Sony Interactive Entertainment and Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima was the first PlayStation first-party title to sell over 1 million copies in Japan, according to former executive Shuhei Yoshida.
During an interview with AV Watch, former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive Shuhei Yoshida highlighted how sales of Ghost of Tsushima in Japan were a major accomplishment for the company. Thus, it was only recently that AAA titles developed by overseas PlayStation Studios with an eye on the global market became more widely supported in Japan.
Yoshida mentioned that he was involved in game development at PlayStation in the United States from 2000 to 2008. At the time, series like God of War and Uncharted were big hits in the West, but struggled to gain traction in Japan. The Japanese market accounted for around 10% of the global PlayStation install base. Local sales of first-party games developed in the US and Europe were only 3% or 5% of their global sales. One exception was Detroit: Become Human, which sold close to the install base in Japan.
The former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive mentioned that he often struggled with the possibility of making successful overseas first-party titles sell better in Japan. He worked closely with the localization team in Japan, which excelled at its job. He encouraged the team by saying, “I know it’s tough now, but your time will come in the future.” Eventually, a long time later, Ghost of Tsushima was released in 2020, and it ended up selling 1 million copies in the country. The last overseas first-party title to achieve to cross sales of 1 million copies in Japan was Crash Bandicoot 3: N.O.S. in 1998. Horizon: Zero Dawn, another foreign PlayStation Studios title released 3 years prior to Ghost of Tsushima, had sold around 700,000 copies. Foreign games were gradually gaining recognition, but the sales milestone of 1 million copies was first achieved by Sucker Punch Productions’ title.
