According to a new Bloomberg report from Takashi Mochizuki, PlayStation 4 did not sell as many units in Japan as Sony had expected, despite being a global success elsewhere. According to the report, based on sources within Sony in both Japan and the US, this has led to Sony sidelining Japan with considerably less Playstation 5 consoles for launch and "Japan-based developer support teams have been reduced by as much as a third from their peak."
Other examples of this trend mentioned in the article are that Sony's mainstream events for PlayStation 5 this year took place at 5 am Tokyo time, and to some extent, even lacked translations. Sony also decided to change the classic button set up in Japan, established with the very first PlayStation in 1994, using O to confirm things in games and X to cancel them. Therefore, with PlayStation 5, Japanese gamers have to use the opposite system we are used to in the west.
Interestingly enough, the report says there is evidence of Microsoft seeing opportunity in Sony scaling back in Japan. As you probably know, Microsoft has had an almost amazingly bad generation in Japan with Xbox One but after the launch of Game Pass, Microsoft says it is now its fastest-growing market. Bloomberg's Mochizuki has talked to "several Japan-based game developers, from small to big" and said Microsoft has approached them about buying their company.
When reaching out to Sony, a spokesperson from the company said that "our home market remains of utmost importance." Do you think the report has a valid point with the evidence, and could this be the first generation with some success for Microsoft in Japan?