Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy

[BRiT]

But until Sony actually commits to this

Sony already has with the acquisition of Nixxes.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Sony already has with the acquisition of Nixxes.

Nixxes alone can't port most games. Porting games well takes time, effort and care. BluePoint, also masters of porting, took the best part of two years to port thee near identical PS3 Uncharted games with unrivalled access to the source material and developers, to PS4 - just two possible hardware configurations.

 

[pjbliverpool]

There's also PSNow for the PlayStation back catalogue. Not exactly the same as a native port for purists like us, but its also not quite accurate to say those games are unavailable to PC gamers.

 

[Globalisateur]

I think the most surprising thing for me about Sony's PC strategy is that there is little to no effort into getting PC players into Playstation services. To my knowledge, there isn't any "sign into Playstation for cloud saves" or cross save sync, or trophies. And no effort to have their own PC games store or anything like that. It's great from a consumer stand point that PC gamers are getting PS exclusives, but Microsoft, Google, Apple... All of the players in the entertainment space know it's about services now. Content is what gets people into your ecosystem, and you "trap" them there by keeping them beholden to the features of the service.

No, I disagree. It worked for Steam but PC needed such a handy platform to play games. But it's doesn't work that great anymore for Series / movies providers like Netflix, HBO, Apple TV etc. Many people are now leaving one provider for another because there is another show they need to watch.

Pure content still works the best and is still the future IMO. We see it with Nintendo success or even with PS4 and PS5 success. MS are seemingly focusing on services because they don't have as many successful IPs, but are they really focusing on services? Look at Disney TV success. It's due to IPs, not services. And Microsoft have clearly understood this as they are the ones that are actually spending the most at buying IPs.

 

[DavidGraham]

What you have written is basically what Sony have said - minus any commitment to large numbers of games.

Even Microsoft didn't out right say that in the beginning of their strategy, they even flat out denied it one year before their strategy came into full effect.

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.”

We all know how that tuned out in the end. EVERY game is now on PC!

Nixxes alone can't port most games.

Sony executives explicitly stated that Nixxes is here to help with PC ports.

We are still in the early stages of our efforts to provide our IP to PCs, but we are satisfied and look forward to working with Nixxes to help with that

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nixxes-software-will-help-sony-port-its-next-ps4-ps5-games-to-pc/

Please, people enough of the denial, it really really doesn't get any clearer than this.

 

[PSman1700]

Please, people enough of the denial, it really really doesn't get any clearer than this.

This is nothing. See YT and other forums, massive meltdowns. To stay ontopic, the geforce experience leak has some more legit-ness to it after this.

 

[BRiT]

Nixxes alone can't port most games. Porting games well takes time, effort and care. BluePoint, also masters of porting, took the best part of two years to port thee near identical PS3 Uncharted games with unrivalled access to the source material and developers, to PS4 - just two possible hardware configurations.

Far easier to port PS4 and PS5 titles to PC than CELL abominations. Eventually it will get easier and faster for them as they move to modern titles.

 

[PSman1700]

In a different light, more sony games coming to PC (PS3 games) Most PS3 games are essentially remasters for the pc, offering 4k60fps patches.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...Sp6O8Clgiow2zjssg4Qi2Bl16ualGYsmUVQ5-P8-8mUCw

PS3 emulator reaches new milestone in quest to run every game made on platform

PC-triple.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Even Microsoft didn't out right say that in the beginning of their strategy, they even flat out denied it one year before their strategy came into full effect.

Sony aren't Microsoft. Microsoft have found themselves in third place in console space again so are trying the strategies their console competiitivors are not so as to present a differentiation.

Please, people enough of the denial, it really really doesn't get any clearer than this.

Who is in denial about PC ports? That are literally already there. But how the hell of Nixxes going to port a half, or even a half, or Sony's first/second party console output? Either Sony are be to turning out some quick and shite ports - and they seemed minded to do a fair job with ports - or they'll need to massively expand their porting efforts at not an insignificant cost. Which brings this back to the point bit will Sony will really a lot more money porting games to PC instead of developing new IP?

Exclusive IP is how Sony sell PlayStations in order to benefit from the licensing revenue for all games sold on the platform. The investment/benefit proposition for consoles is it's own weird thing.

Far easier to port PS4 and PS5 titles to PC than CELL abominations. Eventually it will get easier and faster for them as they move to modern titles.

