Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy

[DavidGraham]

Sony will probably keep PS5 games exclusives and let all the PS4 games go to 4 years later when the game commercial life is finish on consoles.

No, Sony officially stated they will migrate at least some of their games to the PC ecosystem.

“We must support the PlayStation platform -- that is nonnegotiable,” Layden said. “That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ire-spider-man-video-game-developer-insomniac

In fact, Sony announced that the first party game ""MLB The Show" is breaking exclusivity by coming to PC and Xbox.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/69210/begins-first-ps4-exclusive-coming-pc/index.html

Another small Sony title also made the cut to PC, the multiplayer game called "ReadySet Heroes", published directly by Sony.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/readyset-heroes/home

A second Sony published title is also making it's way to PC, it's called "Predator: Hunting Grounds"
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/predator-hunting-grounds/home

Several PS5 games have also announced a mutual PC release. The pattern is clear enough in my books.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What im seeing is PS users heavily disliking all this, if the AAA output quality doesnt decrease with pc versions...

Realistically though, it will, unless the ports are dealt with as an after-thought. If games are now developed as cross-platform, they won't be optimised as well for PS hardware. We've been talking about PS5 games utilising the super-fast storage; what if those games are now going to be developed with an eye on HDD-based PCs and the ultra-fast SSD just used for quick loading rather than it's greater interest? What if the controller has great haptic-feedback, but devs decide not to target it because 80% of their audience is on PC without? Development and testing will need to use nVidia GPUs and Intel GPUs and different CPUs. Will games be designed to make the most of 8 Zen cores, or will they use a 4 core i% as the base and just leave the PS5 to run the game a bit faster?

Cross platform and cross-generation (which PC inherently is) means compromise, and breaks what consoles always represented. It's an inevitable future, but it has its negatives too. Eventually we won't have XBox and PS - we'll just have PC and games, and maybe even just thin clients and streaming.

 

[chris1515]

No, Sony officially stated they will migrate at least some of their games to the PC ecosystem.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ire-spider-man-video-game-developer-insomniac

In fact, Sony announced that the first party game ""MLB The Show" is breaking exclusivity by coming to PC and Xbox.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/69210/begins-first-ps4-exclusive-coming-pc/index.html

Another small Sony title also made the cut to PC, the multiplayer game called "ReadySet Heroes", published directly by Sony.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/readyset-heroes/home

A second Sony published title is also making it's way to PC, it's called "Predator: Hunting Grounds"
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/predator-hunting-grounds/home

Several PS5 games have also announced a mutual PC release. The pattern is clear enough in my books.

They said mp games will go to PC, MLB will go to PC, probably Dreams because the title need the biggest markt possible. I wait to see when single player AAA PS5 games will go to PC. I don't expect it before 4 years at least.

 

[PSman1700]

Several PS5 games have also announced a mutual PC release. The pattern is clear enough in my books.

Last year Chris1515 was assuring us that HZD will never make it to anything else then PS, in some death stranding discussion. And he is working or has friends working for Sony devs.

Realistically though, it will, unless the ports are dealt with as an after-thought. If games are now developed as cross-platform, they won't be optimised as well for PS hardware. We've been talking about PS5 games utilising the super-fast storage; what if those games are now going to be developed with an eye on HDD-based PCs and the ultra-fast SSD just used for quick loading rather than it's greater interest? What if the controller has great haptic-feedback, but devs decide not to target it because 80% of their audience is on PC without? Development and testing will need to use nVidia GPUs and Intel GPUs and different CPUs. Will games be designed to make the most of 8 Zen cores, or will they use a 4 core i% as the base and just leave the PS5 to run the game a bit faster?

Cross platform and cross-generation (which PC inherently is) means compromise, and breaks what consoles always represented. It's an inevitable future, but it has its negatives too. Eventually we won't have XBox and PS - we'll just have PC and games, and maybe even just thin clients and streaming.

I dont think sony will do that for their high budget single player games. It will be like we have seen so far, ports at a later date. PS5 games will still be done for the ps5 hw. Sony could also see more DS5 sales as their ports play best with that DS5 controller/haptic feedback.

 

[Nesh]

And the developers are not content with doing PS exclusives anymore, they want more gamers to try their games out

Thats what makes Sony invest in Playstation features and exclusives

That's not enough to fend off both PC, Xbox, and the cloud, it's also VERY expensive on Sony. Things needed to change.

It is expensive but it can still be profitable. But more importantly this is why someone may prefer a Playstation instead of XBOX or PC to play both exclusives and 3rd party games. Which means the 1st party isnt generating money directly by selling it's own units, it indirectly generates sales by selling 3rd party games on PS.
It is in other words a big investment that makes Sony see the Playstation as a platform worth of having to generate big revenue ->sell even more 3rd party games on their own platform.
Now where do all that revenue go if Sony becomes just a group of software houses making games for other platforms? Their game sales should be high enough to generate all that revenue they get from the Playstation ecosystem. Thats almost impossible.
We have to remember that Sony wants the Playstation to generate money from as many games sold on the platform, not just from their exclusives. So for them people MUST join a Playstation ecosystem at all costs. Not a PC ecosystem where people can play their few games on.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I dont think sony will do that for their high budget single player games. It will be like we have seen so far, ports at a later date...

For now.

 

[chris1515]

Last year Chris1515 was assuring us that HZD will never make it to anything else then PS, in some death stranding discussion. And he is working or has friends working for Sony devs.



I dont think sony will do that for their high budget single player games. It will be like we have seen so far, ports at a later date. PS5 games will still be done for the ps5 hw. Sony could also see more DS5 sales as their ports play best with that DS5 controller/haptic feedback.

