IF Sony releases PS exclusives on PC frequently like one every 3 months, do you guys think..

[FelipeMGM]

Jim Ryan made it pretty clear why they are doing this

SIE games and IP's are more popular than ever, so they have a opportunity to increase their revenue, and with that, have yet another reason to continue to invest in these kinds of games that are very expensive to make

 

[Strittles]

They want the extra revenue and to get more people interested in their IPs.

 

[Dictator]

Its to get people in the PS ecosystem and get them into their exclusive franchises so they buy a PS5 to play the sequel's day one

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This is not at all why, my goodness.

They literally just want to make more money on the games they make as games are more expensive. They are going the MS route here essentially. There is no conversion rate of people going out to grab the PS versions of these game's sequels after the fact. It is for people who will never by a console in the first place.

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I cannot believe how correct your post is and how people will still manage to say this about "suckering pc players into buying a playstation!"

 

[RowdyReverb]

Jim already explained why PC ports are important to them now in his interview earlier this week. Development costs escalating, ease of porting to PC and little in the way of cannibalisation.

It's easy money. Based on reviews, HZD has likely sold >2m copies on PC for what was a 3 year old game that launched in a shoddy mess (albeit since fixed). That's like £50m revenue after Steam's cut. Just for a port of an older game.

It's business. The PlayStation division needs to continue its growth trajectory. Jim wants his bonuses. You don't do that by just doing the same thing. And Sony has never stood still. They need additional revenue sources, and this is an easy one.

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This makes sense to me, and I think it's why both MS and Sony have been increasingly ok without PC ports of their console exclusives. I'm sure their research has shown that the number of people who leave a console ecosystem because they can get the games on PC is actually quite small, and vice versa. PC players were largely not inspired to buy a PS4 for exclusives there, and those who did were not buying their multiplats on console anyway, so it's a low attach rate

 

[Shake Appeal]

The reason is money. It's not complicated.

 

[brain_stew]

It's simply an additional low investment, low risk revenue stream that has no material negative impact on their core business model.

It's made sense to do so for at least a decade now, but it's good they've finally realised this. As PC is my primary gaming platform, it's fantastic news to me. Game Pass is where I get the vast majority of my games now but it's good to know I'll be able to work through some of Sony's back catalogue if I'm looking for something else to play.

I skipped the PS4 last generation, so if the price of that console + strong library wasn't enough to convince me to buy one, it's unlikely that I'll buy a PS5 now that I'm fully on board with Game Pass. This strategy means Sony can generate revenue from me whereas otherwise they'd be getting nothing.

PC and console gaming have mostly always been distinct markets. There's a lot less crossover than many believe there is.

 

[Nessus]

I think they're doing it because the games are old enough now that they're not currently selling a ton sitting locked to the PS4/PS5 ecosystem, game development costs have continued to rise, and it's a relatively easy way for Sony to recoup a bit more money from those games, this gen and last gen in particular since the PS4 and PS5 architecture is much closer to a PC than the PS3 was.

I don't think it has anything to do with MS at all.

 

[dude]

I believe Ryan when he says it's about revenue. triple A games cost a fuckton to make, and the costs of making them is only increasing - and if they want to grow, they have to find new ways to reach bigger audiences and increase revenues for each title (especially as they seem to focus more on quality than quantity.)
Releasing on PC with say a year delay would help give second wind to titles.

MS simply showed how successful this strategy can be, since it doesn't seem to affect console sales much.

 

[Spark]

A variety of reasons. But as an aside, as person who switched mainly to PC in 2008 it's definitely vindicating seeing the platform go from being neglected by third parties to being so lucrative even Sony can't resist. Didn't think I'd see the day.

I'm instantly reminded of those comments by the Ubisoft CEO and Cliffy B back in the day. How times have changed.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

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Isn't this obvious? I'm still amazed how people can't grasp what Sony's trying to do, and it's even funnier reading some of the "PS5 will have no exclusives" comments thrown around these days.
They want to get people interested in their IPs, by giving PC players a chance to play PS4 titles, and get more people interested in PS5; meanwhile, get additional revenue because those old PS4 titles ain't selling that much nowadays on PS4 (and PS5, i guess, through BC).

