest of the world.

However, it’s probably best not to read too much into the figures as it’s only a little more than the 308,570 the Wii U managed in 2012, and you know how that turned out.

There’s still no clue as to when the Xbox One will launch in Japan, but considering the original Xbox and Xbox 360 were complete flops in the country it’s unlikely ever to be a factor.

But this presents a problem for Japanese gamers as they’re traditionally not very interested in Western style shooters and action games, and yet so far Japanese publishers have been even slower to support the PlayStation 4 than they have its predecessor.

Despite the extra three months to get things together the only notable exclusive is Sega’s samurai adventure Yakuza Ishin (aka Restoration), which is also on PlayStation 3.

Everything else is just other PS3 ports such as Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends from Tecmo Koei, cheap-to-make novelties like dancing game Dream Club: Host Girls On Stage from D3Publisher, and beta access for massively multiplayer online game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Which doesn’t offer much incentive to give up the smartphone and portable games that have dominated the Japanese games market for the last several years.

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