Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy

Shifty Geezer said:
I agree but the marketing rarely aims at those growing up with video games and constantly targets the 20 somethings. I guess the theory is they can't afford a full life so have an extended childhood of fun and frolics outside work hours. Meanwhile the older folk have kids sapping all their disposable income! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I feel only Nintendo targets the older gamer with their advertising and 99 times out of a hundred, that's as a family.
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Funny you mention Nintendo as I’ve enjoyed their games over the past couple of years because I can pick it up in spots, enjoy it, make actual progress and wrap it up.

While when I see a game flexing ‘100hr Epic Experience!’ I don’t even bother looking.
 
RobertR1 said:
Funny you mention Nintendo as I’ve enjoyed their games over the past couple of years because I can pick it up in spots, enjoy it, make actual progress and wrap it up.

While when I see a game flexing ‘100hr Epic Experience!’ I don’t even bother looking.
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A little OT, but Far: Lone Sails is a lovely, little game that you can clock in a weekend. It tends to be my go-to example of a shorter game that executes its purpose beautifully. Highly recommended!
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Or is the thinking that younger people have more disposable income? Or is the thinking just a bit stuck with the status quo and no-one's considering particular demographic targets beyond kids/young adults/girls? Maybe it's driven by seeing what 'influencers' are and do??
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A bit of all of that, except for the first part it isn't whether younger people have disposable income but whether their parents have disposable income.

Just one egregious example, when I was still playing MMORPGS alot. One of our guild members was a younger girl in her 20's and her parents would buy her any game she wanted, any cosmetic in a game she wanted, etc. And if her parents told her "no" on anything she wanted to buy, she'd just go to her grandparents and they would buy it for her.

I know a lot of parents who just can't say "no" to their kids ... even the ones that are in their 20's and 30's. To me that's unfathomable considering I grew up with a strict monthly allowance, most of which I had to use for the school provided school lunch. Basically, I had to start learning how to budget my money as soon as I was out of kindergarten. :p

Hence, it doesn't surprise me that younger generations mostly seem so incapable of budgeting their money and get into financial trouble. Also, doesn't help that in many places in the US, Economy isn't a mandatory class in High School anymore and even when they have it they rarely teach good budgeting practices or how to use credit correctly (wisely).

Regards,
SB
 
Metal_Spirit said:
Actually I do work for a large corporation. And here, lower executives are not even aware of company threats or fears. Those are discussed on the top tiers. Each layer has its own function and things do not mix.
If a rival company is doing something that frightens our strategy, we do not go around telling everyone on the company we are threaten and showing what our fears are. The company must remain as calm and far from the threat as possible. Revealing fears and strategy could cause distractions or even panic on the lower tiers, affecting the company's productivity. It's the top layers job to discuss those threats and find strategies to overcome them. But for shure they do not go around revealing their threats and fears to everyone.
Regardless if the company expects good or bad times, the company must stay unaffected, moral at top levels, and productivity at max. Otherwise we are creating worst conditions and damaging ourselfs.

But maybe other large corporations work differently, but for my reality, I find it strange that Sony's fears are being discussed and showed this way. That was why the slide with the insomniac logo called my attention.
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I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but I work at the same company as you... We do have meetings to dicuss that stuff about every trimester, its just that all ivites are sent to the "everyone BUT Metal_Spirit" mailing list. I'm sorry, bud. It sarted after that long winded story about your trip to the maldives that went round and round and never got to a punchline you told during the office christmas happy our of 2019. I mean, people dont HATE you, they just rather not have you around too often. The hazelnut pudding you brough was excellent though. People always bring it up.
 
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I can still bang out the odd epic game. This year, I bothered to finish Tunic over 37 hours and I'm about 60 hours into Baldur's Gate 3, but overall I'm glad I could finish A Plague Tale and Guardians in about 20 hours each.

I'm kind of obsessive about tracking what I do it life. Some of you might be amused to see my stats for 2023. These are just play sessions, but my average session was probably about 2.5 hours or so.

Games Played from January through December 2023​

Video Game: Starfield
Starfield (11)​
Video Game: TUNIC
TUNIC (8)​
Video Game: Death's Door
Death's Door (5)​
Video Game: Hi-Fi RUSH
Hi-Fi RUSH (1)​
Video Game: Persona 5
Persona 5 (1)​
 
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milk said:
I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but I work at the same company as you... We do have meetings to dicuss that stuff about every trimester, its just that all ivites are sent to the "everyone BUT Metal_Spirit" mailing list. I'm sorry, bud. It sarted after that long winded story about your trip to the maldives that went round and round and never got to a punchline you told during the office christmas happy our of 2019. I mean, people dont HATE you, they just rather not have you around too often. The hazelnut pudding you brough was excellent though. People always bring it up.
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I know you... You work at the garbage disposal unit...
And I'm so sorry no one likes you either... But you know, sour milk is never good!
 
