• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Console exclusives on pc : when is best?

Console exclusives on pc business wise

  • Day 1

    Votes: 73 57.9%
  • 1 year later

    Votes: 10 7.9%
  • 2 years later

    Votes: 12 9.5%
  • 3 years later

    Votes: 3 2.4%
  • 4 years

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • 5 years later which is end of the generation.

    Votes: 11 8.7%
  • Never release console exclusives on pc

    Votes: 16 12.7%

  • Total voters
    126

Topher

Gold Member
Like you said Alot but not all.

I personally wouldn't buy any console if all the games were on PC.

Make PC my primary gaming platform. Currently it's 3rd after PS5 and Switch.

As long as consoles are the preferred platform for gaming in the living room with a big TV then PC gaming isn't going to make much of a dent to that use case. I love PC gaming, but I'd never want a PC in my living room. Just stick a console on the shelf and go. PC gaming is best on a desk with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse with the option for controller. The preferred gaming space of PC and consoles (for the most part) are not going to change because Sony puts their games on Steam.

Personally, I think I'd still have my PS5. I enjoy trophy hunting. Now if Sony were to be able to integrate their trophies into Steam for their games then that would probably change. But that will probably never happen.
 
Look at the games Sony has ported to PC. All last gen.

Uncharted 4 another last gen to follow possibly with Uncharted collection and Bloodborne which I would love to see on PC.
Why wouldn't they port the last gen games first, then start with the ps5 games? There's been no evidence to say otherwise, and Jim wants to branch out as much as possible, to make that mulaah. There are 44 placeholders for Sony games on the Steam page. I'm not sure if Sony had 44 games on ps4 alone.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Let's say you delay a PC Version of a game by a year to get someone who wants the game to get a console.
Ok you get them to get the console and the game but you don't get them to interact with the rest of the ecosystem. No PS Plus, no other titles just the exclusives. So you had to manufacture a console to which someone would only play exclusives with very little ecosystem interaction.

Day and Date ride the hype train, day 1 sales for PC, and manufacture more hardware to sell to people who won't interact with the ecosystem.
There is also the issue of games becoming more expensive to make so you need to get as many sales as possible.
 
very enjoyable watching master late folks now obsessing over a game I played back early 2016.
Very enjoyable watching sad fanboys now obsessing over games that others get to play now, while having nuclear meltdowns.

Do you feel better about yourself for being able to play the lesser version of the same game, a little earlier? Does that make the same games you praised and worshiped, now become shit games? I don't understand the logic (or lack thereof).
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Released 3 months before PS5 launched. Days gone and Horizon are not gonna affect Sony hardware sales by the time they were ported to PC.

Not the case with Day 1 PC ports. Won't happen
I agree it won´t, but as a consumer is a win if could happen.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Yes what works for Microsoft won't necessarily work for Sony.

Same applies to Nintendo. They make exclusives to shift hardware. Their hardware only.
Nintendo is their own niche with quite well working emulation on PC already.
Nintendo also makes profit on hardware
Sony and Microsoft not so much they share a lot with the PC audience with their games becoming more expensive to produce.
 
Very enjoyable watching sad fanboys now obsessing over games that others get to play now, while having nuclear meltdowns.

Do you feel better about yourself for being able to play the lesser version of the same game, a little earlier? Does that make the same games you praised and worshiped, now become shit games? I don't understand the logic (or lack thereof).
whatever man. Have fun with ultimate raytracing remaster edition of Atari classics too...
 

Hydelol

Banned
implying most people actually pay full price for Windows licenses :messenger_tears_of_joy:

you do know you can use Windows 10 for free, right? you just have a watermark on your desktop wallpaper and can't change the apperance of the OS. everything else functions as normal.

you do know that you don't need to buy Windows 10 directly from MS, right? MS wants £119 for Windows 10 Home. i paid £45 for Windows 10 Pro (MS want £219 for it).
Or be a student, lol. Shortly before Windows 10 I gave friends my spare Windows 7 / 8 keys, which they then upgraded to a standard Windows 10 license. Even now I give good friends a spare key for Windows 10. Nobody in my social field who cares pays for Windows. I've never payed for Windows my entire life (my dad did if at all when I was a kid).
 

