After reporters and gamers cast doubts about Sony Interactive Entertainment's business strategy - according to many too focused on remakes and triple-A games and little on mid-range games, as well as too little attentive to the Japanese market- in an interview with Nikkei il CEO Jim Ryan silenced these fears, stating that the PlayStation 5 will have more exclusive games than any previous generation. This will include content that is "more suited to the Japanese market".
In particular, Ryan was asked if Sony was competitive in the exclusives field, especially since Microsoft recently made giant acquisitions such as Bethesda. The CEO replied that Sony has "Constantly invested in high-quality games" and that "will ensure that the PlayStation 5 generation has more exclusive software than ever". After all, Sony has already acquired companies like Insomniac Games in the past and Ryan "won't rule out this option in the future."
As for relations with Japan, Ryan also insists that Sony is trying to "strengthen ties with Japanese developers" despite the merger of Japan Studio with the ASOBI Team, which led several renowned Japanese developers to move on to other studios,. One of the ways they will do this is by becoming an official sponsor of asobu, a very active and important Japanese indie developer hub in the Asian country. Sony wants to release PlayStation 5 games that are "suitable for the Japanese market", and Ryan reiterates that there are already a fair number of Japanese titles for the next-gen console.
Curating the game catalog isn't Sony's only focus in Japan right now. As everywhere, the region is suffering from a shortage of PS5 consoles, albeit Ryan likens the availability of the console as "comparable" to that of the PlayStation 4 during the first few months after its launch. This is mainly due to a global semiconductor shortage that shows no signs of improvement anytime soon. Despite this, Sony is asking suppliers to increase their production of PS5 consoles and these should reach retailers throughout 2021.
