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Should Sony Go PC Only and Copy Steam?

Would I rather have Sony's first party games on the PC instead of a console?

Yes.

Would I rather have all games available to me on PC?

Yes.

That counts for MS and Nintendo as well.
 
So you guys think that Sony could not compete against Steam and GOG?

I think they could and actually improve it. One obvious area is by offering old games through streaming technology.
 
DragonSworne said:
Looking at the phenomenonal success of PS+ and Steam, and the financial and commercial failures of Ps3 and PSV respectively, do you think Sony should expand their online retail market and put it on the PC and make game development more open to indies?

Sony could still sell hardware, but they'll be branded as streamlined PCs with the intent of playing games on the new PS+ platform.

I see many postives for this:
- Anyone with a mid to high end PC is a potential customer
- Can sell
- Future backward compatibility no longer and issue with new hardware as the architecture will be PC based.
- Can make games available on other networks
- Can use existing game streaming technology they bought to play old games
- No longer burden with a closed system that might struggle to sell games and make profit

The downsides is that Sony could lose presence in the retail chains like Walmart and best buy.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

It's a horrendous idea.

1.) PC hardware sales have literally zero margin, outside of the ultra high end. Sony getting into this business with the intent to replace consoles is suicide.

2.) you may say "well, consoles also have zero margin!" and you'd be correct. But as a closed system, sony takes a percentage of every title published on the system, whether it was developed by them or not. going the PC route completely eliminates this revenue stream. Unless you hate sony and want to see them get out of gaming, I'm not sure why you'd reccommend this.

3.) the console audience and PC audience have some overlap, but in no way are they identical. a very large portion of the console audience buys them because consoles are extremely brain dead to operate and user friendly. PCs are not. Replace the PS3 with a sony branded PC, and this audience will more than likely just drift to the Xbox or WiiU, rather than sticking it out with sony and dealing with the hassles that PC gaming brings with it.

4.) Those gamers that are ALREADY graphics whores/dedicated PC gamers will have little incentive to switch to a stripped down, mid range sony box (forget sony aiming high end, there's no market for it) from something they customized themselves. It might run sony's 1st party like butter, but everything else will run like shit compared to the latest and greatest.
 
They could, but their own service would simply end up as an afterthought. They could change things up, but they'd have to offer something astounding to shake up the current makeup of game distribution on PC. Unless I'm missing something, I think Valve has it all covered with Steam.
 
OldJadedGamer said:
It hasn't hurt sales of the 360 system or software to have PC versions of most games. MS sells just as many consoles as Sony and there are PC versions of most of MS's first party games digitally and retail. SCE already has one division that makes PC games, they should have all their divisions support PC. I really don't feel it would hurt console sales.
Click to expand...

It's good for Microsoft to have some of their games going to PC because they sell windows, and having more games on it makes windows harder to avoid for PC/Mac/Linux gaming. Heck even to try to force people to upgrade to windows 8 with their new PC game that's only use directx 11.332.2.3
 
GMN said:
the PS3 is a commercial and financial failure?
Click to expand...

They lost all the profit from the PS2 era on the PS3. They lost a colossal amount of marketshare and brand strength. The number of high-profile software exclusives, compared to the last generation, is dramatically smaller. Their games cost more to develop, and sold less due to the limited userbase.

I'm not saying I'd phase it as the original poster would, and I love my PS3, but an argument can be made that when compared to the insane highs of Sony's previous successes, the PS3 was both a commercial and financial failure.
 
lupinko said:
Still don't know why people say the PS3 is a commerical failure. It's not lighting up the world like PS2 or PS1, but it has been very profitable.

Now you can say all you want about the Vita tho.
Click to expand...

drkOne said:
PS3 is a commercial failure? Does that mean that the 360 is also a commercial failure and that MS should give up?
Click to expand...

Sony is losing all of their profits from PS1 and PS2's eras due to PS3 aloneand there are still some folks out here determined to call PS3 a commercial success.
 
Stayed tuned for my, "should Sony take a hint from Nathan Drake, give up the video game business and go into treasure hunting full time?" thread.
 