Xmengrey

Member
Why wouldn't they port the last gen games first, then start with the ps5 games? There's been no evidence to say otherwise, and Jim wants to branch out as much as possible, to make that mulaah. There are 44 placeholders for Sony games on the Steam page. I'm not sure if Sony had 44 games on ps4 alone.
It's not like Sony has many PS5 games to port in the first place but many PS4 titles in need of ports first so it makes sense but Jim Ryan is pretty clear it won't stop their producing games has become more expensive so they need to port more to PC.
Sony isn't porting games to PC then getting PC Gamers to get the sequel on PS5 and no it won't be years later either when the PS6 is around the corner as games are way to expensive to wait till then.
Hell they probably won't even wait months to do it either unless it's technical.
 

Hydelol

Banned
I would buy alot more Sony games if they would release Day 1 or shortly after on PC. I have bought a PS4, but only the standard version and only for Bloodborne. GoW and Spiderman were played on my brother's PS4 Pro, as the performance on the standard PS4 is awful. So again no money from me. I can't even remember which games besides Bloodborne and Destiny I've bought, I think none. I would even pay full price on release for a pc version.
 

Brofist

Member
very enjoyable watching master late folks now obsessing over a game I played back early 2016.
I've seen this mentality quite a lot especially with the Sony games. Sony games must have a shelf life shorter than milk.

Since this really applies to Sony games the most, I'll say a year or less would be ideal. They seem pretty front loaded in sales anyway, may as well sell them after the initial sales wave and while the hype is strongest.

Of course as a consumer day 1 is best.
 
Last edited:

Xmengrey

Member
Just read your custom tag. Your mentality and responses all make perfect sense now. Classic salty response.

Cheers for uncharted





Hopefully spiderman MM next






Can't find the Kretos one :(

We will probably get Spider-Man hopefully it's either this year or next year
We will probably get popular PS4 titles in 2022 and some PS5 titles the same year as well.
They will probably release PS4 and PS5 titles next year.
I also don't think the PS5 SSD will be an issue either.
The PC has more resident memory on both system memory and graphics memory and it's not like the PS5 is literally pushing 5.5gbs or more every single time don't think the GPU could handle those textures but the faster SSD is good for efficient memory use so you don't have to store much in RAM.
 
Last edited:

VFXVeteran

Banned
Nowadays xbox release their exclusive games on pc day one which has reduced the need for me to buy an xbox as I mainly play on pc.

Sony are now starting to release their exclusive games on pc a couple of years after they launched on playstation which means I still feel the need to buy a playstation sooner.

My question is what is the best business decision for exclusives to be released on pc release date wise in your opinions?
Sony didn't decide years ago to make PC ports. It's fairly recent. It began with the Quantic Dreams ports (Detroit, Beyond 2 Souls, etc..). Studios are now a 'go' for them to do the ports, so I wouldn't expect anything longer than 1yr from new release. Since they have a lot of backlog to cover, it will take more than 2yrs before seeing PS5 titles.
 
Xbox titles should come day 1.

PlayStation titles should come to pc before the console.

Nintendo titles... Err they won't give anything. Instead all pc titles should come to Switch a little later.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Sony didn't decide years ago to make PC ports. It's fairly recent. It began with the Quantic Dreams ports (Detroit, Beyond 2 Souls, etc..). Studios are now a 'go' for them to do the ports, so I wouldn't expect anything longer than 1yr from new release. Since they have a lot of backlog to cover, it will take more than 2yrs before seeing PS5 titles.
I don't think they will do the PS4 backlog before the PS5 Ports it's not necessary.

I think popular PS4 games will come first then they will port PS5 and PS4 games together with lesser popular PS4 games not given the most priority but be ported on an off basis.
They don't have many PS5 only games right now so I suspect we will see some show up next year.
 

Topher

Gold Member
very enjoyable watching master late folks now obsessing over a game I played back early 2016.

Really? Cuz I'm seeing a lot of console gamers having to wait on a number of third party games these days. Check out this list:

Stalker 2
Kena Bridge of Spirits
Tetris Effect: Connected
The Medium
Warhammer 40k: Darktide
Scorn
Bugsnax
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Deathloop
Godfall

That's far from complete. The victims of these timed exclusives are console gamers thanks to the console war. PC gamers have them all day one.
 
Last edited:

Alphagear

Member
Nintendo is their own niche with quite well working emulation on PC already.
Nintendo also makes profit on hardware
Sony and Microsoft not so much they share a lot with the PC audience with their games becoming more expensive to produce.

Sony may take a loss on hardware but indirectly make a profit from shifting units. Customers buy exclusive games and PSN store games. Lets not forget PS PLUS and PS Now. None possible without Playstation consoles being sold.
 

mxbison

Member
That isn't what I said at all. I was responding to your assertion that Microsoft and Sony could not be compared when it comes to PC gaming when that isn't true. Sony and Microsoft are both third party publishers on Steam. That's simply a fact.

