Yes, Sony would potentially lose a very small amount of console revenue and profits (but that would come with increased profit margin) while at the same time increasing their PC revenue and profits (also increasing their gaming division profit margin).
This makes no sense. Let's ignore the profit of PlayStation console hardware sales because for five generations that has been marginal and is not what Sony care about, they only aim to that turn around selling-at-a-loss as quickly as possible. Typically, Sony reach that point with 6-8 months after launch and the explanation to that was PlayStation 3. From that point on, Sony want to sell hardware as cheap as possible without selling at a loss because the biggest the user base, the more software they can sell.
Going back to my
original comment, if Sony release day and date on both PS5 and PC, people who own both platforms may buy Sony first party titles for PC instead of PS5 which means Sony lose 30% of the RPP to Valve. How is that good for Sony? Where is this "increasing gaming division profit margin" coming from when this results is Sony taking 100% of the RRP to taking 70%?
The devil is in the details. The potentially there is due to whether there is or is not a shortage of PlayStation hardware units.
Outside of a console's launch period, and this generation because of the semiconductor pipeline shortage, Sony consoles are almost never supply constrained. The OG PlayStation wan't, PS2 wasn't, PS3 wasn't, PS4 wasn't and PS5 hasn't been for a good year. If Sony can't put hardware on shelves they are screwing up and they never have except for factors completely outside of their control.
On top of that the greatest sales volume is when a game is launched. Day and Date releases on PC would likely see greatly increased sales with little to no additional impact on console game sales as the two markets are mostly seperate. IE - more PC only gamers will buy the game on launch than they will 2+ years after a game launches due to a variety of factors (for example, watching a let's play on YouTube they decide they don't need to buy the game after all).
Some games fizzle out in interest quickly do, but
rarely is that the case for Sony first party titles. Spider-Man did not sell 20m in its launch period, God of War didn't not sell 20m in its launch period, Horizon Zero Dawn didn't sell 19m in its launch period, Uncharted 4 didn't sell 18m in its launch period, The Last of Us (PS4) didn't sell 18m in its launch period, Mile Morales didn't sell 11m in its launch period, The Last of Us Pt II didn't sell 11m in its launch period. I can't think of a single Sony title that sold more then 3m at launch, the greater sales come after launch as is the same for almost all popular games. -
Source:
Insomniac leak.
There is no situation where it is beneficial for Sony to sell me their software on Steam over PSN, so for people who own multiple platforms, there is zero incentive for Sony to give me the option for me to buy their new game on PC the same day it launches on PS5. They would much rather I cave in buy it on PS5, or they're just a content that some will wait and buy later on PC. But if that is someone's buying behaviour, it's questionable why they would own a PS5 in the first place. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
