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I used to be a big playstation fan because they used to have a ton of niche Japanese games that didn't come out on any other consoles.
Nowadays, the niche Japanese games that would have been PS exclusive 5 or 6 years ago, are either multi-platform, or just straight up not on PS.
Take Disgaea for example. It's one of my favorite series, and in the past, each new entry would launch exclusively for PS. As a Disgaea fan, I basically had to own a PS system.
Now, the latest entry, Disgaea 6, is not even coming to PS4 in the west. It has a PS4 version in Japan, but we're not getting it, we only get the Switch version. I don't know why they're doing it like that, but I wonder if maybe it has something to do with the fact that some developers, particularly Japanese and Indie devs, have outright said they sell way more copies on Switch. Perhaps the publisher made an exclusivity deal with Nintendo of America based on that.
This is honestly slightly upsetting to me, because I have a huge collection of PS games, and I like keeping my collection mostly on the same platform. But this has been going on for years at this point, I'm used to it. I've started mostly buying games for Switch, and I'll gladly add the Switch version of Disgaea 6 to that collection.
There's also stuff I can't get on Switch, like the upcoming Nier remake. For those I'm planning to build a PC. I actually bought everything I need besides the graphics card, I'd be PC gaming right now if it weren't for the fucking graphics card shortage.
Anyway, this woke shit from sony is just sad, but even without that, I'd still be done with playstation, because they just don't have the shit I want anymore.
Weebs kept the PS3, PSP, and Vita afloat, and Sony rewarded them with a knife in the back.
Japnese gamers are actually upset that sony is making games catered to the west and not catering to themselves.
And us western gamers got sony to play games made for japan.
Its fucked.
good luck with the gpu. saw a 3060 for 1200 bucks at my local shop yesterday. a card in the range i wouldve saved up 2-300 bucks as a teenager. prices are beyond ridiculous...
The reason a lot of games aren't coming to the West anymore is due to the PS censorship. I would say I'm surprised you haven't heard about it, but woke SJW media have been celebrating the censorship of Japanese games. Basically a lot of hot babes, fan-service, and content mostly aimed at straight males is getting hacked, censored, or barred from games. It's now happening at the development level (years ago it was happening post-development).
So most Japanese devs have switched their main platform to Switch. The few remaining Japanese studios try to keep their games Japan-side and avoid Western releases altogether to avoid the censorship certification process (though, some Japanese games released even in Japan still have to go through that process, but it's more rigorous releasing it in the West).
As for the graphics card... unless you plan on playing games in 4K, you can really just suffice with a GTX 1080 Ti. You can play every single game out there on max settings in 1920 x 1080(p) at 144hz with the right TV/monitor setup.
There isn't one new game that even gives my gaming rig a bit of workout and it's four years old at this point. I not only play all games at maxed out settings, but Nvidia's auto-optimization keeps super-sampling games to run in 4K.So you don't need to get a top of the line graphics card to play fun games.
If you absolutely need to, down the line, get a 3xxx card, but otherwise something older and stable will do you well.
Oh, I know about the censorship already. I agree that it's a big problem, and has probably caused many Japanese devs to avoid PS. There's definitely some games that have avoided PS entirely because of censorship, such as the upcoming GalGun remake. They're releasing on Xbox of all things, so clearly sales aren't a deciding factor for the dev team, in terms of what system they port their game to.
But I think there's other factors at play too, like sales, and sonys treatment of games even outside of the censorship. Like how sony doesn't seem to want to promote any JP games, outside of really big, blockbuster hits, like FF7 Remake. Those get shown on Playstation Directs, and you're sure to see ads for them all over the PS Store. But something like Disgaea 6? Even if it was coming West, I'm sure we wouldn't hear a peep about it from sony.
Small side-note, I'd say it's similar for Indies as well. Sony used to make a huge deal about supporting indies. I remember checking the PS store on my PS3 back in 2012, and seeing huge ads for Journey(great game btw). Now a huge indie game, like Spelunky 2, can release on PS4, and we don't hear a peep from sony. I know it's not their job to advertise for devs, but come on. Spelunky is like the granddaddy of Western rogue-likes, you'd think they'd cut some kind of deal with the dev, at least if they actually gave half a shit about video games.
As for sales, many devs have said they sell more on Switch, and I think it's easy to see why. Mainly, because the Switch is just better for games that aren't graphically demanding, since it would be the same as other versions with an additional portable mode, so I'll bet many people just prefer it. Also, the Switch has been outselling PS by a ton in Japan, since the Japanese prefer handheld gaming. So naturally any Japanese games would sell much more on Switch in Japan. I'd bet that sales of all Japanese games on PS, even uncensored ones, have died down significantly in recent years.
Personally, I feel the censorship is an additional slap to the face on top of everything else that's pushing devs from playstation. I don't even think Disgaea 6 would be censored at all if it released in the West, and I don't think I'm being generous by saying that. None of the Disgaea games are very lewd, they're only slightly lewd with some character designs. Really, if you're not a prude, the Disgaea games are downright kid-friendly, outside of the occasional boob jokes.
This is just a theory, but I think the decision to release D6 only on Switch in the West is an attempt to appeal to weebs on Switch, because the weeb audience is fractured, split between sony and nintendo, which is bad for business. Basically, PS used to own weebs, but that's over now. So, smaller publishers/devs like NIS/NISA have to try to regain the audience they used to have on the platform they can thrive on. Perhaps it's better for them to have their audience mainly on one platform so they can save costs on porting.
It's almost like they're signalling to weebs, "Sony doesn't want you anymore, but we've still got you covered on the Switch, so make that your main platform.". I think this will probably happen with many niche titles in the future. But who knows, I could be wrong. Perhaps Switch is just NISA's main platform now, and they're planning to double dip with a PS4 "Complete Edition" later on, as they're known to do. In which case, I'll still go for the Switch version, or maybe PC if that happens.
Anyway, if you read this wall of text, thanks, and thanks for the graphics card recommendation. From what I can tell, card prices are screwed all around, even old cards. But I'll keep an eye out for a decent price on a 1080ti.
Oh I completely agree about smaller devs trying to scoop up the fractured weeb/JRPG/niche audience that Sony left to die out in the wilderness.
Nintendo has basically had open arms for indies, lewd games, visual novels, and more, while Sony and Steam have been selectively censoring games or -- as you mentioned -- simply not advertising that they even exist on the platform.
And while it's true that platform holders have no responsibility to advertise third-party games on their consoles, it's a huge selling point to lure people in with third-party titles that either look better, play better or run better than the competition -- or in the case of a lot of Nindies -- games that simply aren't available on other systems.
Nintendo isn't perfect by a long shot, but I've been getting a heck of a lot of mileage out of both my PC gaming rig and Switch exclusively. My PS4/PSVR/Xbox(es) simply sit and collect dust at this point. The only games I plan to go back and play via Xbox (and through the Xbox streaming app so I can play it on my gaming rig) are Gears of War 2 and maybe Crackdown.