The fact that Microsoft makes money on Windows, Office, whatever doesn't change that.

Microsoft has more to gain from a PC user than just game sales revenue, Sony doesn't.

That's the difference.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Sony may take a loss on hardware but indirectly make a profit from shifting units. Customers buy exclusive games and PSN store games. Lets not forget PS PLUS and PS Now. None possible without Playstation consoles being sold.
PC Gamers ain't buying PS Plus or PS Now to play exclusive single player games nor are they getting PSN Store games so it's a mute point.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Microsoft has more to gain from a PC user than just game sales revenue, Sony doesn't.

That's the difference.
They don't
Microsoft doesn't make anything extra from PC sales anymore than any Steam publisher does and no them owning Windows isn't it either. It's not like PC Gamers are how they make most of their money on Windows sales it's OEMs.
 
Day 1, I think PC gamers and console gamers don't have the massive overlap people seem to think, I doubt a significant amount of PC gamers would buy a PS5 just for the exclusives, whereas releasing them on PC would massively increase their sales. And same for Xbox or Nintendo gamers, if they want the new Playstation games I would imagine the vast majority would buy a PS5 rather than become a PC gamer. Releasing on PC isn't likely to hurt your ecosystem much if at all, and the massive sales increases would increase the brand and popularity of some series. Honestly I can't think of a single negative about releasing a game on PC day 1 unless you're a Playstation fan who desperately participates in the "list wars".

(The reason why this is more about Playstation is solely because Xbox already does this)
 
There are more factors than that. How much will same day PC releases impact console sales? The piracy factor plays into this. It's much harder to pirate a console game then a PC game. So they will lose out to console+PC gamers who opt to pirate a copy of the game instead of buying it on either platform.
I guess my point is that console sales are not as important as they used to be. Only 20% of Sony's Playstation revenue nowadays is console hardware, and basically none of that is profit. Selling to their captive audience gives them at most 125 million potential customers to buy day one at full price. Throw in just Steam users and now you have 215 million potential full price customers. Yeah, you might have some piracy, but that is the cost of accessing a huge amount of additional gamers. And honestly, which person who pirates games is likely to buy it on any platform near launch for full price?

Also, development cost, as a like for like port makes no sense as the generation progresses. PC hardware outpaces the console side, so you run the risk of damaging the brand with subpar same day ports that aren't optimized to compete with other contemporary games on the PC side.

So, you can increase development cost to optimize for PC, but it incurs overhead on a project that isn't guaranteed success yet, which increases risk. Considering they make a lot of big budget games, that's a lot of risk of the game meets commercial failure.
This argument made sense in the days of PS3 and Xbox 360, but is almost nonsensical now. At this point both Sony and Microsoft consoles use PC grade CPU, GPU, and SSD with x86 software code. They are basically PCs in everything but name. These games are developed and tested on PC and the process of "porting" them to console is easier than it has been in any console generation. If you start putting out your games day and date on PC/Console there will be little difference between versions anyway.
By waiting for the sales to plateau, they can pick from the titles that have bonafide demand. Since the games are old by now, they can get away with ports that lack polish against contemporary PC titles, because it's understood to be a legacy title, so the comparison is made to the console version from the past, rather than the best and brightest on the PC at that time. They can devote a smaller team to handle the port as well, which lowers risk, should reception be lukewarm on PC.
But this makes no sense. By waiting until years later to port to PC all of the new game hype and your big initial advertising push is gone. Not only that, but you are going to have to discount your game faster as it is seen as a legacy title.
There are other factors, but it all depends from protecting the HW business. There's a lot of revenue that is tired directly to the HW. PS+ is an earner, and that service isn't going to fly on PC. Cannibalizing that to jump full force into PC swimming pool doesn't make a ton of sense. If they intend on maintaining the HW side of things, then same day releases just don't make sense. MS has never had the same success that Sony has had on the hardware side, so their interests are different. They see more value in services, so same day releases make more sense for them. That and Windows is their platform. They have a vested interest in furthering engagement with that platform. Sony going same day would move them into third party territory, which is the tricky business that sees even large firms like Bethesda being sold. Valve and Epic have avoided that by creating their own platforms in the form of storefronts, so I don't see Sony abandoning the rather lucrative platform they've spent decades building.
Again with the hardware, barely any profit is made on that. The only benefit is ecosystem lock-in, but it's still not super common for someone to have all platforms (PC+Console) unless they are hardcore, which is a minority of gamers.

