crazyjah2003
Member
I did not last 15 minutes, I think and was perfectly OK losing the 60 bucks... Nah, sent me into a spiral of depression where I could not play anything for a long while.
-
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.
Why aren't PlayStation games successful on PC?
- Thread starter Vick
- Start date
- Status
DryvBy
Member
Why are you taking this so personal? I specifically said Steam and your taking about a bunch of other services hardly anyone uses.
TMONSTER
Member
Without knowing the actual cost of porting these games to PC, it's kinda hard to slap a 'success' or 'failure' label on them, you know?
If the cost of porting was on the lower side, then even moderate sales could be a win for Sony. And it's not just about sales figures, right? We gotta think about the long game - stuff like brand exposure, reaching new audiences, and even stuff like how much players are actually engaging with the game after they buy it.
So it's a bit more complex than just looking at sales. What might seem 'meh' in terms of numbers could actually be a strategic move paying off in ways we don't immediately see.
If the cost of porting was on the lower side, then even moderate sales could be a win for Sony. And it's not just about sales figures, right? We gotta think about the long game - stuff like brand exposure, reaching new audiences, and even stuff like how much players are actually engaging with the game after they buy it.
So it's a bit more complex than just looking at sales. What might seem 'meh' in terms of numbers could actually be a strategic move paying off in ways we don't immediately see.
Killjoy-NL
Member
It's pretty simple:
The vast majority of people who like Playstation are consolegamers that buy Playstation to play Playstation games.
They don't care that much about the almighty PC with amazing GPU, RTX and 200+ fps.
So when Sony releases their games on PC, they won't do as well as on Playstation, leaving some people scratching their head because they fail to comprehend the above.
It's probably also why Sony's PC releases seem to be handled like afterthoughts. Which they basically are.
They're just intended to potentially get some people from PC to make the jump to Playstation as well.
The vast majority of people who like Playstation are consolegamers that buy Playstation to play Playstation games.
They don't care that much about the almighty PC with amazing GPU, RTX and 200+ fps.
So when Sony releases their games on PC, they won't do as well as on Playstation, leaving some people scratching their head because they fail to comprehend the above.
It's probably also why Sony's PC releases seem to be handled like afterthoughts. Which they basically are.
They're just intended to potentially get some people from PC to make the jump to Playstation as well.
Last edited:
Bry0
Member
Thanks.Yeah I mean, I won't argue about Steam system being better.
Just don't tell me the reason is people having alternatives on PC when there's incredible amounts of them on PS platforms as well.
Sure, already did.
Why aren't PlayStation games successful on PC?
2 reasons in my opinion. 1) PC players are a different base with different tastes. 2) Alot of PC players also own PS5s/PS4s and have already played them by the time they come to PC.www.neogaf.com
So you’re saying they should simply sell more copies? Why isn’t nearly 1000% ROI on many of these ports success to you? The ports are outsourced and make tens of millions of revenue with minimal cost to port. You wouldn’t consider that a successful endeavor because it doesn’t hit some arbitrary sales figure?
Is it really costing Sony anything in regard to exclusivity if they, as you say, aren’t selling enough copies on pc anyway?
It still seems like free money for Sony from my view. I don’t see any persuasive business reason they would stop.
Last edited:
Sentenza
Member
I'll tell you this as someone who bought a fair portion of these ports (mostly under the misguided intent of "showing support to the initiative of porting them"): Sony fans seem to be under the massive delusion of having a hold on the HOTTEST SHIT OUT THERE™ and that everyone and their grandmother would KILL to get these games on their platform, but once you reframe these titles outside of the over-hype of the platform wars, it turns out they are just... Ok?
Here's what's been my experience with them:
- I played God of War to completion (full achievement unlock)
- I spent a decent amount of time with Spider-man and I finished the main campaing
- I gave up on Horizon after few attempts, because HOLY FUCKING SHIT that game is BORING at every step (and then you have champions of autism on this forum saying that turn-based tacticals are supposed to be the "boring and outdated ones" while praising this shit, somehow).
