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[ANDS]

Of course this is from Paul Tassi. Articles like this should just be treated as "gamer centric" and not at all realistic (for a company like SONY). They sell PS5's. Day one console releases are a threat to that. Further, SONY controls the digital market on the PSN. . .why would they dilute day one sales on another platform.

. . .just pie in the sky nonsense that we will keep getting when they (eventually) port old games to a new platform.

 

[kingfey]

Day 1, day 1, DAY 1 PORTS

How many kids do you think will get the ps5? Because that is what sells the console.

And as for day1 sales, it will benefit them massively on pc, since they are selling digital. With console+pc sale is great for them. They managed to hit 20m in 4 years through ps4. Now do the math, on how much sales they can with pc+ps5. You will still get more console sales.

And that still wont hurt their consoles sales. Like I said before, the ps5 needs new generation. old generation before have real life business. By the time you finish college, you get married, and have life of your own. You might keep your gamer hobby, but not others. Its why these console owners target kids. As long as that exist, PC community wont hurt ps5 sales.

 

[Ebidramon]

Give PC a small taste of the good stuff and now want it all. Port begging has been horrible this gen so far.

Fun fact: Sony doesn't give a shit about you, and your loyalty.

 

[On Demand]

People make all these wonderful excuses for PC but then leave out games going to other consoles. Don't half step your point, go all the way.

Especially when it comes to Nintendo putting their games on PC.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Fun fact: Sony doesn't give a shit about you, and your loyalty.

Suits care about one thing

 

[rofif]

That is funny take kiddo. We always hear this about console users.

We had close to 30m concurrent users on steam alone. That is how much people logged in that day.

30m?
70k playing god of war. 900k Counter strike.
I see about 2-3mil active gamers. Not just accounts. Out of which 1060 is most popular.
I would like to see the numbers for ps4 and ps5 but sadly we don't have a way to see that

 

[kingfey]

Suits care about one thing

Its why I dont simp for any console. These guys make money from me, buying their products. I am just a wallet to them.

 

[KingGhidorah]

I think Sony might be thinking of getting out of console business all together, and just make PlayStation as digital games distributor platform like Steam or Epic

Console manufacturing is very expensive, where digital platform like Steam is extremely profitable, very high profit margin

 

[kingfey]

30m?
70k playing god of war. 900k Counter strike.
I see about 2-3mil active gamers. Not just accounts.
I would like to see the numbers for ps4 and ps5 but sadly we don't have a way to see that

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/steam-broke-new-concurrent-users-record-again-28-230-853-why-is-everyone-jumping-to-pc-gaming-in-recent-years.1627365/

It was 28.2m users.

I wish we can see the consoles too.

 

[Kerotan]

Hell no.

PlayStation players should always be priority and get the full effort of the studio behind the ps5 version. Pc should be an after thought and rightly so.

 

[On Demand]

Suits care about one thing

Again, using this logic Sony should put their games on Xbox. And vice versa.

They would make even more money. Since its all about the money.

 

[Raven117]

Nah. They want to drive some hardware sales for the impatient.

Come on now.

 

[kingfey]

Again, using this logic Sony should put their games on Xbox. And vice versa.

They would make even more money. Since its all about the money.

You know what. I have simple solution. Let xbox and Sony throw away their console, and make games exclusive for pc. Have their own stores on pc. That would save tons of money like steam. They wont need to make hardware again.

Steam doesnt have a console, and they make alot of money.

EDIT; this is retort respond. Not serious one.

 

[SlimySnake]

This is all it's been about since midway through the PS4 gen - trying to get Sony to play by their rules and leveraging the media to make it so.

But Sony is following Microsoft here. This is exactly what MS did. They started off with one or two games then ported everything then finally day one releases. This is Sony’s end game. There is no media conspiracy. Sony wants this. They have literally said this to the investors. They went out and bought a pc porting studio.

Everyone can see the writing on the wall.

 

[On Demand]

You know what. I have simple solution. Let xbox and Sony throw away their console, and make games exclusive for pc. Have their own stores on pc. That would save tons of money like steam. They wont need to make hardware again.

Steam doesnt have a console, and they make alot of money.

