Ghost of Tsushima Is Sony's Biggest Western Hit in Japan Since Crash Bandicoot 3 1
Image: Push Square

Now he's left PlayStation, former exec Shuhei Yoshida is dropping all kinds of anecdotes and knowledge from his three decades at the company.

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

Speaking to AV Watch in an interview (thanks, Genki), Yoshida says Sucker Punch's open world action RPG is the first Western first-party game to surpass 1 million units sold in Japan since Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.

PS1 classic Crash 3 released in 1998, and became the very first non-Japanese first-party PlayStation game to reach the sales milestone. Now, over two decades later, Yoshida confirms Ghost of Tsushima is the second.

For PlayStation, the Japanese games market is smaller than Western territories like Europe and North America. Nintendo's Switch is a dominant force in the country, and only a few heavy hitters on other platforms stand a chance in the charts — Monster Hunter Wilds being a recent example.

Anyway, the reaction to Ghost of Tsushima in Japan has been super positive, and even resulted in increased tourism to the real Tsushima. A torii gate on the island managed to crowd-fund for repairs in large part thanks to fans of the game, though sadly this story turned sour after it was recently vandalised.

It's been a big success for Sony globally, then, so it's no surprise that we're getting a sequel, Ghost of Yotei, later this year. It was recently reiterated the game is still on track for launch in 2025.

[source av.watch.impress.co.jp, via x.com]