Shifty Geezer said:
It would never sell better at the current prices. Early trajectories assumed a decreasing price over time, not an increasing one.
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I really hope sales do start to taper off. Force them to provide either a permanent price cut or at least give regular retail discounts/deals. Sony are being quite greedy at the moment, releasing a cost-savings PS5 in late 2023 at the same or higher price than the original back in late 2020.

Frankly, it's been a little frustrating how well PS5 has sold so far, despite how little it has offered compared to previous generations. Not because I want to see Playstation fail or anything, but because consumers have been rewarding Sony for giving them less across-the-board value. I personally think Sony have been getting back into 'arrogant' territory again and could use a little kick up the backside.
 
Seanspeed said:
I really hope sales do start to taper off. Force them to provide either a permanent price cut or at least give regular retail discounts/deals. Sony are being quite greedy at the moment, releasing a cost-savings PS5 in late 2023 at the same or higher price than the original back in late 2020.
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Cost savings are essential to maintain the current price during a period of high inflation where everything costs more. That is, the original PS5 costs substantially more to make and distribute now than it did at launch. NSW also hasn't seen a price drop, and XBS saw a price increase last year. I don't think there's a lot of greed on Sony's part; they are just playing it economically 'safe' and are unwilling to eat any level of losses. If there are any positive margins on the new PS, they are likely slight.
 
Scott_Arm said:
Worries about the install base of the next PlayStation console to be able to recoup increasing development costs. Pc ports help but not enough. Next gen will be very interesting.
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These kind of stories are head scratchers. Sony estimate they will sell 25m PS5s in 2024 (which we're a week in), yet this securities firm say no, Sony will only sell 18.5m based on what Nintendo are expected to do this year and this is bad for PS6! :unsure:
 
DSoup said:
These kind of stories are head scratchers. Sony estimate they will sell 25m PS5s in 2024 (which we're a week in), yet this securities firm say no, Sony will only sell 18.5m based on what Nintendo are expected to do this year and this is bad for PS6! :unsure:
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It seems there is something lost in translation and after this is analysts they say many dumb things. Sony estimate they will ship 25 millions PS5 in Fiscal year 2024 from 1rst April 2023 to 31th March 2024. They will maybe miss the forecast but probably ship at least 22 millions PS5.
 
chris1515 said:
It seems there is something lost in translation and after this is analysts they say many dumb things. Sony estimate they will ship 25 millions PS5 in Fiscal year 2024 from 1rst April 2023 to 31th March 2024. They will maybe miss the forecast but probably ship at least 22 millions PS5.
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When I first started investing, initially I used an advisor but realised quickly, that because their income is based on margins of clients trades, and their own investments. Ergo, their motivation revolves around keeping the market volatile and changing so their clients buy and sell more. This is why, despite how firms do against their own financial guidance to shareholders, you'll see stores like "company X missed market expectations" - where the market is analysts trying to spin a company meeting what I said it was, as a bad thing which they do by creating unrealistic "market expectations" (predictions).

Then I stopped listening to market analysts altogether. I'm sure there are some very good market analysts out there, but they sure as hell aren't giving out free guidance to anybody who asks!
 
DSoup said:
These kind of stories are head scratchers. Sony estimate they will sell 25m PS5s in 2024 (which we're a week in), yet this securities firm say no, Sony will only sell 18.5m based on what Nintendo are expected to do this year and this is bad for PS6! :unsure:
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Do you think ps5 will outsell ps4? If the cost to make games has say doubled, gen over gen, and the install base has remained flat or contracts, what do you think that means for next gen?

If ps6 discussions have started with third developers it’s very easy to believe they’d request Sony go back to a $400 console. I’m guessing the console market has likely shrunk if you add Xbox and PlayStation together. Makes pc ports very necessary.
 
Scott_Arm said:
Do you think ps5 will outsell ps4? If the cost to make games has say doubled, gen over gen, and the install base has remained flat or contracts, what do you think that means for next gen?
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I could see PS5 outselling PS4. When you look at the sales of the two consoles aligned, they are pretty much the same and it feels like like PS5 has more longevity potential than PS4 did three years after launch. At this point in the last generation, Sony had already announced and launched the PS4 Pro.

