SONY OF CALIFORNIA

https://archive.vn/I9WlS bloomberg

Microsoft Sets Sights on Sony’s Home Turf in Game Console Clash By Takashi Mochizuki November 7, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

Microsoft is targeting Japan, third-largest video-game market

Sony moved headquarters to U.S., where it gets large revenues

A senior figure inside PlayStation headquarters in San Mateo, California, said the U.S. side was frustrated by the failure of the Japan marketing team to sell as many PlayStation 4 units as expected. The person asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

As a result, Japan has been sidelined in planning the PlayStation 5’s promotion, according to several PlayStation staff in Japan. Employees in Tokyo said they’ve been left awaiting instructions from California.

Japan-based developer support teams have been reduced by as much as a third from their peak, and the rolling contracts of a number of game creators at PlayStation’s Japan Studio, one of the unit’s oldest in-house software ateliers, haven’t been renewed, former employees said. The U.S. office believes the PlayStation business doesn’t need games that only do well in Japan, employees in the California headquarters said.

The PlayStation 5’s two main online promotional events both took place at 5 a.m. in Tokyo -- making them more accessible to American and European fans -- and lacked Japanese translation for some parts. The company also decided to standardize its PS5 control scheme so that Japanese players would have to use X to confirm and O to cancel, like the rest of the world. That reverses a 26-year tradition in a country where circles signify positives and crosses mark negatives.

https://archive.vn/PXGtL gamesindustry. biz

Sony's Jim Ryan: We had to make changes to deliver our PlayStation 5 dream

PlayStation's CEO on the globalisation of Sony Interactive Entertainment Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Thursday 7th November 2019

"Yes, we feel we need to become a more global organisation, but this is absolutely not at the expense of our in-market strength at a country level. And I really want to reinforce the point that globalisation does not mean Americanisation, or vice versa. Becoming a global organisation does not, in any way, shape or form, mean becoming an American organisation. I'm living proof of that, as a good Geordie boy sitting here running PlayStation."