Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy

[Globalisateur]

The idea of playing Horizon Zero dawn at 60fps is exciting.

 

[DavidGraham]

the complete lack of announcements about more games coming and the statement,

They practically said that already. The head of Sony studios is saying he doesn't rule out more first-party games coming to PC, it doesn't get more obvious than this.

Again, they are not going to go all out and announce stuff out of the blue, Microsoft started out shy and then built on it, Sony is going the same way.

I'm not seeing "constant" hints!?!

Several Sony developers speaking that they would love to bring games on PC, the head of Sony speaking about releasing games on PC, the head of Sony studios not ruling out more first party titles coming to PC? What are those if not strong hints?

 

[DavidGraham]

Sony's income wouldn't be way better than 3rd party developers, would it? When PS starts to make less money than Ubisoft and EA, then Sony need to worry about branching out.

Yes they make more money, but is it profitable enough for them? Is it worth all the trouble of developing expensive hardware and software? Is it sustainable at the same rate in the future? If Microsoft gave them more competition their margins will drop.

the most they really need do is try to drive up PS adoption

That's going to be very difficult to achieve considering they maxed out this gen already with practically no competition in sight.

 

[RDGoodla]

Hard no, they are constantly hinting at releasing more games to PC, they even specifically stated first party games, and gone as far as stating games will not release on the same date as PS, so they are planning ahead already, they also stated they are opening the platform to more players.

But forget all of that, actions speak louder than words, and Sony's actions give every indication of them going the Microsoft route, albeit very slowly.

I agree that Sony would port more exclusive games to PC. But when their gaming profit stops growing because of cross-platform strategy,
Sony will not go further.

Pretty much. As of now, Sony is just aiming for all the tail-end dollars (sales) that they can possibly capture from the PC market once their 1st party software sales starts to tail-off on their console(s). Pretty much keeping their console fanbase pleased with certain timed 1st party exclusives, then releasing them a year or so later on PC. In the end, Sony gains more revenue off PC software sales and grows their gaming division into more areas benefiting their ecosystem and fanbase. Sounds like a win for all PS and PC users.

Sony's biggest profit comes from

1. 3rd party royalties

2. PS PLUS fee

3. 1st party game sales


It's very clear that if the third item (profit of 1st party game sales) increases but the first two decrease more, then the cross-platform strategy should be limited. That means some titles cannot have tail-end sales on PC because it will affect PlayStaion brand.

 

[DavidGraham]

This is comedy gold actually:

Phil Spencer says not every Xbox game will come to PC
Spencer explains that Microsoft are “committed to bringing [the] biggest franchises from Xbox to Windows, we’ve said that” but that it “doesn’t mean, necessarily, that every game ends up on both platforms, because there could be some differences in how things play.”

https://www.pcgamesn.com/gears-of-war/phil-spencer-says-not-every-xbox-game-will-come-to-pc

We all know what happened after that.

 

[mrcorbo]

There are people who game on PC that will never, ever, buy a PlayStation under any circumstance. Why not allow yourself to get money from them, too? It needn't be any more complicated than that. And I think Sony are going to chase PC gamer money with more vigor than some might think.

 

[DavidGraham]

The director of God of War on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1237456036904062976

 

[PSman1700]

There are people who game on PC that will never, ever, buy a PlayStation under any circumstance.

I think sony is well aware of that after 25+ years of playstation. Sony wants a piece of the PC market, it's bigger then ever and stores are doing rather well, even the much-hated EGS store from epic.

?!!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1237456036904062976

Who is that?

 

[DavidGraham]

Who is that?

oh no one, just the the director of God of War

 

[MrFox]

There are people who game on PC that will never, ever, buy a PlayStation under any circumstance. Why not allow yourself to get money from them, too? It needn't be any more complicated than that. And I think Sony are going to chase PC gamer money with more vigor than some might think.

Nobody is that much of a fanboy. People switch from one platform to the other when the offering becomes overwhelmingly better.

Hey, maybe there are people who will never buy an xbox, why not release forza gears halo and everything else on playstation?

Do you think Microsoft have zero reason not to release everything on playstation?

 

[PSman1700]

oh no one, just the the director of God of War

Maybe they also start to 'experiment'

 

[chris1515]

That's exactly what's happening. Why restrict yourself to just one platform, when that platform is exhausted you can get some more sales on the PC, and fully unleash the engine on much more powerfull hardware.



Yes very slowly, seen more and more play station games appearing on other platforms, in special the pc.



No, it's to evaluate and see if they can sell more on pc. The HZD devs have interest in people buying a PS5, they only sell software, it doesnt matter to them where.



GG sells software, not hardware. Sony sells not only fixed hardware where everything is stuck for seven years, they also sell software.



Tell that to Rocktstar. What if they were limited to just playstation?



There is zero evidence Sony claiming they will never again release a first party game on pc.



They probably aren't doing a MS yet, releasing at the same time, instead timed AAA exclusivity.



Nope, it's not Sony saying it, it's one of the devs from the Dutch studio.



There's much resitance, no idea why so much on this forum, but there's zero disadvantage to PS gamers if their games come first on PS, then later to PC?

The biggest source of revenue and profit for Sony is the PSN (30% cut on multiplatform games, MTX and services (PS + and PSNow). This is not selling their own games. This is why using the console as a gate to this revenue and profit is much more important than sold their game on PC. If sold exclusives game on PC has any negative impact on PS5 sales, they will stop. And Hermen Huslt talk of the date maybe sold game three years later when commercial life of the title is finish on console will be the norm.

