Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has called the Japan-exclusive edition of the Nintendo Switch 2 an "amazing business decision."
Worlds collided recently as former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida joined forces with Nintendo of America's former marketing leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang on an episode of their podcast.
They spoke about their time working at the respective companies, with the topic of the rivalry between the DS and the PSP naturally coming up during the conversation.
Despite being a player for the other team, Yoshida was extremely positive about the Switch 2, especially the Japanese-only edition that costs $110 less than the worldwide edition, with the caveat that you'll only be able to play Japanese region Nintendo games on it. Yoshida said the direction from Nintendo was "mind boggling," but an "amazing business decision."
"I do not necessarily think other companies like PlayStation would emulate what they did," he added. "It doesn't make sense to me, you know, selling the same thing for such a different price for other consumers." Yoshida notes "it's clearly showing they want to keep the strong hold in Japan that they already have… that's an amazing decision they have made."
Handhelds are an extremely strong market in Japan, and pretty much always have been. It's the reason Monster Hunter was pretty much a handheld-exclusive series for so long before the series took off worldwide. So Nintendo offering a cheaper way to get more handheld systems out to Japanese consumers is arguably a good plan, even if selling a console at a significant regional discount at launch is, as Yoshida said, "mind boggling."