I am not working in the industy and I have a friend working as a sony dev but not at GG and this type of decision are made at the top level. Same my friend working for a third party was not knowing it. It suprise some devs too. Same if I ask him do you have an idea of PS5 price? He will not know because out of executives no one knows.

Like I said I will give the speed of SSD and the verification will be easy to do after Sony make it official.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It is expensive but it can still be profitable.

How does SCE's profits compare to other publishers like EA, Ubi and Activision? Aren't they far more profitable than most?

 

[chris1515]

For now.

I expect to be like this until we heard Sony have a launcher and push PSN on PC before you need to wait three or four years after release or maybe the end of generation. I expect nearly all the PS4 exclusives to go on PC on EGS and maybe Steam but I am not sure they will release there.

One day we will maybe have a PS6 for the enthusiastc console gamer, PSN services on PC, PSNow for subscription streaming and an added possibility like Stadia to buy title.

Before this Sony has much more to lose than to win. they earn 30% of all sales of games, MTX or DLC on Playstation and being third party will not help them to have a revenue of 20 billions dollars in the best PS4 year with 3 billions of profit.

 

[Nesh]

How does SCE's profits compare to other publishers like EA, Ubi and Activision? Aren't they far more profitable than most?

I dont know about profits buit I think Sony generates in revenue around half the amount EA generates. But EA and UBI are like the cream of the crop. Very few companies enjoy that kind of income.
And EA owns like super licenses from sports games, guaranteed mass sales.


edit: I think I am mistaken. https://www.tweaktown.com/news/65714/playstation-drives-sonys-78-billion-earnings-2018/index.html
The game segment generated around 20 billion in 2018 wheres EA is around 5 billion

 

[chris1515]

I dont know about profits buit I think Sony generates in revenue around half the amount EA generates. But EA and UBI are like the cream of the crop. Very few companies enjoy that kind of income.
And EA owns like super licenses from sports games, guaranteed mass sales.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/EA/electronic-arts/revenue

EA generate a quarter of the Playstation revenue each years but they generate just a bit less profit due probably to the hardware part of Sony. Software, PSN are much more profitable without hardware.

EDIT: No they generate half the profit.

 

[Nesh]

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/EA/electronic-arts/revenue

EA generate a quarter of the Playstation revenue each years but they generate more profit due probably to the hardware part of Sony. Software, PSN are much more profitable without hardware.

Without hardware they wouldnt have been able to generate almost any of that. The hardware sells the software and PSN

 

[chris1515]

Without hardware they wouldnt have been able to generate almost any of that

I speak about the future there is one day, out of enthusiast no one will buy a hardware and Sony can continue to be successful.

 

[Xbat]

But I reckon this is a sea change for Sony and we're just seeing the first step. Ten years from now, everything may be different. Exclusivity may just mean software portal in future.

Yes ten years from now everything might be different but let's be realistic here, Sony don't even release there big AAA games day one on PSnow and now everyone thinks they will on PC ? Come on seriously I can't be the only one that doesn't see how this is a massive over reaction?

Sony just going to throw away the billions they make from PS Plus and third party licenses.

Someone please explain to me the business reason to do that?

I would gladly play everything on my PC and not have to pay for Plus anymore, same way I don't have an Xbox anymore and a Live subscription.

 

[chris1515]

Yes ten years from now everything might be different but let's be realistic here, Sony don't even release there big AAA games day one on PSnow and now everyone thinks they will on PC ? Come on seriously I can't be the only one that doesn't see how this is a massive over reaction?

Sony just going to throw away the billions they make from PS Plus and third party licenses.

Someone please explain to me the business reason to do that?

I would gladly play everything on my PC and not have to pay for Plus anymore, same way I don't have an Xbox anymore and a Live subscription.

+1 The transition will take time maybe it will be the case in one decade.

 

[Nesh]

I speak about the future there is one day, out of enthusiast no one will buy a hardware and Sony can continue to be successful.

But how?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes ten years from now everything might be different but let's be realistic here, Sony don't even release there big AAA games day one on PSnow and now everyone thinks they will on PC ? Come on seriously I can't be the only one that doesn't see how this is a massive over reaction?

What overreaction?

+1 The transition will take time maybe it will be the case in one decade.

Of course it will. The difference is up until yesterday, it hadn't started and wasn't even a possibility. Now it's started. Whether it takes one year or ten, PS as a console platform is going to change completely. It's a landmark event in the console industry, bigger then Sega putting Sonic on a Nintendo console. It's the beginning of the end of the platform exclusive and the start towards PC getting every game ever, becoming the one platform.

 

[chris1515]

What overreaction?

Of course it will. The difference is up until yesterday, it hadn't started and wasn't even a possibility. Now it's started. Whether it takes one year or ten, PS as a console platform is going to change completely. It's a landmark event in the console industry, bigger then Sega putting Sonic on a Nintendo console. It's the beginning of the end of the platform exclusive and the start towards PC getting every game ever, becoming the one platform.

I don't think the PC will be the only hardware. I don't think it is convenient enough for everyone. I think some enthusiast in the low 10's millions will prefer to buy a console.

 

[Xbat]

What overreaction?

This and other parts by different users.

But I reckon this is a sea change for Sony and we're just seeing the first step

Unless I have a different understand of what a sea change means.

Edit: nevermind I didn't read your entire post. You say what overreaction and then proceed to what in my eyes seem to be an overreaction.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't think the PC will be the only hardware. I don't think it is convenient enough for everyone.

For the moment. In ten years time, one would hope the PC would be a lot better user experience than it is now (although we've been hoping for that for the past ten years!).

Edit: nevermind I didn't read your entire post. You say what overreaction and then proceed to what in my eyes seem to be an overreaction.

How is discussing possibilities an overreaction?