PlayStation Boss Stresses That Japan Is Still "Incredibly Important To Us"

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has insisted that Japan remains incredibly important to the company, slamming reports suggesting otherwise as "inaccurate".

Ryan, speaking to Edge (via GamesRadar) in its latest December issue, stresses that PlayStation has not been as excited to work with Japanese developers for some years. The executive was also quick to point out the many Japanese-produced titles that appeared on the two PS5 streams ahead of the console's launch.

"In our two launch shows – which featured a reasonable amount of games, but not a huge number of games – there were eight Japanese-developed titles there, many of which are the subject of collaboration and partnership between PlayStation and the Japanese publishing community," Ryan explained.

Replying indirectly to the Bloomberg report that suggested Sony's support in Japan was waning, Ryan doesn't think the evidence is there to back it up. The PlayStation 5 launched simultaneously in Japan on November 12, for example--an improvement over the three-month wait the region had to endure during the PS4 launch.

"So I read that stuff," said Ryan. "A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan – as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us."

Recent changes at PlayStation have prompted some concern over the importance of the region to the global brand, including the official shift from O to X as the universal input for confirming on the controller and the departure of seasoned Japanese developers from the company. One of the largest launch games for the system, however, was Demon's Souls, and it was based on a game from Japanese developer From Software. The pre-installed game Astro's Playroom, created by Asobi Team at SIE Japan Studio.