Sounds like a plan. Lets wait for it.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Again, using this logic Sony should put their games on Xbox. And vice versa.

They would make even more money. Since its all about the money.

I mean maybe if you believe the rumors (and I 100% do) Xbox already approached Sony about putting Xbox Live on Playstation and PS said no plus its been reported before Xbox approached Sony about putting Halo on PS at other points in time.

 

[Jubenhimer]

Besides everything that's already been said, Sony develops their games to make full use of their own hardware. SSD's, especially ones as heavily customized as the PS5's aren't standard on PC, so you don't have the same freedom if you were to do a day to date release.

I'm fine with Sony's current strategy, utilize the PS Studios back-catelog to draw PC gamers to the PlayStation brand. It's a fine compromise.

 

[Mr Moose]

I think Sony might be thinking of getting out of console business all together, and just make PlayStation as digital games distributor platform like Steam or Epic

Console manufacturing is very expensive, where digital platform like Steam is extremely profitable, very high profit margin

Holy shit

 

[yurinka]

Port begging: The Movie. I mean, the article.

 

[SlimySnake]

You know what. I have simple solution. Let xbox and Sony throw away their console, and make games exclusive for pc. Have their own stores on pc. That would save tons of money like steam. They wont need to make hardware again.

Steam doesnt have a console, and they make alot of money.

If everyone is third party there will be no need to release risky ambitious titles. Take one look at the third party market today. F2p trash, microtransactions, NFTs, mediocre Ubisoft copy paste trash. There is zero incentive for third party publishers to make games like gow.

Would a third party delay a game like halo by a year? Never.

These Sony devs are spoiled. They don’t realize that being exclusive is the only reason they get the budget and delays to ship quality products. Cory was a third party dev for seven years. What did he release? Fuck all. He’s no one without Sonys support. These devs will realize that putting games on other platforms comes with different expectations. All of a sudden they are there to meet fiscal deadlines, not to sell consoles.

 

[kyoji]

You know what. I have simple solution. Let xbox and Sony throw away their console, and make games exclusive for pc. Have their own stores on pc. That would save tons of money like steam. They wont need to make hardware again.

Steam doesnt have a console, and they make alot of money.

 

[Fredrik]

Xbox consoles have never sold 100M. They don't have that audience.

The only reason Xbox360 even sold over 80M is because of kinnect. It gave Xbox360 an extra 25M sales. Without it sales would of been the usual average of 60M and PS3, Sony's worse generation, would outsell it by over 20M. Which it slightly did anyway.

I would not be using a company with these kind of sales as proof their PC strategy is fine and working. MS had no choice but to put all their games on PC and gamepass.

I think MS has shown quite clearly that being on more platforms helps. Last year we saw 12+ million people playing Forza Horizon 5 within like a week from launch. That’s what’s happening when a critically acclaimed and hyped game comes out day 1 on Steam, Windows Store, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud, and Gamepass.
What numbers would they have with only a Xbox Series release? 1 million?

I’d say it’s a very good thing that Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 and God of War Ragnarök are coming to PS4 too at least instead of going PS5 exclusive and thrown under the bus like Returnal when people can’t buy the console. But I don’t understand the fear of PC releases. GT7 on PC with super ultra wides or triple screen rigs would be awesome.

 

[kingfey]

If everyone is third party there will be no need to release risky ambitious titles. Take one look at the third party market today. F2p trash, microtransactions, NFTs, mediocre Ubisoft copy paste trash. There is zero incentive for third party publishers to make games like gow.

Would a third party delay a game like halo by a year? Never.

These Sony devs are spoiled. They don’t realize that being exclusive is the only reason they get the budget and delays to ship quality products. Cory was a third party dev for seven years. What did he release? Fuck all. He’s no one without Sonys support. These devs will realize that putting games on other platforms comes with different expectations. All of a sudden they are there to meet fiscal deadlines, not to sell consoles.

That retort was to his annoying replays.
These people dont think, the repercussion of releasing your console games to competitor ones.

 

[kingfey]

Have you read the guy replays? That was a mocking statement to him.