So PS4 Spider-Man games ought to be an easy port. Ratchet & Clank too. Bloodborne. Shadow of the Colossus. Infamous. The Last of Us. Persona. Nioh. Gran Turismo. Gravity Rush. Demon Souls. Ghost of Tsushima. Until Dawn. The Last Guardian. Dreams. Wipeout. Tearaway. Astrobot.

How long do you reckon it'll take Nixxes to port them? Before PS7 comes out? It doesn't seem feasible for one team to port them all before PS6 is launched.

 

[DavidGraham]

will Sony will really a lot more money porting games to PC instead of developing new IP

They won't have to, the majority of the cost is paid upfront, just port the engine to PC and any game that will use that engine is now an easy port waiting to happen. Besides, PS4 is an X86 architecture, that alone takes care of most of the work, unlike the PS3 ports you mentioned in your previous example.

But how the hell of Nixxes going to port a half, or even a half, or Sony's first/second party console output

In time, two/three ports a year doesn't sound like a bad idea.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

They won't have to, the majority of the cost is paid upfront, just port the engine to PC and any game that will use that engine is now an easy port waiting to happen.

So presumably you don't want better textures, graphical options? Improved shaders?

Just bare minimum ports?

In time, two/three ports a year doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Can you evidence a single game that was ported from console to PC in four months? Or six?

 

[DavidGraham]

Exclusive IP is how Sony sell PlayStations in order to benefit from the licensing revenue for all games sold on the platform. The investment/benefit proposition for consoles is it's own weird thing.

Oh come on, enough about this old wretched idea already, current events has proven this to be incorrect, it's all about market share in the end and how you are going to monetize that share, Sony obviously realized they have reached their peak during the PS4 era, they can't have more than what they already have, and stronger competition will make things worse for them, so they HAVE to expand.

 

[DavidGraham]

So presumably you don't want better textures, graphical options? Improved shaders?
Just bare minimum ports?

And where are those? The Ultra settings of the latest PS4 ports are nothing more than extended draw distance for shadows, objects ..etc, the addition of 16XAF, support for 4K/ultra wide resolutions, and unlocked fps, Whoop-de-fucking-do! That's already the bare minimum effort.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Oh come on, enough about this old wretched idea already, current events has proven this to be incorrect, it's all about market share in the end and how you are going to monetize that share, Sony obviously realized they have reached their peak during the PS4 era, they can't have more than what they already have, and stronger competition will make things worse for them, so they HAVE to expand.

I don't follow this rambling statement at all. Look at Sony's revenue statements. The fast majority is from licensing games released on their platform. Sony's own games actually do not produce a vast amount of profit relative to the cost of their development. If Sony do not have compelling exclusive IP on their platform, why are people going to buy PlayStations? If people are not buying PlayStations and buying games for their PlayStation, how are Sony going to produce the revenue to invest in developing rather expensive console-exclusive IP?

And where are those? The Ultra settings of the latest PS4 ports are nothing more than extended draw distance for shadows, objects ..etc, the addition of 16XAF, support for 4K/ultra wide resolutions, and unlocked fps, Whoop-de-fucking-do! That's already the bare minimum effort.

I assumed Sony's ports were better than re-packaging the console assets. Perhaps I was wrong.
edit: DF seem happy with the improved textures in Days Gone.

Booting up the PC version of Days Gone, it's immediately apparent that this isn't just a basic PS4 Pro conversion. The game is based on Epic's Unreal Engine 4 and I was happy to see that Bend Studio had updated the PC version to include a more recent UE4 innovation - software-based screen-space ray traced global illumination - available as an upgrade over the standard ambient occlusion tech deployed on the console versions.

...

The second largest upgrade that the PC version of Days Gone gets over the console versions comes from texture quality. In side-by-side comparisons, the improvement via higher quality assets is pretty easy to see and affects nearly every texture you can find in the game, definitely improving the overall look. In terms of where the existing console version compares in terms of PC's quality settings, it's difficult to say. It doesn't seem to align with any of the presets, honestly presenting as lower than PC's lowest texture streaming option.

 

[PSman1700]

It doesn't seem feasible for one team to port them all before PS6 is launched.

I dont think Nixxes is/was the only ones responsible for porting games to pc. They are probably aiding studios in doing so (as the original article mentioned?). HZD was ported before the aquistion of Nixxes.

If people are not buying PlayStations and buying games for their PlayStation, how are Sony going to produce the revenue to incest in developing rather expensive console-exclusive IP?

If people actually prefer the PC versions over the PS, thats actually a sign to sign what they should focus on in the future (it means the preffered platform for most gamers would be pc).