 

[Sabretooth]

I'm not very informed, but my thought is Sony is doing this simply because they can, and they mainly can because modern consoles are very similar in architecture to PCs. It's a lot easier to port a PS4 game to PC than it would be to port a PS3 game (or for that matter, PS2 and PS1 games in their respective times, ignoring emulation).

As everyone else is saying: it's money.

 

[Deleted member 13560]

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That's pretty much my thoughts on this whole matter as well.

If anything I could see Sony trying to set up some kind of subscription based service on PC. But that probably won't happen for a while. Not until they build up a significant library.

 

[Iztok]

Nothing to do with what MS is doing, IMO.
They just want to make as many sales as possible, and also introduce people to PS games, maybe convince them to buy a PS5.

 

[Reckheim]

PC is a much bigger market then it used to be. Just like any other company, they want to make more money; nothing else to it.

some of you keep treating these companies as sports teams, at the end of the day all they care about is profit.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

because they can see how well the PC market is doing for MS and other 3rd parties that are embracing the platform, simple.

And theres pc players who ARE going to be convinced. Like me, I fully switched to Playstation

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I think they'll be in the distinct minority and I say that as someone who switched from maining PC to Xbox this gen

 

[TechnicPuppet]

I think it's just money. In a years time when PS5 exclusives are coming out the install base compared to PS4 will be tiny. Giving yourself an extra 100m or whatever potential customers makes too much sense.

Of course if they really want to build a PC fanbase they gotta treat the PC base right. So eventually they well release games day 1 and make sure they work properly.

 

[Shake Appeal]

some of you keep treating these companies as sports team, at the end of the day all they care about is profit.

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Seriously.

 

[Deleted member 13560]

This is not at all why, my goodness.

They literally just want to make more money on the games they make as games are more expensive. They are going the MS route here essentially. There is no conversion rate of people going out to grab the PS versions of these game's sequels after the fact. It is for people who will never by a console in the first place.

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Agreed. I'm sure there is a well thought out road map to maximize profits without having to rely on console sales.

MS has done great work in realizing you don't need a dedicated piece hardware to lure people into your ecosystem.

 

[Elephant]

More money.

 

[Euler007]

PC is an enormous market and you don't just let your competitors alone in such a big market.

 

[froginhotwater]

They're literally just following the money and there's a lot of PC gamers who want to buy their games / don't want a PS4/5. They'll continue to be cautious about it for a while because they don't want to impact PS5 sales but ultimately I see all their titles coming to PC eventually.

 

[shintoki]

Free money for few year old ports.

 

[Bear and bird]

Brand recognition, money, potential expansion of the Playstation ecosystem.

Their upcoming TV shows are going to introduce a lot of new people to their IPs, and I'm guessing that far from all of them will want to pick up a console.

 

[Markratos]

This is not at all why, my goodness.

They literally just want to make more money on the games they make as games are more expensive. They are going the MS route here essentially. There is no conversion rate of people going out to grab the PS versions of these game's sequels after the fact. It is for people who will never by a console in the first place.

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One thing is clear. If Sony sees that PS5 sales begin to decline, the PC ports are over. After all, Sony is interested in maximizing the sales of their hardware, and, like Nintendo, their great revenue come from having a closed platform.

 

[thevid]

Expanding to PC is a no brainer. Sony's games are more popular than ever, no need to restrict them to a single platform. Especially as we see Sony leverage their IP in other media. I think it's a given now that PC/console cannibalization is a non-factor.

And if anything, PlayStation gamers should be excited about this. It just means more revenue for the studios and bigger budgets for their games.

 

[TalonJH]

I think it's as simple as they see another avenue to make a bit more money and most games that will be released on PC will be after sales slow down on console and are already discounted while the PC version will be full price or close to it.