 

[KingGhidorah]

Holy shit

it's not totally out of realm of possibilities

think about it, console business is hard, you have to deal with new spec/hardware design every 6-7 years, then there's manufacturing, supply-chain, all the logistics, then there's this chip shortage issue, etc, etc.....its VERY HARD

then there's Steam, where they don't have to deal with that kind of crap, Valve is one of the most profitable company in the world!! (per employee head count, meaning with so small amount of employees, they can generate billions)

PlayStation store could use current Sony's IPs as anchors, exclusives to their stores to attract memberships, GOW, Uncharted, GOT, Horizon, etc, etc.....so now they'd be competing against Steam and Epic

 

[GHG]

But Sony is following Microsoft here. This is exactly what MS did. They started off with one or two games then ported everything then finally day one releases. This is Sony’s end game. There is no media conspiracy. Sony wants this. They have literally said this to the investors. They went out and bought a pc porting studio.

Everyone can see the writing on the wall.

They can do it their way without going day one. What they have said to investors is that they will take a staggered approach for single player games and any potential multiplayer games will be on a case by case basis.

What the article in the OP is arguing is that they need to go for a blanket day one approach, the Microsoft approach.

People forget why Xbox decided to go with the day and date approach on PC last gen - their hardware wasn't selling, 1st party software wasn't lighting up the sales charts and all things considered they were in a bit of a pickle so needed to do something to alleviate the problem. Sony doesn't currently have these issues, PC is bonus money territory for them (with the added bonus of branding/marketing exposure for a new audience).

 

[On Demand]

I mean maybe if you believe the rumors (and I 100% do) Xbox already approached Sony about putting Xbox Live on Playstation and PS said no plus its been reported before Xbox approached Sony about putting Halo on PS at other points in time.

No, i don't belive those rumors at all. Come on.

MS spent $7Billion on Bethesda and removed all their upcoming games from PlayStation. Even made fun of Sony about it when Sarah Bond smugly said about Starfield "Yes...it's exclusive." Live on their show.

 

[Mr Moose]

it's not totally out of realm of possibilities

think about it, console business is hard, you have to deal with new spec/hardware design every 6-7 years, then there's manufacturing, supply-chain, all the logistics, then there's this chip shortage issue, etc, etc.....its VERY HARD

then there's Steam, where they don't have to deal with that kind of crap, Valve is one of the most profitable company in the world!! (per employee head count, meaning with so small amount of employees, they can generate billions)

PlayStation store could use current Sony's IPs as anchors, exclusives to their stores to attract memberships, GOW, Uncharted, GOT, Horizon, etc, etc.....so now they'd be competing against Steam and Epic

Do you know how much they make from consoles (inc. hardware, software, subscriptions services)? It's much bigger than anything they'd make from Steam.
Edit: You're trolling, aren't you? I couldn't tell before.

 

[On Demand]

That retort was to his annoying replays.
These people dont think, the repercussion of releasing your console games to competitor ones.

You haven't got a clue what you're talking about do you? You're missing the entire point and are actually helping me prove mine.

WTF.

 

[KingGhidorah]

Do you know how much they make from consoles (inc. hardware, software, subscriptions services)? It's much bigger than anything they'd make from Steam.
Edit: You're trolling, aren't you? I couldn't tell before.

Get that trolling comment shit out of here, people have opinions here....

First year console generation, they usually lose money per unit sold

 

[GHG]

it's not totally out of realm of possibilities

think about it, console business is hard, you have to deal with new spec/hardware design every 6-7 years, then there's manufacturing, supply-chain, all the logistics, then there's this chip shortage issue, etc, etc.....its VERY HARD

then there's Steam, where they don't have to deal with that kind of crap, Valve is one of the most profitable company in the world!! (per employee head count, meaning with so small amount of employees, they can generate billions)

PlayStation store could use current Sony's IPs as anchors, exclusives to their stores to attract memberships, GOW, Uncharted, GOT, Horizon, etc, etc.....so now they'd be competing against Steam and Epic

Sony are a hardware company. Their whole business is set up to withstand the pitfalls involved in manufacturing and selling hardware.

Do you know how much they make from consoles (inc. hardware, software, subscriptions services)? It's much bigger than anything they'd make from Steam.
Edit: You're trolling, aren't you? I couldn't tell before.

He's not trolling, he's just dreaming.