- EDIT - I gave a quick check to Ratchet and Clank and it failed to keep me interested after the intro... But to its defense it came right between other major releases at the time.
I liked the first just fine (and it wasn't without its fair share of glaring flaws, like a terrible lack of variety when it comes to enemies), but if someone in an alternate reality told me the other two were Ubisoft games that happened to come out just a bit better than usual I would have believed them.
In the same time window I bought these ports I probably bought at least a dozen of PC games that had me far more hooked. Some of which not even particularly popular (i.e. Jagged Alliance 3 few months ago).
Now, personal opinions on each game aside, we may have the problem in the very same moment you can see rabid fanboys entering the thread and attempting to rationalize these unimpressive sale numbers using pathetic excuses like "it's piracy".
Why? Because piracy is a factor regardless of Sony, so using it as a justification for their poor performances means ignoring all the games that released (often without even any DRM) in the same time window and comfortably outsold these Playstation ports.
Here's what's been my experience with them:
- I played God of War to completion (full achievement unlock)
- I spent a decent amount of time with Spider-man and I finished the main campaing
- I gave up on Horizon after few attempts, because HOLY FUCKING SHIT that game is BORING at every step (and then you have champions of autism on this forum saying that turn-based tacticals are supposed to be the "boring and outdated ones" while praising this shit, somehow).
- EDIT - I gave a quick check to Ratchet and Clank and it failed to keep me interested after the intro... But to its defense it came right between other major releases at the time.
I liked the first just fine (and it wasn't without its fair share of glaring flaws, like a terrible lack of variety when it comes to enemies), but if someone in an alternate reality told me the other two were Ubisoft games that happened to come out just a bit better than usual I would have believed them.
In the same time window I bought these ports I probably bought at least a dozen of PC games that had me far more hooked. Some of which not even particularly popular (i.e. Jagged Alliance 3 few months ago).
Now, personal opinions on each game aside, we may have the problem in the very same moment you can see rabid fanboys entering the thread and attempting to rationalize these unimpressive sale numbers using pathetic excuses like "it's piracy".
Why? Because piracy is a factor regardless of Sony, so using it as a justification for their poor performances means ignoring all the games that released (often without even any DRM) in the same time window and comfortably outsold these Playstation ports.
Last edited:
Kenpachii
Member
Games i played was ratched and clank, got bored of it pretty quick.
Horizon zero dawn, game felt like a bootleg version of assassin creed so quited this fast also.
Both camped with enormous amount of talking and cutscenes to the point i couldn't bother to buy anything else from them.
Horizon zero dawn, game felt like a bootleg version of assassin creed so quited this fast also.
Both camped with enormous amount of talking and cutscenes to the point i couldn't bother to buy anything else from them.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I'm not taking it personally. I'm just saying that the median steam games played by an account isn't an accurate reflection of how many games active PC players actually play for a number of obvious reasons.
diffusionx
Gold Member
I doubt Sony is happy with the numbers they're getting. I really thought SM2018 would be huge on PC considering the game is excellent, it's a great port, and it's a huge IP, but it kind of flopped considering the size of the PC market and what other AAA titles do.
The only way the PC ports make sense is that they outweigh the cost of losing console sales, and while I am sure Sony has a way to measure/estimate this, I don't have the data or the methodology. They could stop at any time, theoretically.
The only way the PC ports make sense is that they outweigh the cost of losing console sales, and while I am sure Sony has a way to measure/estimate this, I don't have the data or the methodology. They could stop at any time, theoretically.
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
Over a million sales in several games isn't successful!?
Guilty_AI
Member
You have no clue how visibility can affect sales for these sorts of games. No matter how much Witchspring R or The Forgotten City are available on consoles, its all for naught if console players have no way to know they exist in the first place.
We're talking about games with little to none marketing budget, they won't be plastered on the front page of the consoles store, and if so only for minimal amounts of time. You have no way to know they exist through the PS ecosystem other than searching them by name, or accidentally stumbling onto them while scrolling through endless games while having no idea what these games are even about.