OldJadedGamer said:
It hasn't hurt sales of the 360 system or software to have PC versions of most games. MS sells just as many consoles as Sony and there are PC versions of most of MS's first party games digitally and retail. SCE already has one division that makes PC games, they should have all their divisions support PC. I really don't feel it would hurt console sales.
Click to expand...

Even if it wasn't day and date, 6-12 month late ports of Uncharted, Killzone, and GT would do well on PC selling to the "how high can I Max this game" crowd, and The Show would instantly be one of the best sports sims on the platform.

MS has already published some XBLA games on Steam and mobile, Sony could easily do the same for Android or PS mobile.
 
I honestly would love a digital-only console that let me keep my games from each of the company's systems on one machine. Nintendo had the opportunity to do that with the virtual console, but still don't have things linked to an account for some inane reason.
 
robert-deniro-laughing.gif
 
DragonSworne said:
Looking at the phenomenonal success of PS+ and Steam, and the financial and commercial failures of Ps3 and PSV respectively, do you think Sony should expand their online retail market and put it on the PC and make game development more open to indies?

Sony could still sell hardware, but they'll be branded as streamlined PCs with the intent of playing games on the new PS+ platform.

I see many postives for this:
- Anyone with a mid to high end PC is a potential customer
- Can sell
- Future backward compatibility no longer and issue with new hardware as the architecture will be PC based.
- Can make games available on other networks
- Can use existing game streaming technology they bought to play old games
- No longer burden with a closed system that might struggle to sell games and make profit

The downsides is that Sony could lose presence in the retail chains like Walmart and best buy.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

My thoughts, stop the thing you did before making this thread
 
I hope Sony doesn't bail out. Nintendo has already stepped in a big pile and after this generation, I'm not too sure about Microsoft.
 
Didn't even need to check the post history. This Wii-U stuff is getting silly. Blame Nintendo for making it on par, not Sony or something.

Anyway. Asking if Sony, a Japanese Hardware/tv/insurance corp should copy Steam--an American/Western software Internet delivery system--is flat out absurd. I have a hard time believing anyone would put serious thought into this beyond "Sony bad!!"
 
DragonSworne said:
So you guys think that Sony could not compete against Steam and GOG?

I think they could and actually improve it. One obvious area is by offering old games through streaming technology.
Click to expand...

Not seeing that as a benefit when I already play old games on Steams without streaming. Early access to renting Sony Pictures/Sony Music stuff on the other hand ...
 
I think it would be good for Sony to sell PC games that people can purchase with their SEN accounts, and even encourage third parties to offer a Cross Buy program for the PC/PS3 versions of their games.


Mama Robotnik said:
They lost all the profit from the PS2 era on the PS3. They lost a colossal amount of marketshare and brand strength. The number of high-profile software exclusives, compared to the last generation, is dramatically smaller. Their games cost more to develop, and sold less due to the limited userbase.

I'm not saying I'd phase it as the original poster would, and I love my PS3, but an argument can be made that when compared to the insane highs of Sony's previous successes, the PS3 was both a commercial and financial failure.
Click to expand...

The PS3 got off to a terrible start due to a series of terrible decisions made by people who are not even there anymore. That was 6 years ago. They have since fixed their console business and are in a good position to launch a new one. Looking back at the PS3 launch is a fun exercise but completely irrelevant to their future.
 
DragonSworne said:
Looking at the phenomenonal success of PS+ and Steam, and the financial and commercial failures of Ps3 and PSV respectively, do you think Sony should expand their online retail market and put it on the PC and make game development more open to indies?

Sony could still sell hardware, but they'll be branded as streamlined PCs with the intent of playing games on the new PS+ platform.

I see many postives for this:
- Anyone with a mid to high end PC is a potential customer
- Can sell
- Future backward compatibility no longer and issue with new hardware as the architecture will be PC based.
- Can make games available on other networks
- Can use existing game streaming technology they bought to play old games
- No longer burden with a closed system that might struggle to sell games and make profit

The downsides is that Sony could lose presence in the retail chains like Walmart and best buy.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm going to go with no and after a glance at your post history I'm going to leave it there as well.
 
I'm in tears here, probably the worst idea conceived on GAF since SuperKyro, it's that balls-achingly bad.
 
