Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy

[BRiT]

Beyond what seems, games bought on the Playstation brings the big cash
And hence why what seems reasonable here is economically less reasonable for Sony and is reflected on Sony's PC releases and announcements

Only because they only bring the old games to PC. If the brought the new games to PC, maybe it would be a different story.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Playstation is Sony's gaming brand. Seems reasonable to think anything related to that could and would be at the event.

InZone is Sony's gaming brand, PlayStation is Sony's console and PlayStation Studios are their teams who create software for consoles, mobile and PCs. This particular event, as Nesh posted the marketing above, does say PS5 so I feel Sony were setting expectations. The event didn't ignore games coming to PC as these was mentioned on titles coming to both platforms.

As I mentioned above, for those who expected Sony to mention Ratchet & Clank releasing soon on PC, note that Sony spent no time at July 2021's State of Play taking about Ghost of Tsushima coming to PS5 and that was also releasing the following month. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Sonic]

Sony diversifying is a good thing and doesn't dilute the PS brand IMO. Releasing games a year or 2 after the PS console release seems to be a working strategy for Sony allowing them to sell more games. And the coverage they get from some outlets such as DF for their PC releases brings a lot of attention. Content is king and Sony knows it. Reaching as wide an audience as possible is a good thing.

Sony doesn't know if PS consoles will remain a prominent way for gamers play video games but they will do everything in their power to help it remain that way. But at the same time they need a way to pivot in case their console sales end up taking a cliff dive and can no longer drive the revenue they need from it. Nobody's saying this is what will happen but good on Sony for hedging their bets.

Sony is as much a content creation company as it is a hardware company.

 

[Nesh]

Only because they only bring the old games to PC. If the brought the new games to PC, maybe it would be a different story.

Maybe but 100% surely not.
Otherwise this would have been the Playstation brand


And not this

 

[Silent_Buddha]

InZone is Sony's gaming brand, PlayStation is Sony's console and PlayStation Studios are their teams who create software for consoles, mobile and PCs. This particular event, as Nesh posted the marketing above, does say PS5 so I feel Sony were setting expectations. The event didn't ignore games coming to PC as these was mentioned on titles coming to both platforms.

As I mentioned above, for those who expected Sony to mention Ratchet & Clank releasing soon on PC, note that Sony spent no time at July 2021's State of Play taking about Ghost of Tsushima coming to PS5 and that was also releasing the following month. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

InZone is Sony's PC gaming peripherals (well, PC displays and headsets, controllers that work on PC are still PlayStation branded) brand. Not their software gaming brand. PlayStation is still their software gaming (like games) brand just like Xbox is now Microsoft's software gaming brand. Neither are exclusive to the consoles anymore even though both Sony and MS have consoles called PlayStation and Xbox respectively.

Hmmm, let's see, who is the publisher for HZD? PlayStation PC LLC. PlayStation not InZone... I'm pretty sure TLOU PC isn't an InZone game as well.

I mean isn't Sony's PC games under the PlayStation Studios umbrella? I'm pretty sure Naughty Dog is still a PlayStation Studio releasing PlayStation branded games despite also releasing titles on PC now. Just like Microsoft's PC games are under the Xbox Studios (Microsoft Games Studios was rebranded to Xbox Games Studios) and a team like The Coalition is still an Xbox Games Studio despite making PC games and even mobile games.

I get that PS5 was displayed on their advertising for the event, but that's just because it's the most visible representation of the PlayStation brand. I think it's a bit nitpicky to think that Sony's use of PS5 on their PlayStation showcase is any different from Microsoft's Xbox on their upcoming Xbox showcase. I mean I've never seen Sony just use PS instead of PS#.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nesh]

Actually it is nitpicky to think that Sony is treating the Playstation brand (or console for that matter) exactly the same way MS is treating XBOX just because Sony ports some PS games to PC (for which we have to thank the Playstation console for that).

 

[digitalwanderer]

Actually it is nitpicky to think that Sony is treating the Playstation brand (or console for that matter) the same way MS is treating XBOX.

Why?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Actually it is nitpicky to think that Sony is treating the Playstation brand (or console for that matter) exactly the same way MS is treating XBOX just because Sony ports some PS games to PC (for which we have to thank the Playstation console for that).

Why? Because they are? They are exactly where Microsoft was with the Xbox brand 5 or so years ago. All titles on the path to coming to PC but timed exclusivity for Xbox consoles.

And as others have pointed out, Sony has showcased their PC ports in their PlayStation State of Play events in the past.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nesh]

I mean I've never seen Sony just use PS instead of PS#.

Hmm I "wonder" why

 

[Nesh]

Why? Because they are? They are exactly where Microsoft was with the Xbox brand 5 or so years ago. All titles on the path to coming to PC but timed exclusivity for Xbox consoles.