When it comes to PS+, why the heck would a PC player ever have PS Plus, even if they do have a console???? You don't need PS+ for F2P games, which you probably play on PC anyway. If you are mostly a PC player then your third party multiplayer games are probably also going to be played on PC, so again no need for PS+. Sony first party have almost no great multiplayer games, so again, why PS+? The people subscribing to PS+ are the ones who play on console only, same with Xbox Live.

Overall, I think we will see Sony PC games get closer and closer to day and date releases as Sony gets a taste of strong PC sales.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
I don't think they will do the PS4 backlog before the PS5 Ports it's not necessary.

I think popular PS4 games will come first then they will port PS5 and PS4 games together with lesser popular PS4 games not given the most priority but be ported on an off basis.
They don't have many PS5 only games right now so I suspect we will see some show up next year.
Sounds plausible. My contact really isn't in the loop about the future releases so I can't give any concrete info.
 
Yes what works for Microsoft won't necessarily work for Sony.

Same applies to Nintendo. They make exclusives to shift hardware. Their hardware only.
But Nintendo almost always makes profits day one on hardware, while Sony and Microsoft make almost no profit on hardware over the life of a console
 

Alphagear

Member
But Nintendo almost always makes profits day one on hardware, while Sony and Microsoft make almost no profit on hardware over the life of a console

Yes a loss on the hardware unit.

Then they make a profit directly from selling those hardware units. Customers buy PS Plus/PS Now and games on Sony consoles including exclusive games.

It's a loss worth taking if you eventually get 100 million users on your hardware.
 

Xmengrey

Member
Sounds plausible. My contact really isn't in the loop about the future releases so I can't give any concrete info.
There really isn't much backlog on PS4 porting to PC that you will need to do before porting PS5.
Popular and demanded stuff like Uncharted, Last of Us, Bloodborne, God of War, Days Gone, Grand Turismo, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-Man, LBP and Infamous will be ported first definitely thought things like Killzone Shadowfall, Knack would be low priority if ever ported
Some games might come later we might get wholesale collections for older PS3 titles coming to PS5 and PC like Infamous maybe
Spider-Man would probably be a collection in PC
For GT they might not go far back and just port GT7 and not bother with the previous ones.
Last of Us both games will probably come before PS5 titles, same with Spidey and Forbidden West
 

djkimothy

Member
Depends entirely on one’s definition of what a “platform” is…

MS is currently and actively changing their “platform“ definition….

EDIT: Hell - they’ve been actively adjusting and changing their core business model for the past decade now…. its amazing how so many here still think so narrowly with respect to Microsofts revenue streams.

Yah. In this case it is providing a service to play games. In Sony’s case, i mean the console and service side. MS has consoles and services but they also have windows. I know Game Pass can be considered a platform but you still need a system or service in which to run it.

It gets so fuzzy as traditional platform holders are now venturing out it different markets to expand their audience. And the goal post is constantly changing.

But there is a distinction to Sony and MS’s role as a publisher and a platform holder. Those are pretty distinct.
 

Braag

Member
Basically the longer you wait, the less money you will make on PC. In most cases at least.
So that's a question the publisher needs to ask themselves.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
If the game isn't designed with pc in mind then I would say 2 years
Nah. Not true at all. A lot of the studios pipeline had to use high-res assets and PCs to create content. It won't take that long to make their graphics engine support compiling out to 2 different platforms. The PC is a very open architecture. It's what we develop on first with brute force algorithms. The fine tuning for PS is an after thought when most of the game is pretty much done on PC.
 
Last edited:

Alphagear

Member
Basically the longer you wait, the less money you will make on PC. In most cases at least.
So that's a question the publisher needs to ask themselves.

Works the other way too.

The quicker its released on PC will detract many from buying a Sony console.
 

Braag

Member
Works the other way too.

The quicker its released on PC will detract many from buying a Sony console.
Exactly. They need to figure out how to min max sales.
Obviously you can't convince everyone to buy a PS4 with your games.
Just like there are console gamers who only play games on consoles, there are PC gamers who don't budge from that platform.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
You can tell a majority of people who voted are not PC players, there should of been 3 more options

1 month later
3 months later (what I would have picked)
6 months later

The reason is simple most "console ports" have dreadful issues at launch, this is patched by either the developers or the community (I'm looking at you dark souls series) so that it works correctly on the hardware.

Giving some time for this to blow over is all part of the PC community... and anyone who had played PC for any length of time would know this 🙄. Which is why looking at the vote results I'm suspecting we have alot of none PC in the vote.