DragonSworne said:
So you guys think that Sony could not compete against Steam and GOG?

I think they could and actually improve it. One obvious area is by offering old games through streaming technology.
Click to expand...

Sony in their current financial state? Not a chance. Taking a run at Valve is a huge risk on its own; trying to do so while essentially gambling that their GaiKai acquisition is going to succeed where OnLive tanked so spectacularly is suicide.

Valve has almost total market domination because they got in early and established themselves as the place to go. Origin is making headway largely because EA can make you install it for EA titles and EA makes a ton of games. GoG, Desura, and the others are essentially on the sidelines filling various niches but I expect not coming anywhere close to the volume Sony would need to be successful.

Sony would be coming on the scene late, with very little relevant experience in the PC world, and would essentially have to lure people in with their first party titles. There's a decent shot that this would just result in people installing Sony's client and then only ever booting it up when a first party title came out. It'd probably take a significant financial investment to get a GaiKai service stocked with enough third-party titles to make it a major player in the PC gaming world, and we already know they wouldn't be carrying any Valve or big EA games.
 
There are horrible ideas, and then there's this thread.

Sony isn't a content company, they're a hardware company 1st and foremost. What you suggest doesn't align with their strengths.
 
Sony made huge leaps and bounds in their first party lineup this generation.

I don't understand how they aren't a content company, I think you guys are easily writing them off in this area They have a huge selection of movies IPs, Songs, and first party games that they can leverage to make this network popular.

As for Steam, why need it if you can buy and watch movies, play songs, play old and new Playstation/Sony games and all PC games on one unified network?
 
Sony is by far the most likely to bow out of the hardware market, so I could see this happening. They are a "hardware first" company, but the last 6 years have absolutely destroyed their image because of it. Things have to change, and cutting back on the massive costs and loss of their failures such as the PS3/Vita hardware and their TVs would help a bit towards recovery.
 
hell no.

Thanks to sony we still have consoles that try to be technically impressive while having other means of making certain technology more mainstream (PS2- DVD reader, Ps3- BR reader)
 
Another day, another crazy hypothetical Sony thread.

"Should Sony quit electronics and switch to making school supplies?"

Unless you have a college essay sized theory with sources and citation, stop with all the ridiculous Sony doom thread making. Jeez.
 
I'd rather they just go third-party and become a mega-publisher like EA.

Hope none of that happens, though. MS and Nintendo as the only console manufacturers would fucking blow...
 
The Mana Legend said:
Sony is by far the most likely to bow out of the hardware market, so I could see this happening. They are a "hardware first" company, but the last 6 years have absolutely destroyed their image because of it. Things have to change, and cutting back on the massive costs and loss of their failures such as the PS3/Vita hardware and their TVs would help a bit towards recovery.
Click to expand...
Yes, the hardware company that makes hardware should stop making so much hardware. That will turn things around for sure.
 
DidntKnowJack said:
Yes, the hardware company that makes hardware should stop making so much hardware. That will turn things around for sure.
Click to expand...

Hardware company that loses money on every sold hardware and doesn't make up enough money from their software to make profit.

Not exactly a company that should stick to their guns about "advancing" technology when no one wants their technology anymore.
 
lupinko said:
Still don't know why people say the PS3 is a commerical failure. It's not lighting up the world like PS2 or PS1, but it has been very profitable.

Now you can say all you want about the Vita tho.
Click to expand...

Lol?

Really, can we get some numbers going on here?
 
Ploid 3.0 said:
It's good for Microsoft to have some of their games going to PC because they sell windows, and having more games on it makes windows harder to avoid for PC/Mac/Linux gaming. Heck even to try to force people to upgrade to windows 8 with their new PC game that's only use directx 11.332.2.3
Click to expand...

Point stands that it hasn't hurt console sales. 360 has sold just as much as PS3 but has PC games. SCE has nothing to lose by making more PC games than they already do.
 
Having top tier developers (Naughty Dog, Team Ueda) working with powerful instead of outdated hardware would be great for any gamer.

entrement said:
.
Consoles are dying breed. We probably have two more generations left at that.
Click to expand...
Two more generations? So no more consoles around 2027?

Doesn't sound that soon from where I'm sitting.
 
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