And as others have pointed out, Sony has showcased their PC ports in their PlayStation State of Play events in the past.

Regards,
SB

And all these have been countered multiple times

 

[digitalwanderer]

Hmm I "wonder" why

Am I missing something or did Nesh stop making sense a few posts back?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Hmm I "wonder" why

The same reason that MS always refers to their Xbox consoles on marketing for events as just Xbox. Not XBO or Xbox One ... just Xbox. It's how they've decided to handle the branding for their Xbox consoles. That makes sense since they don't follow a traditional consecutive number naming scheme like Sony does for PlayStation. Sony OTOH has chosen to use PS[# of current generation] for all PlayStation branding of events regardless of whether or not PC content will be shown during the showcase.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nesh]

The same reason that MS always refers to their Xbox consoles on marketing for events as just Xbox. Not XBO or Xbox One ... just Xbox.

Exactly whereas Sony talks about and promotes Playstation 5.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Exactly whereas Sony talks about and promotes Playstation 5.

That's weird, I don't see any references to Playstation 5 on any of their PC game releases.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Exactly whereas Sony talks about and promotes Playstation 5.

You do realize that even when they were also promoting titles for PS4 that the events were still branded as PS5? And even when they were also showcasing titles coming to PC at those State of Play events, the events were still branded as PS5?

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

InZone is Sony's PC gaming peripherals (well, PC displays and headsets, controllers that work on PC are still PlayStation branded) brand. Not their software gaming brand. PlayStation is still their software gaming (like games) brand just like Xbox is now Microsoft's software gaming brand.

You're right, my mistake. InZone is for hardware only.

I don't think any of this is particularly relevant to people expecting Sony to re-market/announce older games on new platforms when they have done that exceedingly rarely including for their latest console.

You do realize that even when they were also promoting titles for PS4 that the events were still branded as PS5? And even when they were also showcasing titles coming to PC at those State of Play events, the events were still branded as PS5?

Every game shown was coming to PS5/PSVR2. Where it was releasing for PC and PS4, they stated that. The marketing seems clear that this event was aimed to PS5 owners. If you own only a PS4 or PC and are not intending to buy a PS5 any time soon then this event is probably a lot less relevant to you unless you just want yo see a lot of things that you probably can't plat for a while.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Every game shown was coming to PS5/PSVR2. Where it was releasing for PC and PS4, they stated that. The marketing seems clear that this event was aimed to PS5 owners. If you own only a PS4 or PC and are not intending to buy a PS5 any time soon then this event is probably a lot less relevant to you unless you just want yo see a lot of things that you probably can't plat for a while.

Yes, that's the point we've been making. Nesh has been contending that the show was about PlayStation 5 or just PlayStation consoles based on the marketing being named with PlayStation or having the marketing trademark of PS5 and thus no PC announcements would be made. We're trying to point out that it doesn't matter since PS5 is just a trademark brand and PlayStation encompasses both their current console (PS4 and PS5) and current PC releases.

In other words, just because it's a PlayStation State of Play with the PS5 trademark branding, it doesn't mean that Sony wouldn't showcase an upcoming PC release of one of their 1st party titles as they've done in the past at those events.

The more likely explanation is that they are saving those for a larger showcase (either Summer Games Fest or perhaps the smaller PC gaming showcase) since they are happening relatively close to this State of Play.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yes, that's the point we've been making.

PC gamers want to thank their lucky stars Sony even fill the event with games. I remember when PlayStation conferences used to be two hours long and the first 25 minutes was some guy covering the financials of the company, including a deep analysis of supply chain logistics impact impacting unfavourable dollar/yen currency rates because that is what console gamers used to sit through.

PC gamers can f*** right off complaining about bloody Ratchet & f***ing Clank like the m*th*rf*ck*ers can't find the previous trailers on YouTube, but will spend 4 hours tweaking CPU voltages and RAM frequencies.

And on that note....

 

[BRiT]

PC gamers want to thank their lucky stars Sony even fill the event with games. I remember when PlayStation conferences used to be two hours long and the first 25 minutes was some guy covering the financials of the company, including a deep analysis of supply chain logistics impact impacting unfavourable dollar/yen currency rates because that is what console gamers used to sit through.

And here I thought you were going to talk about some sort of orchestra experience and having to walk to the next venue for the first 45 minutes.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

PC gamers want to thank their lucky stars Sony even fill the event with games. I remember when PlayStation conferences used to be two hours long and the first 25 minutes was some guy covering the financials of the company, including a deep analysis of supply chain logistics impact impacting unfavourable dollar/yen currency rates because that is what console gamers used to sit through.

Hey, that was a good time for me to take a short nap during a long E3 viewing session.

Regards,
SB