 

[Topher]

it's not totally out of realm of possibilities

think about it, console business is hard, you have to deal with new spec/hardware design every 6-7 years, then there's manufacturing, supply-chain, all the logistics, then there's this chip shortage issue, etc, etc.....its VERY HARD

then there's Steam, where they don't have to deal with that kind of crap, Valve is one of the most profitable company in the world!! (per employee head count, meaning with so small amount of employees, they can generate billions)

PlayStation store could use current Sony's IPs as anchors, exclusives to their stores to attract memberships, GOW, Uncharted, GOT, Horizon, etc, etc.....so now they'd be competing against Steam and Epic

And why is Steam so profitable? Because they own their platform and get a 30% cut of every game sold. That's exactly what Sony gets out of having its own platform. Same for Microsoft and to a lesser extent, Nintendo. So getting out of the console business and just selling software means all of that revenue from third parties just disappears. Why in the hell would Sony do that?

 

[Papacheeks]

Get that trolling comment shit out of here, people have opinions here....

First year console generation, they usually lose money per unit sold

You are a moron if you think this. In terms of how hardware you invest in that is also used for other things brings up your company if its connected to other sectors. LIke Camera sensors, Lenses ect. Which Sony is using in theIR psvr2, and also in their camera's TV's, smart phones. Also Sony when they released the PS5 were like 4 years ahead of PC in terms of asset streaming, and instant load times. Here we are 2022 and no PC still has fast as loading in a level like Miles morales, or returnal. No one PC developer wise has a game that loads instantly yet. Mainly because PC is bound by DX12 and direct storage api which has not released still.


You can thank Sony for being ahead and now developers who make these customizations in games will be able to do so on PC once that shit gets finalized.

 

[kingfey]

You haven't got a clue what you're talking about do you? You're missing the entire point and are actually helping me prove mine.

WTF.

You dont understand shit.

Sony competitor is xbox. They are releasing games on pc. And because xbox doesn't have the same console numbers as Sony, the pc community is helping them massively.

MS is getting extra money from those pc community. While Sony sits tight, and just relay on their console sales.

You can see the ps5 production issue. What happens, when the next ps5 exclusive comes around, and the console has 35m sales. Do you think it can sell alot of copy, compared to xbox 20m console sale+pc community?

The more Sony waits, the more xbox gains alot of pc community users. And that means more money for MS 1st party, to make more games for them.

This is business dilemma for Sony. Either let xbox gain the upper hand in the pc market, or get in there now, and stop xbox dominance in the pc market.

 

[ReBurn]

Forbes just doesn't understand middle school console wars.

 

[KingGhidorah]

And why is Steam so profitable? Because they own their platform and get a 30% cut of every game sold. That's exactly what Sony gets out of having its own platform. Same for Microsoft and to a lesser extent, Nintendo. So getting out of the console business and just selling software means all of that revenue from third parties just disappears. Why in the hell would Sony do that?

Steam is just a digital game store, PC is the platform. Steam doesn't own PC platform, PC is universal.....Steam shares PC platform with Epic

Valve estimated revenue is 3.4 billions in 2017 and it's growing, with only 300 employees!!! extremely profitable!!.... that is without all the manufacturing headache

Valve Corporation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kingfey]

They can do it their way without going day one. What they have said to investors is that they will take a staggered approach for single player games and any potential multiplayer games will be on a case by case basis.

What the article in the OP is arguing is that they need to go for a blanket day one approach, the Microsoft approach.

People forget why Xbox decided to go with the day and date approach on PC last gen - their hardware wasn't selling, 1st party software wasn't lighting up the sales charts and all things considered they were in a bit of a pickle so needed to do something to alleviate the problem. Sony doesn't currently have these issues, PC is bonus money territory for them (with the added bonus of branding/marketing exposure for a new audience).

Should Sony let MS gain upper hand in the pc market? Especially when MS owns bethesda, who has the biggest PC games.

 

[mansoor1980]

author of article

neogaf response

 

[GHG]

Should Sony let MS gain upper hand in the pc market? Especially when MS owns bethesda, who has the biggest PC games.

PC isn't their core business. They don't care.

 

[On Demand]

You dont understand shit.