It also doesn't help Sony gives terrible control for the devs in terms of pricing and sales strategy. Its why many AA or indie devs nowadays don't even bother with console ports or treat them as of secondary importance, relying mostly on PC.
Last edited:
diffusionx
Gold Member
not really, and hasn't been the case for a long time
DaciaJC
Gold Member
There's a thread showing port costs as gleaned from the Insomniac data hack - at most a few million per game, a pittance. So you would be correct, even modest sales numbers would result in ports paying for themselves many times over.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Sony's PC strategy is all over the place. There's heavy hitters like GOW, Spiderman and Horizon. But GT, Bloodborne, DS are the kinds of games that would do well. Even Dreams would had been a good fit.
Yet, they port over Returnal, UC 4/LL..... and Sackboy?
I think what they do is internally classify some games as off limits. Games like Bloodborne, Dreams and GT they want as PS exclusive games no matter what to give the ecosystem some unique games and charm.
Vick
Member
Well, how has this became a me thing during the course of this Thread?
Why So Many PlayStation Games Struggle When Ported to PC
Despite being some of the most critically-acclaimed console games of all time, some PlayStation exclusives just aren't a hit when they come to PC.
gamerant.com
Critically Acclaimed PlayStation Exclusive Struggling on PC
After a long wait for its eventual release, one critically acclaimed PlayStation exclusive is struggling to find an audience on PC.
gamerant.com
This is the general consensus.
As for the rest of your, reasonable, points, if you're interested I already covered what would answer many of them in different posts scattered in the Thread.
And you apparently no clue how visible even crap made by a single person with a few bucks is on PSN.
Sentenza
Member
Yeah, their choice of titles so far has been weird to say the least.
It's almost like they are purposefully postponing/ignoring the titles that most likely would appeal to the platform (the "Souls-like", the drive games, etc) and pushing hard for the high-production-value cinematic action adventures.
Last edited:
Guilty_AI
Member
That depends on the budget. How big was the budget for these ports?
That just further demonstrates how terrible the PS ecosystem is for discoverability. Making crap visible while burying the good stuff is a tell-tale sign of a poorly designed store.
Last edited:
Topher
Gold Member
Or perhaps there are some contractual limitations with From? No idea. It doesn't make a lot of sense. I would think that if they were going to say some games were "off limits" then it would their flagship games like TLOU, God of War and Spider-man. But you are right. It is as if they really don't want PC gamers to have the games PC gamers really want.
Vick
Member
I think there's truth to this.
Leaked sales just shown Bloodborne being considerably more successful than what many of us ancipated. They are surely letting demand grow and grow as they know they have a classic on their hands. I have no doubt they'll only release Demon's Souls and a Bloodborne Remaster when they'll feel they need a bang.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Baseball is another one. If the game is opened up due to the theory MLB forced their hand to making multiplats, you'd think PC would be included too.
Out of all major sports, baseball is the one that is supposedly geared to older people and PC is a platform with older gamers. Seems like a good fit. MLB The Show even has turn based coach mode and it seemed good when I played it. That would make any older PC gamer with shitty reflexes a welcome addition as they'd go manager mode like they were playing Earl Weaver Baseball or OOTP Baseball.
Last edited:
geary
Member
This could be a strategy to put on PC their bread and butter (high-production-value cinematic action adventure games), just to great some FOMO for their next sequel on PS platform.
Sentenza
Member
If that's the case, you could argue it''s not working that well.
PC players clearly aren't "losing their shit" to get their next Playstation game.
TrebleShot
Member
People already played these games on their PS5s, anyone that cares enough ti have a mid to high end gaming PC will likely have a PS5
kvltus lvlzvs
Banned
Because they haven't released bloodborne yet
The funny thing is that teardown was one of the high points of the summer PlayStation event, I forget what it was called lolWhy the hell do you think the gaming world is composed solely of MS or Sony games?
those +90% scores don't seem so impressive now do they? Bet you haven't even heard about half of those, which is sort of the point.
