Sony to Cut PS4 Price in Japan

TOKYO—Sony Corp. said on Tuesday that it will cut the price of its PlayStation 4 in Japan by more than 10% as it looks to bolster momentum in a market where sales of smartphone games have surpassed console-based titles.

Effective next month, the console's new Japanese price of ¥ 34,980 ($292) will be considerably lower than its Europe price tag of €399 ($450) or the $399 it costs to buy a PlayStation 4 in the U.S.

A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment on whether similar price cuts were planned outside Japan.

"We'd like to provide an opportunity for many potential users to experience the world of PlayStation," said Atsushi Morita, the head of PlayStation in Japan and Asia, at a Tokyo news conference where he also unveiled the formal name of the company's virtual reality headset project, previously known as Morpheus, as "PlayStation VR".

Japan's videogame market has been shrinking rapidly in recent years amid competition from high-quality games that can be played on smartphones. Sales of game consoles and related software have halved to ¥ 373.3 billion in the past seven years, while so-called social games played on mobile devices including smartphones recorded ¥ 562.2 billion in sales in 2014, up from ¥ 400 million in 2007, according to the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association.

Sony's PlayStation 4, introduced in November 2013, has been a strong performer globally, topping sales of 20.2 million units as of March this year, leading rivals such as Nintendo Co.'s Wii U and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One. However, only 1.66 million units were sold in Japan as of Sept. 6, according to data from videogame magazine publisher Famitsu. Sony doesn't disclose a regional sales breakdown.

Sony isn't the only videogame powerhouse struggling in Japan. Nintendo's share price slumped until it announced an entry to the smartphone game market with DeNA Co. earlier this year, while Microsoft's game business lacks a major presence in the Japanese market.

Sony denied the price-cut was in response to concerns about the console's performance in its home market but that it was aimed to take advantage of a significant increase in the number of PS4 game titles over the past year. It also announced that PlayStation Now, a game-streaming service that Sony has been offering in the U.S., will be rolled out to the Japan market from Wednesday.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at [e-mail]

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September 15, 2015 08:15 ET (12:15 GMT)

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