Sony competitor is xbox. They are releasing games on pc. And because xbox doesn't have the same console numbers as Sony, the pc community is helping them massively.

MS is getting extra money from those pc community. While Sony sits tight, and just relay on their console sales.

You can see the ps5 production issue. What happens, when the next ps5 exclusive comes around, and the console has 35m sales. Do you think it can sell alot of copy, compared to xbox 20m console sale+pc community?

The more Sony waits, the more xbox gains alot of pc community users. And that means more money for MS 1st party, to make more games for them.

This is business dilemma for Sony. Either let xbox gain the upper hand in the pc market, or get in there now, and stop xbox dominance in the pc market.

No. You don't understand shit. Watch your mouth who you're talking to.

PC isn't some side niche platform. It has a huge fucking audience of people there. People who are more than fine to never buy a console if console games are going to where they play. A console which is one of Sony's most important business. MS had no choice to put their games on PC. NO CHOICE. They don't sell anything anymore. Sony is in no such dilemma. They actually sell alot of software and hardware. Your PC point is moot when it comes to PlayStation.

Making excuses for this competing platform but then turn away at the idea of real mutiplatform games is idiotic and shows bias and some sort of an agenda with the way Sony handles their games.

You fell right into the point i was making and which people can never give a straight answer to because its a dumb idea.

You are clueless.

 

[kingfey]

PC isn't their core business. They don't care.

Again, as a business company, do you think Sony will let MS play in the pc market?

Remember, 1st party games sell your console. When your competitors 1st party hits PC market day1, and their console is selling alot, do you think, Sony should sit down, and not do day1?

 

[yurinka]

Nixxes can only work on maybe let's say up to 2 or 3 games at the same time. Let's say it takes them some months to port them. Let's say Sony acquires or continue working with a couple of similar porting teams more, like the ones who ported GoW and Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection.

With that workflow and manpower, they can only release some ports per year, they don't have enough people to be releasing a PC port of old games every month or two months, plus the day one game on top. They don't have enough manpower and they would be oversaturating the market both for them and also for the 3rd party games that brings Sony most of their revenue thanks to the 30% cut when sold in Sony's platform.

So I think it isn't realistic to see them releasing all their games on PC, and the new ones day one. Specially when their main revenue and profit source isn't to sell their own games, but the games sold for their consoles, mostly the 3rd party ones. So it's key for them to keep there (both total and timed, crossgen or not) exclusive games as they are the main selling point for their consoles.

I think they will continue with the current strategy: new games will be available day one on PS only, with some exception for maybe some F2P/GaaS MP focused game, or for some remake or remaster that would be released day one on PC. And instead of porting all their 1st & 2nd party games to PC, only some of them would be ported and would be released on PC once they're done milking them on console with discounts, price drops, PS Plus and PS Now. So in most cases after a couple of years or more.

This current strategy seems to be working perfectly well, they are getting gaming history record revenues, plus great profits and growth, so don't need to change it.

 

[Topher]

Steam is just a digital game store, PC is the platform. Steam doesn't own PC platform.....Steam shares PC platform with Epic

Valve estimated revenue is 3.4 billions in 2017 and it's growing, that is without all the manufacturing headache

Valve Corporation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Seriously? Fine.....store, platform, whatever you want to call it. The point you deflected is the revenue from third parties. So in your mind, Sony should just squash billions of dollars received from third party publishers as well as they billions of dollars from subscriptions and services?

Just cuz making consoles is "hard"?

 

[kingfey]

No. You don't understand shit. Watch your mouth who you're talking to.

PC isn't some side niche platform. It has a huge fucking audience of people there. People who are more than fine to never buy a console if console games are going to where they play. A console which is one of Sony's most important business. MS had no choice to put their games on PC. NO CHOICE. They don't sell anything anymore. Sony is in no such dilemma. They actually sell alot of software and hardware. Your PC point is moot when it comes when it comes to PlayStation.

Making excuses for this competing platform but then turn away at the idea of real mutiplatform games is idiotic and shows bias and some sort of an agenda with the way Sony handles their games.

You are clueless.

Who do you think owns windows? Your grandma?

MS owns Windows. They own xbox. They put their games on their windows store, which they own. That is their business. Not the incoherent words you typed there.