Last edited:
sigmaZ
Member
Because people who want to play it already have and it's lost all hype by the time they release it.The recent leaks painted a pretty underwelming picture for an initiative many would have considered, just a few years ago, impossibile, and that unquestionably transformed PlayStation as a brand to the eyes of many gamers.
It wouldn't be appropriate to call all of these releases flops, but I believe it would be fair to conclude most underperformed compared to expectations.
What would you identify as the main culprit behind these games not being nearly as successful as they were on PlayStation platforms? By far the most shared opinion in the other Thread was that those kind of games are overrated by PS fans and therefore not appreaciated by the more objective PC users, which is however something the slightest scrutiny reveals as pure platform warring of the lowest order:
As the games are very obviously appreciated by the audience, despite usually being underwhelming ports. What is the reason then?
Is it the full price? Is it the games being "old"? Is it the amount of piracy due to no DRM? The game requirements not meeting a considerable portion of the audience? An actual bias against PlayStation rooted in some PC gamers even?
On this last point, let's try to make sense of it all without falling into cheap warring.
Murdok
Member
Let's be honest, Sony games are overrated, not that they are bad, but many are overrated, mainly in the past because of exclusivity. Playstation owners live off Cod, FIFA and GTA, no matter how much they try to deny it. Sony knows this that's why they cry for acquisitions from Ms.
If you pay the amount of sales of Sony games compared to the console base, the numbers are ridiculously low. If you look at Nintendo's numbers, you'll see who really has quality games and who actually sells consoles because of exclusives. Sony remains above Xbox, because of the brand and nostalgia and because it has better established itself in most countries, and as the vast majority of people make a living from third party games, only these games maintain a constant sale of Playstations, maintaining the Sony where they are.
If you pay the amount of sales of Sony games compared to the console base, the numbers are ridiculously low. If you look at Nintendo's numbers, you'll see who really has quality games and who actually sells consoles because of exclusives. Sony remains above Xbox, because of the brand and nostalgia and because it has better established itself in most countries, and as the vast majority of people make a living from third party games, only these games maintain a constant sale of Playstations, maintaining the Sony where they are.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Returnal is the sort of game that often blows up on PC, graphics, difficulty, game structure, it just feels like a PC game. But, it didn't for whatever reason. I just want to throw out that these are the sort of difficulties that platform holders have when they move their games to platforms they don't control. Same thing happened to Sega, games that were super popular on Sega platforms just flopped on Xbox. It's why Nintendo, despite what people hope, will never port their games to PC except in absolute worst case scenario, like they're on the verge of death.
Last edited:
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Holistically, I think many of us agree on similar reasons:
- The games have a console legacy, so expecting PC gamers to buy it up at the same rate is not realistic. If DOTA or Counterstrike came out for consoles, it'd be played by a fraction of gamers compared to PC
- Time gap of 2 years or more just saps the hype
- Full priced old games on a platform used to deals
- Some of the games ported dont make sense for the target audience. Superhero games and platformers like Sackboy seem a lot more console-ish than expecting older demographic PC gamers would care about
- PC gamers are really picky with performance. Seems like many PC ports arent great at release. Console gamers are more accepting as you cant do anything about it
- The games have a console legacy, so expecting PC gamers to buy it up at the same rate is not realistic. If DOTA or Counterstrike came out for consoles, it'd be played by a fraction of gamers compared to PC
- Time gap of 2 years or more just saps the hype
- Full priced old games on a platform used to deals
- Some of the games ported dont make sense for the target audience. Superhero games and platformers like Sackboy seem a lot more console-ish than expecting older demographic PC gamers would care about
- PC gamers are really picky with performance. Seems like many PC ports arent great at release. Console gamers are more accepting as you cant do anything about it
diffusionx
Gold Member
I think it depends on more than just the budget. I really don't think 1.3 million copies for a game like Spiderman is acceptable, even if the balance statement says it technically turned a profit. Like I said above, it was a huge game on PS4, maybe their best selling exclusive, huge IP, great port, etc.
