Sony pre-TGS conference: how Playstation will win the heart of Asia

“To us, the Asia market has always been a vital part for the expansion of the Playstation business, and we will continue to put extra focus on growing the business in these markets.” That was the bold statement Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia president Atsushi Morita opened with. Following a short speech, deputy president Hiroyuki Oda took the stage to share Playstation’s brand strategy for Asia.

The Playstation 4 (PS4) has already sold ten million units as of August 10 this year. After the PS4 launch, Playstation Vita sales jumped 25 percent. Oda shares that Asia is very diverse; it enjoys playing both Western and Japanese titles. As a result, Sony has provided more and more localized titles for Asia; however this has so far referred solely to the Traditional Chinese and Korean languages. Oda says to look forward to more titles being available in the Asia region.

Upcoming events Sony will showcase at include Singapore’s Gamestart in October, G-star in Korea in November, and Taipei Game Show in February.

(See: Southeast Asia, could this be your Tokyo Game Show?) 

PS Vita

There will be a light pink/white Playstation Vita (PS Vita) available in Asian markets from November 13, the same time as the Japanese launch. It will be available in limited quantities and available for holiday season. There will also be 330 custom themes for the Vita, live from Playstation.

New localized titles include:

Toukiden Kiwami from Koei Tecmo, centred around players eradicating the Oni menace. It has evolved from Toukiden to become the “ultimate sequel”, with all elements “significantly expanded”. It will be available soon in Traditional Chinese (October 30), while the Korean version is targeted for a winter 2014 release. Sadly, no English version is on the way just yet.

Next was a new Phantasy Star project from Sega, a hunting game from the same universe called Phantasy Star Nova. This will be available in spring 2015, and is co-developed by Sega and Tri-ace. It will be out in Japanese and Traditional Chinese first.

(See: Phantasy Star Online 2 preview: the galactic pretty-boy adventure)

There will also be a new Monster Monpiece sequel. The original game had been censored for its global release as it was “too sexy”. Genkai Tokki Moerochronicle, playing off the “moe” style made famous by Japan, will be available in Asia in both English and Traditional Chinese in February 2015. Finally, Gundam Breaker 2, available in Traditional Chinese and Japanese initially, will be available winter this year.

Playstation 4