The cost of living for everybody and everything has massively spiked, this is not uniquely a Sony problem, a console problem, or a gaming problem. Gaming is a business and I would expect to see more of what we've seen from the Insomniac hack; Sony and other companies looking for ways to reduce costs and a lower appetite to green light non-mainstream projects.

Scott_Arm said:
If ps6 discussions have started with third developers it’s very easy to believe they’d request Sony go back to a $400 console. I’m guessing the console market has likely shrunk if you add Xbox and PlayStation together. Makes pc ports very necessary.
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We know from Mark Cerny's Road to PS4 and Road to PS5 presentations that Sony seek technical views for future PlayStation hardware, it's not for developers to tell Sony what their economic model should be and what would a $400 console look like? Continued growing Inflation means that console probably wouldn't look much different to PS5 Pro is rumoured to be, in which case what would be the point of a new console?

In the market today I noticed that bananas and cheese cost about three times as much as what they did before lockdown so this gives no hope that there be an imminent return to the days of consoles costing less three years after launch.

Once Jim Ryan has departed, I'm sure his replacement will will re-evaluate all aspects of PlayStation's operations including their PC business. It's not about whether the ports are producing profits, what companies tend to fixate on is whether greater profits could be generated by using those porting resources for something else. I don't see PC ports stopping any time soon, but I do expect to see some changes at Sony come April.
 
Would be amazing if Sony then move to same day pc and ps5 release. It will bring more money, as I doubt Sony will allow crossbuy like Xbox and windows
 
orangpelupa said:
Would be amazing if Sony then move to same day pc and ps5 release. It will bring more money, as I doubt Sony will allow crossbuy like Xbox and windows
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This is debatable. If you're like me and own both a PS5 and PC, if I decide to buy a game on Steam/PC instead of PSN/PS5, Sony lose their 30% retailer cut which goes to Valve. That's a significant flat loss. When you look at which parts of PlayStation's business drives the most revenue and profit, it's two things: 1) software sales and licensing (third parties releasing games on PlayStation) and 2) accessories.
 
DSoup said:
This is debatable. If you're like me and own both a PS5 and PC, if I decide to buy a game on Steam/PC instead of PSN/PS5, Sony lose their 30% retailer cut which goes to Valve. That's a significant flat loss. When you look at which parts of PlayStation's business drives the most revenue and profit, it's two things: 1) software sales and licensing (third parties releasing games on PlayStation) and 2) accessories.
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But that's a little too simplistic. That first game sale for a PS5 owner might net Sony an extra 30% off the 70 USD price tag, but they are also out, let's say 500 USD for the cost of the console. That makes for a very tiny profit margin and extremely high cost of sales versus the same game being sold on PC.

Now, where it eventually works out is if that PS5 owner is buying all or most of their 3rd party games on PS5. Then Sony is getting 30% of all game's that the person buys. The cost of sales goes down over time as the person buys more and more games.

That's all great. The fly in the ointment are PC gamers who only buy Sony exclusives and no 3rd party games or DLC on the PS5. Thus that cost of sale for each game remains incredibly high. Plus, if there happens to be a hardware shortage (as there was for the first couple of years for PS5) that means there's also an opportunity cost in that any PS5 sold to a PC gamer who only buys Sony exclusives is extremely high as they aren't bringing in the same revenue and profits as someone who would be buying 3rd party games on PS5 but can't because they can't buy a PS5 due to there being a shortage.

How large of a problem is that? Sony doesn't think it's that big of a problem as they still don't do day and date releases. MS thought it was a big problem and relatively quickly (over the course of 1 console generation) moved to day and date releases with little impact on console revenue and profits but greatly increased revenue and profits for the Xbox division. As well, profit margins for the console portion of Xbox likely increased significantly once they removed PC players from that side of the balance sheet and onto the PC publishing side of the balance sheet.

Regards,
SB
 
and on top of that, there will be people like me that double-triple-quadruple-sextuple dip on games (okay okayk im an anomaly, as i really really like titanfall 2). If sony also supports cross save between PC and PS, it will push people to double-dip.

heck, i've bought cyberpunk 2077 + PL on PC and then bought it again on Xbox. But then I refunded it because it got no fov slider and the default fov made me nauseous in like 15mins.

EDIT:
oh and way too many people thinks PC is too complicated/large/ugly. so there still are market for console.
 
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