Dorfdad
Gold Member
It’s not that they’re unsuccessful. It’s that they’re releasing them 2 to 3 years after they’ve been out on consoles. Most gamers have a PC and a PS five and if a game they want to play is coming out they’re not gonna wait 2 to 3 years to play that game so the only people that you’re getting are the stragglers who were left behind or those who really enjoyed the game and want to double dip for the upgrades
Start releasing them day and date with the PS five and I bet you see the sales numbers increase dramatically
Start releasing them day and date with the PS five and I bet you see the sales numbers increase dramatically
Guilty_AI
Member
Sony clearly think it is tho.
LordBlodgett
Member
I think it's already been beaten to death in here, but I'll say it again, the games are already old on release. They would sell insanely more on PC if they did day and date releases with their PS5 version. Problem is they would probably sell way less PS5 consoles, hence less people would be married to the PlayStation Store
diffusionx
Gold Member
I doubt it, but they're not going to cancel the whole thing just because of one or two flops.
Reizo Ryuu
Gold Member
First post nails it, you can't expect people to wait for a long time and then still ask them to pay full price, when there will be other new products at that time as well.
It's especially egregious when you can find physical copies of the console for a much lower price, but you're still going with the tone deaf full price nonsense.
I think it's also part the dinosaur execs at sony not understanding pc gamers are always looking for deals, so your very late but still full priced game has lower perceived value.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
1 million extra sales is, especially at close to full price.
Lumpyoatmeal
Member
It did come out for console, I remember trying CS on the original Xbox back in the day to see if they actually knew how to play and was surprised a few players I came across weren't actually that bad (one of them even knew how to bhop with their thumbs).
Last edited:
Senua
Member
It's totally acceptable when it cost them a few mil to port it and returned well over 50 million
diffusionx
Gold Member
Well, I disagree, I think it comes at a cost to the brand, they have to pay another platformholder, and in the end, I just don't think Sony put this initiative in motion to sell 1 million copies of their 20+ million copies on Steam. Could be wrong but I don't see it. Especially when other AAA games on PC sell way more. Maybe I'm wrong but I think 1.3 million sales of Spiderman on PC is a total disaster.
Senua
Member
It would have sold a lot more if it wasn't full priced, but that's their strategy and it's paying off for them, quite literally.
Ronin_7
Banned
Plus God of War & Horizon did pretty well.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Not if it is costing them future business on PlayStation, if people are not buying PS consoles, if people are buying the game on Steam where they have to pay 20%+ to Valve, etc.
Like I think most of us would agree that Microsoft releasing all their games on PC has hurt their Xbox business, so it becomes an internal business decision if it is worth it, Sony has the same decision to make except PS matters a lot more to Sony than Xbox does to MS.
Windom Earle
Member
Because current Sony sucks (maybe Returnal being the exception). Give me Demon's Souls and Bloodborne and I will buy them.
Schmendrick
Member
5 mill porting cost vs ~50million in profit.
Riiiight. "not worth" "disaster".
Clown world.
Senua
Member
I'm not having this argument again for the millionth time but I just don't see it hurting PS at all, and Sony obviously agrees with me. Playstation is bigger than ever. You can speculate all ya want but the ports aren't stopping and Sony continue to make a boat-load.
diffusionx
Gold Member
I thought the point of this thread was to discuss this, lmao.
I laid out my reasoning. I don't know what Sony will do in the future but new leadership is coming in and we will see. I think Jim Ryan has done some strong things but this and PS+ seem to be devaluing their games and their brand for some short term cash flow.
Last edited:
Trogdor1123
Gold Member
I think it’s due to newness of the games and the fact it’s been out on a different platform for a few years already. These sales numbers looked great to me and given the small cost to port, they made an excellent return.
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll