i can't see PS6 selling 100M+ with Sony putting singleplayer games on PC

24 Jun 2022
3,925
6,802
Most reasonable people wouldn't buy themselves a gaming PC that has the same performance experience as a modern PlayStation due to cost (unless it makes sense for their job). Most people won't buy that for their kids. PlayStation 6 will sell just as well as the PlayStation 5, especially if Xbox continues in its direction.

Most people who game on PC don't buy PC games. Otherwise the Steam GPU usage charts would have upper-tier GPUs dominating it.

A PC at roughly PlayStation performance levels or even a bit less, that costs the same price or a bit more upfront, could have many other benefits outside of just playing games.

PS5 is already starting to track behind PS4 when launch-aligned, and that's not because the PS5 Pro isn't out yet. It's also not exclusively or even mainly because of the PC ports. But the PC ports are a non-zero factor, for sure. Is it 1% of the reason or 10% of the reason, or 20% of the reason? We don't know yet. But it is a non-zero reason, that much is guaranteed.

So PS5 could actually barely cross 100 million this gen, and if it does get nearer to PS4 #s it'd be because the gen was extended an extra year. And PS6 could end up doing a bit less or a lot less than PS5 depending on, among other things, if Sony get even more aggressive with their PC strategy (especially if they go Day 1 for non-GAAS titles).
 
  • Like
Reactions: arvfab

Systemshock2023

Veteran
8 May 2023
2,401
1,958
There is no money elsewhere, outside of some GaaS. Some of the biggest games in the industry, Sony 1st party releases, can't break 2 million on PC.

Yet Sony is looking for that money, any money. They are so desperate they don't even bother to put denuvo in their single player ports.

The truth is PS gamers are not the paladins of the industry they think they are and they don't buy that many exclusives. FIFA, COD, GTA, Fortnite MTX that's the bread and butter of the console.
 

Jim Ryan

Not Lyin
VIP
22 Jun 2022
1,672
3,039
Luckily for Sony, they still have GTA6 as an ace in the hole.

I do hope it's enough for them to cross the 100m easily.
 

Neversummer

Veteran
27 Jun 2023
1,411
1,407
PS consoles won't fail. A console that sells 80M+ can't be perceived as a failure. Specially as they will take some of the Xbox userbase in case they don't continue in business, while others migrate to PC.
80 millions isn’t a failure? LMAOOOO

Your trolling is so bad. PS selling 80 million while Nintendo sells 150+ million

Your definitely a solely PC player
 

Neversummer

Veteran
27 Jun 2023
1,411
1,407
Luckily for Sony, they still have GTA6 as an ace in the hole.

I do hope it's enough for them to cross the 100m easily.
PS5 will sell 100+ million because people already bought PS5 prior to Sony rampant PC push but with PS6 everyone will know PS push to PC & how long they have to wait + it looks like Xbox will be able to play PS games due to them having a more PC like console if somehow Xbox can get Steam to be open on there hardware PS is dead. You will have better option to play PS games outside PS own platform including Xbox, PC, Steamdeck, Rog Ally & likely more hybrid PC to come in the future
 

Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,558
It did have exclusive games tho. Ryse, Forza Horizon 3, Dead Rising 3 etc. to say a few examples. And while MS was pushing more Day 1 post-2016, it was a gradual build-up for the following four years and with most of their PC stuff prior to 2020 being exclusive to their "niche" Windows/Microsoft store (which wasn't as corrosive to the console since it was way smaller than Steam AND Microsoft still owned the Windows Store).

Also of course XBO had good games; Forza Horizon, Halo 5, Cuphead, Ori & Ori 2, TitanFall...even stuff like Ryse and Dead Rising 3 were good and XBO had a better lineup of exclusives early on than PS4. Not to mention, most of the big 3P games that gen still got XBO ports, and it got certain big Japanese 3P versions Day 1 like Final Fantasy XV.

This idea that Day 1 PC was the sole or single-largest reason for Xbox's console decline, or something that was in effect at a wide scale for all of its latter life when they only started doing it for all games AND putting their games on Steam in 2020, is nonsensical. If anything, I'd say Xbox Series are finally showing the market collapse of, among other things, Day 1 on a competing PC platform like Steam for all games, which coincidentally went into effect right before the new generation launched.

...........

As for the OP...I agree. In terms of the sales outlook, not that PlayStation would die with "only" 70/80 million lifetime sales though. They would manage with that.

With the current strategy, Sony will probably "only" get around 80 - 90 million in lifetime sales. Which actually isn't that bad, but it also assumes they still keep getting big 3P exclusives (feels less and less of a pursuable strategy at least the way they've done it with games like FF VII Remake or the such), their 1P maintains high quality across the board, their release schedule doesn't slow down even more, and they get something like a GTA5 next gen (or at least something like a Hogwarts Legacy or Elden Ring EVERY year for the 10th gen, which isn't realistic).

More likely, Sony'll probably push for even shorter stagger windows to PC, maybe even Day 1 for all games. Even if exclusive to their own launcher, that'd probably cut down total console lifetime sales by another 5 million. But if that also extends to Steam? I can definitely see PS6 lifetime sales landing closer to 70 - 80 million. Which again, maybe doesn't look that much worst than 80-90 million, but guess what? The revenue and profits they'd get out of that 70-80 million would be exponentially less than the 80-90 million.