Anyway, another thing that was already happening is that games that are console exclusive to either XSX/PS5 usually are on PC at launch anyway, like deathloop, ghostwire etc etc

 

[Inuhanyou]

What is even the argument being presented right now. It's clear Sony wants to put their software on pc

 

[see colon]

No, I disagree. It worked for Steam but PC needed such a handy platform to play games. But it's doesn't work that great anymore for Series / movies providers like Netflix, HBO, Apple TV etc. Many people are now leaving one provider for another because there is another show they need to watch.

Pure content still works the best and is still the future IMO. We see it with Nintendo success or even with PS4 and PS5 success. MS are seemingly focusing on services because they don't have as many successful IPs, but are they really focusing on services? Look at Disney TV success. It's due to IPs, not services. And Microsoft have clearly understood this as they are the ones that are actually spending the most at buying IPs.

Netflix/HBO/Disney aren't really platforms like Xbox or Playstation are. Apple is, and Apple TV is one of the serves Apple uses to keep people using Apple products. Just like iCloud and the appstore. They get people into their ecosystem where they can be monetized over a long period of time. Sure, you can watch AppleTV on non-apple devices, but it's a gateway to their ecosystem. Which is exactly why I find it odd Sony isn't using Playstation Studios games on PC as a gateway to Playstation services. Microsoft does it for bedrock Minecraft. You have to sign into a Microsoft account for cross play. It's a missed opportunity.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So presumably you don't want better textures, graphical options? Improved shaders?

Just bare minimum ports?

To be fair, in recent years Nixxes has been doing 2-3 ports a year while adding features and graphical enhancements that didn't exist in the base versions of the titles. That's not including the constant work they were doing with Square-Enix for the PC versions of anything released for FFXIV (which also included PC enhancements that didn't exist on the PlayStation version of the game).

It's one reason that I'm sad they won't be available to other companies to port their titles to PC. However, on the plus side if it means quality ports of formerly PlayStation exclusives to PC, then that balances it all out.

Can you evidence a single game that was ported from console to PC in four months? Or six?

The aforementioned FFXIV. Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Pretty much any Square-Enix, Crystal Dynamics and IO Interactive game with day and date PC release that they worked on. How long did the ports actually take? Hard to say since we don't know when they started work on porting those games to PC. Sure, it's 0 months compared to 4 or 6 months between console release and PC release, but still.

That also means that going forward, it's irrelevant when a Sony game is released WRT to how long a PC port would take. If Sony wanted to, Nixxes could port 2-3 (or more if they expanded their team) PS titles to PC per year and have them available day and date with the PlayStation release of the game similar to their collaboration with Square-Enix

For back catalog titles, again it's hard to say since there's little to no information available WRT to when Nixxes got code compared to when the port was released. But for any future Sony title, they can port the games while the games are still in development if Sony wanted day and date releases to PC.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

To be fair, in recent years Nixxes has been doing 2-3 ports a year while adding features and graphical enhancements that didn't exist in the base versions of the titles.

Can you cite those because Wikipedia disagrees? On average, over the past ten, it's one game per year. Sometimes you get two games in one year (2014, 2016) and some years nothing (2017, 2019).

What will decide if Sony release more ports to PC is how much is costs to have more porting-resource vis-à-vis the return, verses whether spending that money directly on work benefitting development of their own IPs. This is pretty much how all profit-driven organisations work. You don't just look for profit, you look to invest in things they will return the most profit.

Given Sony are now pushing into TV (The Last of Us) and movies (Uncharted), they chase potentially returns from other media than Windows game ports. Right now, it feels like they're dabbling in a bit of everything. They're clearly interested but they would have to massively expand to bring all, most - or even half - of their their exclusive console games to Windows in any reasonable timeframe.

 

[PSman1700]

I think your missing the picture. Nixxes is going to aid in getting sony games to pc, not just porting alone. Also, seeing what sony playstation boss says themself, its quite clear their following in MS's footsteps to expand to the pc platform. Good for sony, some wont like the idea but its quite clear now. More is coming.

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-new...re-playstation-games-to-release-on-pc-2887443

Sony CEO Jim Ryan confirms more PlayStation games to release on PC

https://www.windowscentral.com/jim-ryan-nixxes-acquisition-help-playstation-games-pc

SIE CEO Jim Ryan says Nixxes acquisition will help with PlayStation games on PC
Players can expect more PC ports of PlayStation IP.

''Nixxes will act in a support capacity helping the other teams and working on PC ports.''