I think SONY is trying to bring more people to their franchises. Outside of PlayStation no one is hyped about these 3rd person action games. God of war did create some buzz but it's just a cinematic game. I can play soulslike all day but I could not play Spiderman or god of war for another 20-30hr. They are just plain boring for me.
Didn't Alan Wake just kinda sweep the VGAs? Why are there people excited for Hellblade 2? Hogwarts Legacy is the biggest-selling game of the year. Plague Tale 2: Requiem did pretty well. So did Star Wars: Jedi Survivor aside from the terrible bugs.
All the games I mentioned are multiplatform, and either did extremely well in sales and/or got lots of critical acclaim. So it's false to say that only people on PlayStation like 3rd person action/adventure 'cinematic' games. It may not be the biggest genre in terms of revenue or overall popularity, but lots of people like them. Most of them tend to have PlayStations tho because it's the one platform guaranteed to get virtually all of those types of games, kind of like with JRPGs as another example.
So your source is "intuition" based on vague trends, is what I'm understanding.
In Layden's
own words:
He, too, seemed to grasp that the PC community represented an untapped market, an audience which by and large would never be interested in purchasing a console even
if they had compelling exclusives.
That was back in 2019, before Sony had any actual data of their own to work with. Also Layden's goals were to convince primarily PC gamers to consider picking up a console; that quote doesn't contradict this.
Think about it: if a PC-centric gamer was never interested in buying the console even for its exclusives, then it's very likely they simply are not interested in those games. Certainly not enough to pay full price, likely not enough to play them ASAP, either. But those PC gamers ARE interested in various 3P games that are also on PlayStation...that Sony gets a 30% cut of from sales on their platform, not PC. And they also have people who DO like PlayStation exclusives enough to buy a console to play them, but wouldn't have any issue shifting their spending money to PC if Sony gave them a reason to do so.
It's a losing strategy, really, and now we've got some leaked sales data to back it up. Sony's risking turning console-first gamers into PC-first gamers, sell less copies of their games on the console, likely not make up that difference in PC sales, make less revenue and less profit on the PC versions of those games, and lose out on significant chunks of 3P sales, DLC, MTX revenue from people now shifting that to PC/Steam. It is not a sustainable strategy for a company that heavily relies on console gaming as one of their main pillars, and has little vested interests in the PC space.
I think the fact that the PC port of R&C managed to pay for itself while the PS5 version ended up being a net financial loss for Sony speaks quite favorably for the continuation of their strategy. Like, seriously now, how exactly would they manage to produce a "couple new 1P AA games" with a total budget of a measly $2.5 million?
This is incorrect and the idea it lost $8 million on PS5 was already debunked.
The claim that what reason is there to get a console doesn't seem to have any supporting evidence to it. PS5 exclusives as well as the console itself are selling more then ever, the PS5 is on track to overtake the PS4. Then we have these PC sales figures that clearly indicates there hasn't been this massive influx on players from consoles to boost sales numbers.
There simply is no evidence that the two year gap window is hurting PlayStation at all, gut feelings certainly don't count.
That evidence would take longer than a couple of years to show up, for a brand like PlayStation. Even for Xbox, their Day 1 PC strategy didn't immediately start showing negative results for the console, that took a period of years and was also compounded by generally poor upper management at the division. That's all part of the reason Xbox Series has been in such steep decline; it's not just paying for its own mistakes, but also the mistakes of the XBO and the last years of the 360. Kind of like how the Dreamcast was ultimately paying for the mistakes of the 32X and Saturn, plus a few smaller mistakes of its own.
There doesn't have to be a large shift in console sales to PC sales to directly correlate a cause and effect relationship. At this point, there are going to be more casuals and mainstream buying PS5 consoles, and you'll get an influx of core enthusiasts LTTP buying plus those who decide to pick up the Pro. It's the general sales and revenue of 1P releases on the console which should be looked at and, so far, that still seems good. If anything it was putting HFW in PS+ too soon that chopped off some of that game's legs if anything, but now with the PC port coming I can imagine that is suppressing some sales of the PS5 version, by people who are choosing to wait for the PC port.
But between CD Keys and Sony paying Valve a 30% cut each copy sold, HFW on PC will inevitably generate notably less revenue and profit for Sony than it did at launch for the PS4 & PS5. And we're going to see what the sales look like long-term on it too, to see if they're a jump up from other games released the past few months, or continue what seems like a slowing sales trend.
You seem to think there is this massive overlap between players that use PC as a primary platform and a console as a platform. There doesn't really appear to be though, oh sure you have those that own both to either play exclusives day one or like to play RTS games on PC but mostly play on console for example but it appears that is the minority. Most players pick one and stick to it and the reason players pick PC or console is that both offer quite a different experience from each other. PCMR types and console warrior are prevalent for a reason.