 

[Deleted member 3196]

Its to get people in the PS ecosystem and get them into their exclusive franchises so they buy a PS5 to play the sequel's day one

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I don't think this is it necessarily. If someone buys a PS5 for any sequels then that could be a good byproduct of porting to PC, though I'd argue the PC gamer buying a PS5 probably isn't a brilliant or profitable customer for Sony by buying a console, since most of their third party purchases are on PC and they're unlikely to buy subscriptions, which is where Sony makes its money.

This move is because they felt money was being left on the table. People who, despite Sony's strong lineup, still don't buy a PlayStation but a few years in the future run those games through an emulator (at best, buying and ripping a used copy) are literally an untapped market that isn't competitive to their console business.

Maybe seeing MS enjoy success on PC gave them the idea to pursue it too, but I doubt this is some competitive action against Microsoft.

I imagine they were looking at PC ports regardless, especially if they want to bring their games into cloud infrastructure. PS Now will be running off PC servers in the future and the highly scalable PC ports of their games will be running on those PCs.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

And theres pc players who ARE going to be convinced. Like me, I fully switched to Playstation

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you fully switched from PC to playstation because of sony's games on PC?

 

[AmFreak]

People need to realize that the move to digital completely changed the game.
All these companies could have just released their games on the endless systems already existing, but they made their own system instead.
They did that because they wanted to create their own ecosystem so that they could profit from everyone selling something in said ecosystem.
In a physical world hardware was the only way to do that, but in a digital world hardware not only is not required for that anymore, but is a detriment because you unnecessary limit your customer base by it.
An ecosystem based on hardware just doesn't make sense anymore.

 

[Shopolic]

Sony just want more money, like other companies.
They can get lots of money from these ports, without doing anything special. And other than that, they can gain new PlayStation 5 buyers who like those games and want to enjoy newer versions without waiting 2,3 years.

 

[bitcloudrzr]

They literally just want to make more money on the games they make as games are more expensive. They are going the MS route here essentially. There is no conversion rate of people going out to grab the PS versions of these game's sequels after the fact. It is for people who will never by a console in the first place.
I cannot believe how correct your post is and how people will still manage to say this about "suckering pc players into buying a playstation!"

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There has to be a decent number of conversions and new customers entering the ecosystem. Data last gen 33% of PS4 buyers did not own a PS3, and recently 25% of PS5 owners not owning a PS4.

People need to realize that the move to digital completely changed the game.
All these companies could have just released their games on the endless systems already existing, but they made their own system instead.
They did that because they wanted to create their own ecosystem so that they could profit from everyone selling something in said ecosystem.
In a physical world hardware was the only way to do that, but in a digital world hardware not only is not required for that anymore, but is a detriment because you unnecessary limit your customer base by it.
An ecosystem based on hardware just doesn't make sense anymore.

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Their ecosystem is still hardware driven as they tend to sell a lot of it, whether the software is physical or digital. Strategic moves such as this does not change that aspect of the business and creating an ecosystem does not exclude hardware.

 

[silva1991]

I actually do think if MS didn't release their games on PC, Sony wouldn't have even considered putting their games there. They only see MS as major competitor and they want some of that revenue their getting from that audience.

It's not like Sony never knew their games can sell on PC before MS did it 🙄

I'm expecting Sony to copy Gamepass model next.

 

[DanielG123]

They're a corporation that wants to make more money. Simple as that. Putting their games on PC is just another cash flow.

 

[Altair]

Sony is looking to make money first and foremost and they see MS published games charting the top of Steam regularly. Of course they want in on that.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I don't think people seem to understand just how many PC gamers there are in the World who have zero interest - and will never have any interest - in buying a console, for a variety of reasons.

Sony is not trying to turn these people into console owners, they are meeting them where they are.

 

[T0kenAussie]

90s marketing really has people out here convinced that business moves are made as some secret war games and not just growing your revenue year over year to make investors happy.

The big 3 do not give a shit about console wars anymore they all have carved out niches that make them tons of money independent of the "competing brand"

 

[TheGhost]

Jim Ryan made it pretty clear why they are doing this

SIE games and IP's are more popular than ever, so they have a opportunity to increase their revenue, and with that, have yet another reason to continue to invest in these kinds of games that are very expensive to make

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They were popular before this as well. It's Sony catching up with where the industry is, first there was resistance to BC, then crossplay and then PC.

