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When Sony denied last week that it was planning any kind of launch event for its new PlayStation 5 console, that was just true. Tokyo’s daily Covid count was rising alarmingly towards “third wave” territory, most of the machine’s initial sales were online anyway, and no sensible corporation wants its name associated with a pandemic group. .
But when you’ve spent 74 years building your brand on consumer products, and have a rival as powerful and as wealthy as Microsoft behind its tail, a flashy launch is hard to resist.
Just before the PS5 went on sale in Japan, Sony arranged for Tokyo’s Kanda Myojin shrine to be lit up with its corporate colors and futuristic console-themed animations to dance in its pious 1,270-year-old venues.
Sony’s choice was wise and perhaps more revealing than I intended. Kanda Myojin, which sits on the edge of Tokyo’s famous geek-haunted Akihabara district, has over time reinvented itself as the spiritual home of consumer electronics.
The three gods of the sanctuary, a warrior deity and two of wealth and commerce, seemed like the perfect trio to guard an industry that, along with automobiles, once spearheaded the combative globalization of the Japan brand. Kanda’s current fee for a priest to wrap his mobile phone, iPod, or laptop in a prayer of divine protection against broken screens, malfunctions, or cyberattack is Y10,000 ($ 95).
The location of Sony’s launch event is also a reminder of what Japanese consumer electronics have lost, not just in fear of the Covid-19 crowds, but in consumer electronics’ broader march away from it. that Japan ever did so well.
In pre-Covid times, Akihabara was the trusted place for the media to revel in the spectacle of a console launch, complete with giant queues, euphoric newcomers, and store staff putting ‘out of stock’ signs on empty shelves before an hour had passed.
Beyond consoles, Akihabara was once the preeminent test bed for a parade of new consumer devices. Current gems include Nintendo’s Switch, Audio-Technica headphones, Zojirushi rice cookers, and Casio G-Shock.
But the dominance of electronics in Akihabara and Japan has waned as both consumer and technology have advanced. Part of the discussion surrounding the current “console war” – Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox also launched last week – has been whether this round will be the last.
The global $ 150 billion gaming industry looks substantially different than it did when Sony and Microsoft launched their predecessor machines seven years ago. Mobile gaming, in particular, now accounts for just under half of global gaming revenue, consoles are just one platform among a set of alternatives, and the global gaming population now runs into the billions. The fusion of games with social networks has also been very significant, converting titles such as Fortnite in virtual environments for activities far beyond the game itself.
Will the consoles themselves soon become an anachronism in an era of streaming, mobile and the entry to games of powerful new rivals like Amazon and Google?
Against that, there is an argument that the value of consoles has actually been elevated by technological evolution. The machines, with their meticulously built operating systems, huge fan bases, player networks, sales channels, and interfaces, are now more powerfully concentrated conduits of entertainment than almost anything else on the market.
For Sony in particular, the PS5 is a machine that the company dreamed would exist long before it could. It’s a globally installed, magical content unifier and distributor that makes the acquisitions of CBS Music in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989 seem like part of the coherent plan that successive Sony CEOs have always claimed to have.
But the greatest importance of the PS5 may be to Japan’s sense of self. If, as many analysts expect, this machine surpasses the worldwide PlayStation 4 sales of 110 million units, it will show that Japanese devices are still the best in the world. Sony hasn’t said as much, but its use of the Kanda shrine for the launch event feels like a prayer for the protection of all Japanese devices.
