“You can buy a gaming PC for 120,000 yen.” Japanese people have been seeing an increasing number of advertisements worded this way in the past few days. But what else costs 120,000 yen? A PlayStation 5 Pro, as recently revealed by Sony.
The announcement of the PS5 Pro’s steep price tag has caused significant dissatisfaction both in the US and Europe, where the console will set gamers back $700 and €800 respectively. But much like European gamers, Japanese players are faced with paying even more for the console than people in the US. The 119,980-yen price point is equivalent to over $840, based on recent conversion rates.
To make matters worse, Sony recently hiked the price of standard PS5 console models in Japan. On September 2, the suggested retail price jumped from 66,980 yen (about $463) to 79,980 yen (about $552). Apart from severe backlash across social media, this decision caused the console to sell out all over the country in the days leading up to the price increase and even gave the Xbox a boost in sales.
Sounds like Valve might need to market the Steam deck harder in Japan. Show that it can be used portably like a PSP/DS and that it can be used as a console with a screen and controller.
It came out much later here than it did in the US, and you still can’t buy it directly from Valve - you have to go through an authorized third party. But I have seen the Asus ROG Ally in electronic stores. I’ve only seen the Steam Deck at one place, and I think that store has an arrangement to sell it exclusively. I haven’t been out looking in a few months, though.
That’s unfortunate. It looks like Zotac is releasing a handheld that looks super similar to the steam deck. https://www.zotac.com/us/page/zotac-gaming-zone-portable-handheld
With all the Xbox game pass advertising it looks like it runs windows. Hopefully one of the handheld Linux distros will work on it.