They started to adapt and started to warm up to all those things.

 

[Prine]

MS is finding a lot of success with their model on PC. I do feel Sony have seen that and felt there's opportunity for them as well. Them relaxing their stance with crossplay, day 1 subscription releases are all positive changes due to competition. All this is great news.

 

[Anno]

I think they just want to make more money selling games. If they pick up some (very) marginal number of new console buyers in the process that's a bonus.

 

[AmFreak]

Their ecosystem is still hardware driven as they tend to sell a lot of it, whether the software is physical or digital. Strategic moves such as this does not change that aspect of the business and creating an ecosystem does not exclude hardware.

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Yes, currently it is mainly hardware, but that's obviously going to change and they are beginning to prepare for that.

 

[bitcloudrzr]

Yes, currently it is mainly hardware, but that's obviously going to change and they are beginning to prepare for that.

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Is that inevitable though? If they can keep selling a significant number of hardware, it does not make sense to slow that aspect of the ecosystem even though software can go further. Just look at what Apple is doing, plenty of hardware and software sales driving the ecosystem and Sony seems to be on a similar path. Unless you are bad at selling hardware then being more aggressive outside of that may help.

 

[Pryme]

The poll choices are extremely weird. Why's everything framed as a contest or war with MS? On PC, for that matter? Really?

 

[Joe White]

Money and growth, as year-over-year growth of PC gaming is 19% compared to consoles 6.8% or something. Sony can raise prices to get more out of people in their closed ecosystem, but other than, there are only finite amount of growth available there. Other options would be costs reductions, somehow provide content cheaper or just less of it.

 

[Betty]

Their games cost a ton and aren't evergreen like Nintendo's. The Last of Us 2 is like 20 bucks now at times, considering how much it costs for these games to be made Sony has to find extra revenue somewhere.

 

[Markratos]

An ecosystem based on hardware just doesn't make sense anymore.

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Nah. They make a lot of money with their closed hardware because there is no competition. You forget that in the PC market there are many more stores, which take a percentage for each game sold. That is why the main objective of Sony and Nintendo is to have the maximum number of people in their own Hardware because they gain money from all the purchases.

 

[Roshin]

I would love it if they actually released games as frequently as that on PC, but I don't think they will. It will be a slow trickle at best.

Prove me wrong, Sony!

you fully switched from PC to playstation because of sony's games on PC?

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I played the superior PC version. Now I must get a PlayStation! ;)

 

[Nightengale]

There has to be a decent number of conversions and new customers entering the ecosystem. Data last gen 33% of PS4 buyers did not own a PS3, and recently 25% of PS5 owners not owning a PS4.

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New customers come to the ecosystem regularly by virtue of new kids being born into this world. As far as conversion goes, we have no data from where they're converted from. PC/Other Consoles/Mobile/Never Played Video Games Before/etc.

 

[Neuroxia]

Too right, nothing compels me more to buy a console than the producer of said console putting their games on PC. I can't believe people legitimately believe this nonsense.

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I don't think it's a nonsense. Sony won't release games day and date on PC, so if you get hooked on a series and want to play the latest entry your choices are to either wait 2-3 years until maybe (or maybe not) a port will be relese, or buy a Playstation.

Hypothetically, say they release God of War on PC and then 4 months later they drop God of War 2 as a PS exclusive. You don't think there will be people enjoying it so much on PC that they'll buy a Playstation to play the sequel?

You're making money releasing older games on PC while also bringing new people into your ecosystem. Seems like a win-win.

 

[dgrdsv]

"Something else" aka "they want to sell their games to people who wouldn't otherwise buy them or any console".

 

[DoradoWinston]

games are more expensive, selling on PC adds to the amount of money a game makes all while bringing people into the Sony/PS ecosystem and growing Playstation mind share

It just makes sense to release your games on console and PC, The console will still be succesful because there are people that just like playing on console over PC or having both same as there are people that wont ever buy the console and just game only on PC.