Sony recently announced a ¥5,000 price drop at Tokyo Game Show a fortnight ago. The reason for this price drop was to drive adoption of PlayStation 4 in Japan, mainly because sales have been lacklustre so far. After a year and a half on the market the console has only sold 1.7 million units which is actually tracking behind Nintendo’s Wii U when you align launches.
More than 268,000 gamers and press turned up to TGS to try out the new games on display for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation VR. For those who weren’t able to attend, Sony announced that they would be touring the country as part of their “PlayStation LIVE Circuit 2015” to bring these experiences to other parts of Japan including Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka. The Osaka event took place yesterday and was a huge success with just under 1,000 people attending the event.
The event had a similar set up to TGS but on a much smaller scale, there were more than 30 playable games on the show floor as well as a live stage which was demoing the most popular titles on PS4 such as Uncharted 4, Dragon Quest Builders, Bloodborne and God Eater. The most popular attraction, PlayStation VR, had a limited number of headsets available to try and so a lottery ticket system was introduced. Only those who picked out a red ticket from the lottery were able to try out Sony’s new VR headset whilst a blue ticket meant you were unable to try out PlayStation VR that day. However pulling out a green ticket meant that you had a chance to try out the headset but only if there was enough time at the end of the day once all red ticket holders had their demo.
PlayStation VR received a positive response from many gamers who attended. Gamers who tried the headset were able to play various demo’s such as Kitchen, Dynasty Warriors 8 VR, The PlayRoom VR, SEGA feat Hatsune Miku Project and Summer Lesson. One gamer talked about how he really enjoyed the “Cat & Mouse” game which is a playable mini game in the PlayRoom VR pack. In the game the player is a cat and has to physically move forward to poke their head through various curtains to try and find mice that are steeling cheese. Once you find the mice you’ll be able to catch them if they’re still moving but you’ll need to back out from the curtain for the mice to keep moving again. It’s a simple game but with the VR headset you can really immerse yourself and have a lot of fun.
One gamer noted on his blog that the most popular games on the show floor included Bloodborne: The old hunters, Gravity Daze, Dragon Quest Builders, Street Fighter 5, Dark Souls 3 and even Minecraft PS Vita edition. He also noted that Call of Duty Black Ops 3 was insanely popular but games like God Eater Resurrection and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 did not have long queues. According to the blog, the first thing the writer will do is go and buy a PS4.
It looks like this event is already having the intended effect that Sony planned.