Had to pick one year as launch is literally the worst time to buy a PC game these days.
 
Last edited:

Holammer

Member
'Day one' and I don't say that as PC user wanting exclusives (but I don't deny it's a small factor), the reason is marketing. Just like movies, triple A games have global multi-million marketing campaigns behind them to build a critical mass hype, this ensures good sales at launch, the *most* important period in the products commercial lifetime. If a PC version has to wait months or year(s) the effects of such campaigns are severely diminished and forgotten about.
A simultaneous release on PC will contribute to a positive feedback loop creating additional hype, memes and social media visibility, thus pushing increased sales even on Playstation systems. Remember, we press F to pay respects, not whatever the corresponding button is on Xbox or PS pads.

Sony are perfectly aware of this and are no doubt already planning for such releases in the future. Especially for the upcoming first party GaaS type stuff.
 
Day One. Marketing is still fresh, game hasn't been spoiled, etc. From a business view this makes the most sense to sell the most full-priced copies of a game. A $60 game is a sale regardless of whether it was sold to a PC player or a console player so the faster they reach the entire player base more games they'll sell. Having the game widely available on launch day when the hype is at it's peak only makes sense. If a well-made game releases day one without bugs I will buy it for full price, if it gets a PC port a year late I expect it to have all DLC included and release at a lower price otherwise I'll wait for a sale.

Just to be clear, I typically don't buy console ports on day one, but the faster it releases the sooner they'll have all the bugs worked out so I can buy a finished game. Playing a game at launch is almost never the optimal experience for any game be it PC or consoles. Some games are taking months or even over a year to be fixed completely, usually with some of the work done by the PC community itself. There are only a couple developers I trust to buy their games at launch anymore otherwise I go on a by-game basis.

You can tell a majority of people who voted are not PC players, there should of been 3 more options

1 month later
3 months later (what I would have picked)
6 months later

The reason is simple most "console ports" have dreadful issues at launch, this is patched by either the developers or the community (I'm looking at you dark souls series) so that it works correctly on the hardware.

Giving some time for this to blow over is all part of the PC community... and anyone who had played PC for any length of time would know this 🙄. Which is why looking at the vote results I'm suspecting we have alot of none PC in the vote.

Had to pick one year as launch is literally the worst time to buy a PC game these days.

I think you just misunderstand the OP. skneogaf skneogaf is asking when is the best time to release a PC port from a business standpoint, not buy a PC port as a consumer. For consumers it doesn't seem to matter how long developers wait (even years) to release on PC because a shitty developer will release a broken port regardless of time passed. Then you wait 3 months to play it on top of that. They may as well release their buggy port on day one so the PC community can start fixing it for them right after the game launches. That way when you buy it three months later it's only three months old, it's fixed and often the community has a bunch of mods ready to go.
 

Alphagear

Member
You don't make money on console sales to PC users it costs more to manufacture and you get less out of it.

I'm referring to all gamers not just PC gamers.

Why buy a new console when your current PC can play the same game Day 1.

That's the dilemma Sony faces. For extra PC sales they risk losing buyers of their console.

Which is why I reckon you will won't see day 1 simultaneous releases on PS5 and PC. Maybe a couple of years later on PC at best.

Right now you are seeing last gen ports but that may change.

Sony has to strike a balance.
 
Last edited:
I'm referring to all gamers not just PC gamers.

Why buy a new console when your current PC can play the same game Day 1.

That's the dilemma Sony faces. For extra PC sales they risk losing buyers of their console.

Which is why I reckon you will won't see day 1 simultaneous releases on PS5 and PC. Maybe a couple of years later on PC at best.

Right now you are seeing last gen ports but that may change.

Sony has to strike a balance.
Losing a couple of hardware sales is a drop in the ocean compared to being able to more than double your user base with potential sales. Over 120+ million people on steam alone could potentially buy 1 outta the 44 games coming to stream. That's good news for everyone. MS nor Sony can even provide the hardware to everyone, so they might as well open up the flood gates.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Business wise? A year.

There's a good reason I bought a PS5 and not a Series X. If PS5 games were on PC day one I wouldn't own a PS5.

That said, I also own a disc-based PS5 so I'm contributing to the used game market. Maybe they would be better off tying me into a digital PC licence for a game.
 
Last edited:

Graciaus

Member
I don't know if there is a correct answer. You can never please everyone. Example if it is a late port there are people that refuse to buy it for full price. But on the hand if it does have a late port there are those who double dip.

It would be best for day one as I'm not going to buy a console for any reason.
 
Top Bottom