Here they hope to have people buying PS5 coming from PC, it is in the interview. I have only one reaction.

MOD edit: Meme removed. B3D doesn't do GIFs

https://twitter.com/x/status/1091228822802960389

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They practically said that already. The head of Sony studios is saying he doesn't rule out more first-party games coming to PC, it doesn't get more obvious than this.

Saying you're not ruling it out is not saying you are going ahead with porting everything. the only PR sound-bite that provides evidence that Sony are creating more ports is Sony saying, "we are going to be releasing more games on PC."

Several Sony developers speaking that they would love to bring games on PC, the head of Sony speaking about releasing games on PC, the head of Sony studios not ruling out more first party titles coming to PC? What are those if not strong hints?

Non-committal messages.

Yes they make more money, but is it profitable enough for them?

Yes. I was talking profits, not gross. Sony's profits are higher than the independent publishers, especially when you filter out mobile incomes.

That's going to be very difficult to achieve considering they maxed out this gen already with practically no competition in sight.

They've sold more hardware at this price-point than any previous platform. A super-cheap PS4 might do wonders - I wouldn't count the current install base as 'maxxed out' yet.

 

[chris1515]

Saying you're not ruling it out is not saying you are going ahead with porting everything. the only PR sound-bite that provides evidence that Sony are creating more ports is Sony saying, "we are going to be releasing more games on PC."

Non-committal messages.

Yes. I was talking profits, not gross. Sony's profits are higher than the independent publishers, especially when you filter out mobile incomes.

They've sold more hardware at this price-point than any previous platform. A super-cheap PS4 might do wonders - I wouldn't count the current install base as 'maxxed out' yet.

Exactly, most of revenue and profit comes from PSN, we can say than the most important things about hardware is to be the gate to PSN.

 

[AzBat]

Modedit : "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it's a duck."

Tommy McClain

 

[PSman1700]

The biggest source of revenue and profit for Sony is the PSN (30% cut on multiplatform games, MTX and services (PS + and PSNow). This is not selling their own games. This is why using the console as a gate to this revenue and profit is much more important than sold their game on PC. If sold exclusives game on PC has any negative impact on PS5 sales, they will stop.

True, but why wouldn't Sony want, or be able to expand their PSN service to the PC platform?
Also, Sony isn't exactly releasing their exclusives at the same time on PC, those that didn't buy a PS for HZD arent going to anyway.

I wouldn't count the current install base as 'maxxed out' yet.

PS2 still stands tall as the most sold console, 50% more sold?

Exactly, most of revenue and profit comes from PSN, we can say than the most important things about hardware is to be the gate to PSN.

Yes, and why limit PSN to one device? This 'experimenting' could mean Sony have their own store later on.

 

[DavidGraham]

Saying you're not ruling it out is not saying you are going ahead with porting everything. the only PR sound-bite that provides evidence that Sony are creating more ports is Sony saying, "we are going to be releasing more games on PC."

Now we are being pedantic. Please put 1 and 1 together:
1-We are going to release more PC games
2-We are not ruling out more first party games coming to PC

Non-committal messages.

Which they didn't have to give in the first place, you only give these kinds of messages when you are about to do the exact meaning of these vague messages. Microsoft gave the exact type of vague statements in the beginning of this gen, and look where we are now!

They've sold more hardware at this price-point than any previous platform. A super-cheap PS4 might do wonders - I wouldn't count the current install base as 'maxxed out' yet.

Can't do that with an expensive console like the PS5, can't even properly do it with PS4Pro. It's an opportunity to expand their software profits in the face on increasing competition from Microsoft.

 

[chris1515]

True, but why wouldn't Sony want, or be able to expand their PSN service to the PC platform?
Also, Sony isn't exactly releasing their exclusives at the same time on PC, those that didn't buy a PS for HZD arent going to anyway.



PS2 still stands tall as the most sold console, 50% more sold?



Yes, and why limit PSN to one device? This 'experimenting' could mean Sony have their own store later on.

Because you think expand PSN to PC where there is other store and one dominant Steam will make them the same amount of money than on PS console.

I never said that this is why I expect minimum 3 years between a release of a project on a PS console and a PC version but I imagine they do everything well but the first year the sales of PS5 are below expectation and the reason is some PC port and people switching to PC, they will stop immediately to stop porting games on PC illico presto.

 

[BRiT]

The idea of playing Horizon Zero dawn at 60fps is exciting.

Wont you get that with PS5, or were no definitive patches mentioned for nextgen?

 

[PSman1700]

Because you think expand PSN to PC where there is other store and one dominant Steam will make them the same amount of money than on PS console.

True, but if Sony's games are that good, which they certainly are in the rankings, and they are the only ones offering excellent SP games, there is a market for PSN there too. See EGS trying to have their exclusive games.

I never said that this is why I expect minimum 3 years between a release of a project on a PS console and a PC version but I imagine they do everything well but the first year the sales of PS5 are below expectation and the reason is some PC port and people switching to PC, they will stop immediately to stop porting games on PC illico presto.

Agree on the first part, but why wouldn't they port a game that won't do much in terms of sales anymore? That all of sony's exclusives land on PC is probably very far away, but devs are starting slowly to expiryment with doing a pc release afterwards. I think this is what the dutch dev ment, with HZD releasing on PC, it doesn't mean there won't be games from them that take advantage of the PS(5), which some where afraid would happen.