The announcement came out of Tokyo, where Sony said it will release a region-locked PlayStation 5 Digital Edition that only works inside Japan, priced at ¥55,000 ($357), according to Bloomberg.
The earlier price for the same Digital Edition in Japan was ¥72,980, and the global price for the standard PS5 unit is $499. Orders open Thursday, and the console goes on sale November 21. This is a Japan-only product, not intended for global use.
The company said it wants to make the system easier for Japanese players to afford. Hideaki Nishino, chief executive officer of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said during the livestream announcement that the company wants “many players in Japan to enjoy the PS5 and its great lineup of games.”
After his statement, the livestream moved directly into details about the model and how it fits into the company’s current market strategy.
Sony’s Japan-only pricing mimics Nintendo Switch 2 launch method
Sony’s decision closely mimics the strategy of Nintendo, which recently released a Japan-only, Japanese-language edition of the Switch 2 alongside its global versions, which at the time helped drive the fastest launch sales the industry has seen.
Nintendo has dominated the console market in Japan across several hardware generations for decades now.
This price change also lands not long after Sony was forced to raise PS5 prices globally. Those increases were tied to US tariffs placed on imported goods under President Donald Trump.
At the time, those tariffs pushed production and shipping costs higher, and the company said it needed to protect its margins.
But in any case, Japan has been a difficult market for the PlayStation platform for years, with local tastes leaning heavily toward Nintendo’s lineup and handheld-oriented play styles.
Sony’s profit forecast surges as its entertainment and camera divisions strengthen
At the same time, Sony Group Corp. raised its operating profit outlook to ¥1.43 trillion ($9.3 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March, up 8% from its previous projection.
That revision came after the company reported ¥429 billion in operating profit for the quarter ending in September.
Those numbers beat analyst expectations. Strong performance came from several parts of the company, including entertainment and mobile camera sensors.
Recent major anime film releases, including Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, contributed to increased revenue in its entertainment segment.
Shares of the company surged as much as 6.7% in Tokyo on Wednesday, reaching the highest intraday level in more than a month.
Along with that, Sony announced a ¥100 billion share buyback, matching a similar move from Nintendo following its Switch 2 success.
The company also lifted sales and profit forecasts for its smart sensing division, which provides high-end smartphone camera sensors to companies such as Apple, even though it has recently lost some ground to Samsung in that space.
Expectations for smartphone demand improved as this year’s iPhone lineup sold better than last year’s.
In gaming performance, the company sold 3.9 million PS5 units in the most recent quarter, which is higher than the number sold in the same period last year. Software sales also increased, including titles from Sony’s own first-party development studios.
But active PlayStation users measured 119 million, a huge decline from the previous quarter.
Sony heads into the year-end sales season facing competition from Nintendo’s Switch 2, which is compatible with the entire existing Switch library and is expected to be one of the most in-demand items during holiday gift purchases in Japan and worldwide.
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