They aren't desperate. If they are one ounce of serious about xbox, they would have had tons of studios at the thumbs. I am glad, MS is dumb sometimes. Because serious MS is fucking scary.

Sony depends on their console, because that is what generates alot of money for their company. If you take the hardware business away, they will lose tons of money, and their company as a whole will face money issues.

Now let's back to gaming. Pc market is bigger than the 3 consoles. That is a fact there. There is alot of money to make.
You can sit there, and depend on your hardware. But your competitors will make tons of money, while you sit there.

Sony can play their slowly game, but sooner or later, MS would make banks from pc community, and strengthen their hardware business. Because every money gained from pc, is a potential studio for them.

 

[GHG]

Again, as a business company, do you think Sony will let MS play in the pc market?

Remember, 1st party games sell your console. When your competitors 1st party hits PC market day1, and their console is selling alot, do you think, Sony should sit down, and not do day1?

Yes.

Maybe you're not old enough to remember but this isn't Microsoft/xbox's first rodeo with the PC market.

Microsoft are a software company, Sony are a hardware company. Even if they might play in the same spaces, they have different approaches and goals. It's like you're forgetting Microsoft own Windows or something. As a business they will feel like they have a responsibility to feed it from a gaming perspective, especially since Nadella took charge.

Sony are just dumping games on third party stores with little to no fuss - like I said bonus money. They aren't trying to create an "ecosystem" within PC, they aren't trying to create a cross platform "ecosystem" between PC and playstation and they certainly aren't forcing people to sign in to PSN or use third party software to launch their games on PC.

Other than the point of sale revenue there is no other benefit for Sony selling their games on PC. It's a completely different story for Xbox and Microsoft as a whole due to them owning Windows.

 

[kingfey]

Do you know how much they make from consoles (inc. hardware, software, subscriptions services)? It's much bigger than anything they'd make from Steam.
Edit: You're trolling, aren't you? I couldn't tell before

Lower than what steam makes.

Steam doesn't pay for marketing, hardware cost.

If you mean total sales, Sony would make alot. But profit wise, Steam makes alot.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Sony is in the position they are in, because they can dominate a generation. Nintendo is the more efficiently-run company. But Nintendo kinda thrives off MS and Sony fighting each other. They aren't targeted, and can keep doing their thing.

Sony has to keep games somewhat exclusive on the PS platform, otherwise what's the point? If they don't prioritize the PS5, than Sony is just a third party with a budget that will only shrink with hardware sales. Right now hardware bolsters software, and gives them the freedom to do what has made them great. Without hardware, Sony would probably become Sega, but with 3rd person ARPGs being their downfall rather than arcade games like with Sega.

I think it's easy to overlook how important hardware sales are in the livelihood of these companies. Sony and Nintendo still rely a lot of their userbases driving the economies of their stores.

 

[quest]

Yeah delay and dumb down the ps5 versions of games for little sales. I'm still waiting for that multiple million day 1 sales of a sony game on PC. I keep getting excuses. 200-500k sales is pretty bad for what 130 million plus steam users. Degrade the platform for almost no sales. Hey it might sell at 9.99 them are big profits lol.


Owners: 200,000 .. 500,000

God of War -

Steam Spy automatically gathers data from Steam user profiles, analyzes it and presents in simple, yet beautiful, manner. Steam Spy is designed to be helpful for indie developers, journalists, students and all parties interested in PC gaming and its current state of affairs.

steamspy.com

 

[Topher]

Now let's back to gaming. Pc market is bigger than the 3 consoles. That is a fact there. There is alot of money to make.
You can sit there, and depend on your hardware. But your competitors will make tons of money, while you sit there.

Sony can play their slowly game, but sooner or later, MS would make banks from pc community, and strengthen their hardware business. Because every money gained from pc, is a potential studio for them.

Consoles generate more revenue than PC.

Either way, both Microsoft and Sony are third party publishers on Steam. There is no direct competition between them on PC like there is with consoles.

 

[Lognor]

Great article! Glad Forbes is calling Sony out on this.

Hopefully we see Sony do better this gen. I expect the gap from PS5 release to PC to shrink considerably, maybe to a year. Six months even once we start seeing PS5 games drop as quickly as PS4 games did.