Does Sony’s PS4 face exile?

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) will arrive in Japan on February 14th. Wait…. what? Sony is releasing its flagship product on its home turf three months after it launched abroad? That can’t be true! But it is.

I remember the PlayStation 3 (PS3) release from 2006 very well; I sat in front of a computer in a dusty dorm watching videos of that shiny black, Spiderman-fonted tease being unboxed, all the while knowing I had a three month wait until I got mine. Because I was neither Japanese nor American (I was in the UK), I had to wait my turn like the rest of Europe. It was not a good feeling and it’s a tragedy that Japan is suffering it today.

On the PS3’s Japanese launch day, over 80,000 consoles were sold in 24 hours. People queued around the clock and their enthusiasm was through the roof. At that time, I remember feeling bitter toward American gamers who received their consoles only a week after Japan, but I certainly didn’t doubt Japan’s right to be first in line; this was a product from their country, the fruit of Japanese labour, and it was only fair that they got first dibs.