Sony decided to launch its new gaming console the PlayStation 4 in the West late last year. The console instantly became a hit, it now happens to be the fastest selling console in UK history. PS4 continues to outsell Microsoft’s Xbox One on a monthly basis so its safe to say that its a hit in these parts of the world. The story is a bit different on Sony’s home turf in Japan. The country’s console market barely registered any growth ever since the PS4 was launched there back in February.
Dr. Serkan Toto, a consultant on the Japanese games industry, said that the latest Enterbrain figures show the Japanese console market to be worth 1722.6 million yen for the first half of this year as opposed to 1720.2 million yen for the same time last year, evidently this is mediocre growth at best.
Figures from Media Create show that in the week between June 23-29 2014 the PlayStation 4 managed to sell over 8000 units, merely 500 units more than the PS3 sold in the exact same period. On the other hand the Wii U sold over 10,000, the vita over 22,000 and the 3DS sold more than 27,800 units in this week.
Ever since being released in Japan this February Sony’s PS4 has only been able to move some 620,000 units on the company’s home turf. The slow growth of PS4 sales in Japan could be due to the fact that most of its games are geared primarily towards the West. As more games land on the next-gen console we might see its adoption increase in Japan, but that might take months to achieve.