At the pace things are going, it's very likely Xbox Series will struggle to hit 40 - 45 million lifetime and that is with their gen going through to 2027. Considering the PS4/XBO gen was roughly 2:1 in favor of PlayStation, if SIE go down the same path as Microsoft, I can see 70 - 80 million PS6 lifetime as realistic.
It takes time for people to adapt, at one point not only did I consider Xbox but I owned one, the moment their games started to be ported to PC I knew I would never buy or advise anyone to buy an Xbox ever again.

The combination of Gamepass + PC ports was just brutal to their console business and PlayStation Plus + PC ports is not that far removed from that.

Regardless if it's cause by PC port or not, Sony is also dealing with an unprecedented lack of production from their internal studios now, something most other publishers had to deal with last gen while Sony somehow was able to avoid due to how focused their teams were on delivering high quality games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arvfab

Danja

Veteran
Icon Extra
10 Mar 2023
5,974
5,702
100 million is already set.

The question is it reach 130 million like PS4?
The PS4 didn't even make it to 120 million and unless something significantly changes next year, yes I see the PS5 struggling to get to 100 million
 
  • haha
Reactions: Hezekiah

Box

May contain Snake
6 Apr 2023
3,500
3,759
Most gamers still prefer console games, Steam at most has like a 100 million users in total. It's not even that much
 

ApolloHelios

Well-known member
2 Jul 2022
406
482
I will always play Sony first party games on their newest hardware no matter what. Be it Pro or next gen. I'll upgrade to PS5 Pro when it comes out just like I did last gen.

I won't ever be waiting 2 years for them to port them to PC even though I have a great rig with RTX 4080. I might double dip for a second playthrough on Ultra settings but not for every game. In fact come to think of it, it was always games with immense Ray Tracing improvements like Control and CP2077 that I have double dipped, and there's no Sony game I bought second time on PC.

And next batch of Sony first party games are about to drop in steady stream starting next year, or perhaps sooner for smaller scale games or MP games like Astro or Concord respectively, so I have no worry at all.
In the meantime, I'm starting on a backlog of best VR2 games since I picked up one recently.

You guys are like a broken record on the subject of PC releases. It's another revenue stream once the first party single player game sales plateau in the second year. It's also another huge revenue stream for MP games when it's day 1 like HD2 recently.
 

Hezekiah

Veteran
23 Jul 2022
1,353
1,352
they will, they're already failing, PS5 is not being able to surpass the PS4 despite avaliability, if the console sells 40M less (80M) the games won't sell 10 - 20M units, so it will become unviable to make games like Spiderman 2 that cost 300M dollars, they need 100M+ and even with 100M+ they have the risk of not being able to produce these games if the budgets keep increasing to 400/500M in the next generation, singleplayer games as we know will cease to exist if that's the case.
This has been covered a ton already. PS5 has had a price increase, never mind a price cut. And by all accounts it's only fractionally behind PS4.

As for game budgets, it's noticeable how quickly people jump to Spiderman 2 because it's almost certainly the most expensive game due to the Marvel licensing.

Similarly lots of people don't want a gaming PC, and the associated cost and (relative) complexity compared to a console. Plus not everybody would be happy waiting an extended period for non-live service games.

This is just more sensationalist, reactive bullshit presented in the form of a thread.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Etifilio

Etifilio

Slyper
27 Jun 2023
1,752
2,229
This has been covered a ton already. PS5 has had a price increase, never mind a price cut. And by all accounts it's only fractionally behind PS4.

As for game budgets, it's noticeable how quickly jump to Spiderman 2 because it's almost certainly the most expensive game due to the Marvel licensing.

Similarly lots of people don't want a gaming PC, and the associated cost and (relative) complexity compared to a console. Plus not everybody would be happy waiting an extended period for non-live service games.

This is just more sensationalist, reactive bullshit presented in the form of a thread.
ok, what if moving forward they can't lower the price to 299 anymore? what will be the biggest reason people will purchase the box if not exclusives?
 

Hezekiah

Veteran
23 Jul 2022
1,353
1,352
they won't have GTA 7 in the next generation, they're lucky if they sell 80M
This is the sort of shite I'm referring to. Belongs on ResetEra.
ok, what if moving forward they can't lower the price to 299 anymore? what will be the biggest reason people will purchase the box if not exclusives?
That will always be option, the question is what level of margin they want to accept. Of course this thread is purely focused on unit sales so including that in any analysis takes a back seat....
 

Syndr0mePK

Active member
10 Jan 2024
143
107
one of the main reasons, if not the main, and Steam Deck is a console, PS games are now playable on a variety of different hardware, i can already see the next Xbox being able to play PlayStation games
Really? PS games on Xbox? That would surely dent the brand.
 

arvfab

Slayer of Colossi
23 Jun 2022
3,064
4,252
Thats because PS customers don't buy that many games. Little over 8 per generation, which is 1 per year on average.

Yet PlayStation consoles have some of the highest attach rates in the industry (until now). Does it mean every other console is even more of a "failure" in this regard?

How comes Nintendo, with a Switch attach rate lower than PS4, doesn't need to port their games to PC (and is in fact actively stopping all ways to do it illegally)?

Oh and by the way, SEGA historically has the highest attach rate as a console manufacturer, how did that help them?

Yet Sony is looking for that money, any money. They are so desperate they don't even bother to put denuvo in their single player ports.

You are confusing words. Stupidity doesn't equal desperation.


I won't ever be waiting 2 years for them to port them to PC

If they don't reduce the time between PlayStation release and PC port. And with how the quality of their games has dropped due to the PC initiative, buying them once they are fixed/feature complete shortens the timeframe even more.