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The story
When Nihon Falcom shifted its flagship series from a PS-centered rollout to a self-led multiplatform strategy, it sparked discussion on 5ch’s game/hardware industry board (the “Gehaban”) about claims that “third parties say PlayStation gets few new users.” The thread debated which figure better reflects reality — SIE’s published PS5 new-user ratio (about 42%, roughly 31.5 million people, covering November 2020 through the end of December 2024) or Switch 2’s new-user count (about 16%, roughly 3.8 million people, in its first year on sale) — along with disagreements over the definition of “new user” and the gap between domestic and overseas sales ratios.
What people said
Up to now we'd built out the Trails series mainly around PS5, but with Trails in the Sky we took on the challenge of leading the rollout ourselves, worldwide, including Switch and PC (Steam).
◯Cancellations: "Beats me~" (staring off into the distance)
These days plenty of parents hand their kid a smartphone or tablet first, then buy them a Switch.
A PS doesn't get bought unless the kid specifically begs for one.
every year the earnings reports say they're selling tons of software…
It looks like 8 million units sold in Japan, but really most of those are going overseas.
PlayStation's user base is basically just people overseas who like photorealistic games.
The point is that PlayStation's own user base is scorched earth.
There was talk of Forza 5 selling 5 million copies in just a few months, what are you even talking about lol
Only selling 3 million is because FF16 was trash lol
Well obviously — because Falcom's existing user base is PlayStation users.
Then going multiplatform is unavoidable, huh 🤭
>Well obviously — because Falcom's existing user base is PlayStation users.
So PS users are enjoying Falcom's games, but other PS users see that and don't think "maybe I should try it too"? That just makes it a dying village (a shrinking, isolated community) after all.
Parents buy their kids a Switch, and a PS gets bought by adults with money to spend freely.
And those adults end up deciding their phone is good enough anyway.
Even Level-5 has gone off Nintendo-exclusive.
Capcom did it too, with Mega Man Battle Network and Ace Attorney.
Story of Seasons also left Nintendo-exclusive for multiplatform on Steam.
And that's how it split between publishers that dropped physical packaging and those that didn't.
Nah, that's not it.
They're just flipping studios around to keep up appearances.
■ PS5 New Users
* Just over 40% (about 42%)
The share of PS5 buyers who are pure newcomers (didn't own a PS4) or switched over from another platform.
* Roughly 31.5 million people
The number of new users you get by applying that percentage to PS5's cumulative sales at the time (74.9 million units).
■ Data collection period
* November 2020 – end of December 2024
The cumulative official figure built up over about 4 years since PS5's launch.
PS5: 42% new over 4 years, 31.5 million new users
Switch 2: about 16% new in 1 year
Roughly 3.8 million people (*the remaining 84% carried over from the original Switch)
So this is why they couldn't break away from PS4 for so long and kept doing cross-gen (same-gen dual) releases.
PS4 owners don't see enough appeal in the PS5 to upgrade, and new users coming in only play mobile gacha games.
As a result, PS5-exclusive games don't sell, everything ends up multiplatform, there's no game you can point to and say "buy a PS5 to play this," and older titles get ignored outside of sales.
And that's how we ended up here.
If there really are 31.5 million new users like SIE claims, but both physical and digital sales are still sluggish, then of course third parties are going to have something to say about it…
Even if "retail" (literally "small-sell") disappears, there's still "big-sell," so no problem (a pun on the Japanese word for retail, 小売).
Switch 2: 380 new users in 1 year
Must not understand what "new" even means, since they're an idiot.
They're probably just citing MAU (monthly active user) figures, but calling that "PS5 new users" is way too misleading.
That's exactly why they don't pull in as many new users as third parties expect, and why companies like Capcom end up disappointed.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The backdrop here is that, in the PS5 generation, third-party flagship titles have broadly shifted toward multiplatform releases, with a particularly noticeable trend in Japan of major RPGs being ported to Switch and PC. The “new user” figures cited in the thread are cumulative numbers SIE has disclosed in materials such as investor presentations, and they may include people upgrading from an existing console — meaning they don’t necessarily equal the number of genuinely new entrants to the platform. The difference in counting periods — one year for Switch 2 versus four years for PS5 — also makes a simple comparison difficult. The thread also saw disagreements over unit-sales figures and regional market share, but many posts cited no sources, so the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Third Parties: “PlayStation Has Few New Users” ← Despair.”
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