There is. PC and console share roughly 90% of the same 3P software library among AAA and AA titles. They share all of Microsoft's 1P titles, and a growing number of Sony's 1P titles. Pc also has actual exclusives not on the consoles like LoL, VALORANT, Counterstrike 2, and tons of indie and some AA releases, fangames etc. There are a lot of PC/PS owners who primarily play and spend on PC/Steam and use their PS consoles significantly less, mainly for exclusives.
As more games than ever keep releasing, and F2P/GaaS titles take up more of people's time, those same types of gamers are having more and more patience to just wait for the PC version of those Sony games, so now their consoles are getting used even less. And who says they buy those games Day 1 once they finally get to PC? They may just wait further out, some may never pick them, because they get too absorbed into other games on PC/Steam. Many may just wait for deep sales before picking it up, meaning far less revenue and profit for those copies sold.
For PC a lot of the 'experiences' you're talking about are, in addition to the exclusive games, things like open modding support, fan games, having all-encompassing setup for gaming/video production/streaming/chat/productivity/multimedia etc., full KB/M support, those types of things. But if there wasn't a large customer crossover between console and PC, why are all these 3P companies increasing supporting bringing their games to PC/Steam?
I think those efforts alone show proof of the overlap.
Basically my point is, somebody who is invested into PC, and has all there games and friends on PC can pick up a PS5 to play some exclusives day one, but a handful of games over a console generation is unlikely to cause them to switch to it as a primary platform. That is what Sony cares about really, by far most of the money Sony makes doesn't come from game sales but subscription services, GaaS, and microtransactions.
Sony clearly noticed this and decided to tap this market of those who refuse to switch and those that double dip.
They "refuse to switch" because the consoles they switched from in the first place aren't giving compelling enough reasons to "switch". And I'm not really even talking about switching, but getting those players to prioritize time and money on the console more. That doesn't mean they give up gaming on PC, these things are not mutually exclusive.
That's partially why at least IMO, Sony continuing to bring their games (traditional) to PC in smaller windows or maybe even Day 1 potentially, is them basically ceding, and admitting they can't provide value competitive enough towards platforms like Steam. Which would be quite something because platforms like Steam are basically what PlayStation used to be in the PS1 & PS2 generations. Had Sony found a way to retain that while bolstering their 1P the way they have, we genuinely wouldn't be having this discussion today.
What large influx of players? The console market has been mostly stagnant in growth since the early 2000s. As for investing in PlayStation, why did that not work for the PS4 generation? You had all these PlayStation exclusives but most PC players had little interest in switching to it as a primary platform. Steam grew massively during this period as well.
Steam grew massively mainly because of bleed from Xbox and Nintendo, although Nintendo managed to reverse theirs with the Switch. And, again, you're looking at this as mutually exclusive things; Steam (which doesn't require money to set up an account) can grow while the consoles continue to grow, either in users or ARPU increases across the board from those in the market.
Also you kind of admit yourself that this isn't about mutual exclusivity, when you say that PC gamers (in your opinion) didn't switch to PS4 as a primary platform. How do you know they didn't? Just because Steam saw growth as well? PS4 did technically grow its gen, when compared to the PS3.
What opportunity cost? They have a dedicated porting studio now so the development studios are not affected. The porting costs are so low as well that even these small sales have made Sony over $300 million dollars profit so far.
The opportunity cost, is the risk of informing (directly or indirectly) to high-ARPU core enthusiasts on the console that ports to PC will become a regular thing, with shorter windows or even Day 1 availability. Which then may make some of those customers shift a majority of their time and money to PC instead of console. It could also lead them to not consider buying new console hardware, such as a PS5 Pro or PS6, if they figure PC can be a suitable one-stop shop for all their games.
Keep in mind, Xbox is already seeing all these problems, and a lot of growth on Steam the past few years came from Xbox players who saw Steam as a superior alternative. But a lot of those Xbox players (now primarily PC players) were also PlayStation owners and might still have PlayStations for purposes like playing the exclusives. So if Sony continue to prioritize, or accelerate, ports of traditional games to PC, then those same people may also decide to not buy PlayStation systems in the future as they'd see no need.
That is the big 'opportunity cost' and it's something to seriously consider.
The cost of AA titles is expected to become $100 million. 1 PC port is not worth 2 AA titles.
Ratchets did end up becoming profitable later on.
Rachet was profitable on PS5 as well as on PC.
Maybe the higher-end AA games will reach budgets of $100 million, but there is a gamut to this, there are levels. I strongly doubt games like Stray or Kena were $100 million and they are rather high-polished AA style of games.
It really comes down a lot of times to scope and other expenses like what type of writers you're hiring, VA talent, etc. Big names command big paychecks.
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