Once Sony revealed the PS4’s February 22nd, 2014 release date in Japan (months after the many other countries), they backed up their decision by mentioning how the launch line-up at the moment is more skewed to Western audiences, and they wanted to wait for a time when titles better suited for a Japanese launch would be ready.
As it turns out, that isn’t the full story, as a few very important people at Sony spoke to Eurogamer regarding the Japanese PS4 release coming later, with Mark Cerny up first:
Sony just wants to make sure that when PlayStation 4 launches in Japan there is a good line-up of titles for Japan.
Perhaps you could say that a few western developers have been more aggressive in readying titles for the hardware.
Masayasu Ito, SVP at SCE, also added his thoughts:
A next-generation home console has been a strong request from Western developers who were anxious to see such devices. That’s why we decided to go ahead with the EU and US launches… because EU and US titles were ready.
Shuhei Yoshida then addressed the fact of whether Japanese developers even wanted the next generation of systems:
That’s definitely a major factor when we decided where to launch when. The readiness from the publisher standpoint, and consumers and the media – everybody was ready. We were constantly told we should release new hardware!
Compared to that, Japan is completely different. It’s more portable-heavy, but the PS3 is catching up. Of course, after we announced PS4 in February, luckily publishers are showing an interest. But it’s a completely different picture of readiness compared to Western publishers.
Are you ready for the PlayStation 4? Let us know in the comments below.
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