Ghost of Tsushima Is Sony’s Biggest Western Hit in Japan Since Crash Bandicoot 3

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Now that he’s no longer with Sony PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida is sharing a wealth of stories and insights from his three-decade tenure at the company.

A recent example concerns Ghost of Tsushima and its sales performance in Japan.

In a recent chat with AV Watch during an interview (thanks, Genki), Yoshida shared that Sucker Punch’s open world action RPG is the initial Western first-party game to sell over 1 million units in Japan since Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.

1998 saw the release of the classic Crash Bandicoot 3 for PS1, marking it as the initial non-Japanese first-party PlayStation game to hit a significant sales target. Recently, Yoshida announced that Ghost of Tsushima has now joined this exclusive club, becoming the second such title more than two decades later.

In Japan, the market for PlayStation games is less significant compared to regions such as Europe and North America. However, Nintendo’s Switch has a strong influence within the country. Only a select number of high-profile games on other platforms can make an impact in the rankings – Monster Hunter Rise being a recent instance of success.

In a nutshell, the response to Ghost of Tsushima within Japan has been overwhelmingly positive and even sparked an increase in tourism on the actual island of Tsushima. Interestingly enough, a torii gate on the island garnered enough funds for repairs primarily through the support of gamers, albeit sadly this heartening tale took a turn for the worse when the very same structure was vandalized recently.

Since Sony has achieved global success with its previous title, it’s not unexpected that a follow-up, Ghost of Yotei, will be released towards the end of this year. It’s been confirmed that the game is still set to debut in 2025 as planned.

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2025-03-28 20:06