I don't get why you keep lying. No, the window isn't shrinking.
The trend always has been that the PC ports of the AAA Sony games that we started to see in 2020 get released around 2 years or more after its original PS release. Being Predator the exception, but it's a AA 2nd party game.
That's the trend right now. But in light of missing their PC revenue forecast, Sony could take one of two lessons:
Right Lesson: Increase the window for traditional AAA ports to PC (4-5 years, basically within a year or so of a new sequel's console-exclusive launch), keep the 2-year or shorter window for GaaS/live-service games that get ported. Some GaaS/live-service games being Day 1 between PS5 and PC (Sony still has to address the free online vs. paid online dilemma).
Wrong Lesson: Push for sub-2 year windows for traditional AAA ports to PC, Day 1 ports for certain games.
If we sort by PC port release date looks like this:
2015/12/07 Helldivers: day one
2016/04/14 Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: 8 months
2018/02/05 Guns Up: 2 years (+/- 1 month)
These were either non-AAA games or GaaS/live-service titles. I'm not talking about those when it comes to the window getting shorter.
...
2020/08/07 Horizon: 3 years and a half
2021/05/18 Days Gone: 2 years (+/- 1 month)
2021/04/29 Predator Hunting Grounds: 1 year
2022/01/14 GoW: almost 4 years
2022/08/12 Spider-Man: 4 years
2022/10/19 Uncharted 4: 6 years and a half
2022/10/19 Uncharted Lost Legacy: 5 years and a couple months
2022/10/27 Sackboy A big Adventure: 2 years(+/- 1 month)
2022/11/18 Spider-Man Miles Morales: 2 years (+/- 1 month)
2023/02/15 Returnal: 2 years (+/- 1 month)
2023/03/28 TLOU: on PC 10 years
2023/07/26 Ratchet Rift Apart: 2 years(+/- 1 month)
Games like Horizon ZD, GoW 2018, Spiderman, and especially Uncharted 4 released either well before Sony ramped up significantly on the PC porting initiative, or released before a cadence of porting patterns began to show itself. When Spiderman 2 launches, you will already have some people expecting a PC port by mid 2025, or maybe even late 2024.
Why? Because a pattern has already been shown of the window getting smaller, not larger or staying at the gap it was when, say, Uncharted 4 released. I know Jim Ryan has said the window would stay at something "at least 2 years if not longer", but anything can change. I mean none of us were expecting PS+ prices to go up by 33% with only a week's notice, but that happened just recently :/
I have no idea how long it will continue to be 2+ years, but Hermen said they are happy with it.
People say a lot of things, but suddenly Sony may not be happy with it for whatever reason, and decide to shorten that window. Which IMO would be a big mistake.
There is already the problem of creating the expectation now due to a cadence formed in a pattern of releases getting ported. If they had at least stuck with a 4-5 year window like with Uncharted 4, I feel that'd of struck the best balance of prioritizing and respecting the enthusiasts on the console side, and giving enough time to add substantial upgrades for a PC port, maybe a preview of the sequel, and having the sequel ready for the console within a year or two's time.
Numbers say there's no dangerous signs at all: PS5 hardware and softare sales, plus 1P sales on PS5 continue being more than great and there's absolutely nothing that lead to thing that PC ports may have any negative effect on PS. On the opposite, PC keeps getting them extra revenue and profit plus allows them reach new fans.
PS5 hardware sales missed their recent fiscal projections. That could be due to any number of reasons but the fact remains, they missed them. Did they plan to miss them, or project they had a good chance of missing them but made the shot for that target anyway? Most likely.
But, if some of the revenue targets are missed going forward, and we see in specific areas where they come up short, after a couple years or so we can start to figure if things like the PC strategy (or the seemingly out-of-nowhere massive price increases of certain features on the console side) have anything to do with that.
PS5 only sequels -sometimes of games ported to PC- like GoWR, HFW or GT7 got record sales numbers for the studios who made them.
We haven't gotten a sales update for any of those games, FWIW. Not that such means anything bad in and of itself, but the last numbers for GT7 for example, we had to extrapolate from other data.
What I'm more worried about is if Sony's change in subscription reporting (dropping MAU numbers) spills over to the software. Where we only get software revenue figures, instead of that and unit sales. Or that we only get unit sales counts from the launch and nothing thereafter.
It'd be obfuscation creep and the only reason companies do it, seems to me, is to find the easiest areas to continue giving impression of massive growth to shareholders while not reporting areas where numbers show growth has slowed, stagnated, or regressed.
Sony SP games won't be released day one on PC, nothing leads to think it would be the case. In fact, several Sony GaaS and SP games will never be released on PC.
If you're talking about GaaS like Dreams, then yeah no duh those won't get a port. Even when I think they arguably should have, because those games have reached EOL support on console (at least in terms of new updates).
But, you keep saying SP/traditional games won't get Day 1 PC ports, were you so confident years ago to say they wouldn't be getting ports at all? See, I'm of the camp where I wouldn't write it off as happening, but IF it happens, Sony at least have an avenue to maybe make it work to their best benefit.
And that would be to have their own launcher & storefront on PC, where Day 1 is for said launcher/storefront, that provides some free ad-supported subscription tier but also has Essential/Extra/Premium-equivalent tiers with worthwhile features to them, and an option for linked sub accounts between PC and console for those with subs on both. That's the general idea; anything less than that which'd still net Day 1 for non-GaaS/live-service games is just Sony screwing themselves up their own ass.
The only change will be that Sony will make more money. Sony won't release all their games on PC day one and Sony won't put all their games day one on a subscription. Forget it.
This is literally one of the optimal scenarios (at least to mitigate any heavy losses) from Sony I've been bringing up here and there for months now. Is it the absolute preferred option? As someone who may prefer having maximum valuation to the console for justification that way, no it's not. But it at least still keeps vertical integration in Sony's own (expanded) ecosystem as much as possible.
Most investors would kill for getting almost half a billion in yearly revenue in 4 years, or to get a 133% CAGR from their investments. PC is a great business for Sony.
These are projections and you keep ignoring that Sony fell short of their FY '22 PC revenue fiscal targets :/
As proven above these "shorter and shorter windows" are a fantasy, they don't exist.
You didn't prove anything above in that respect :S
All AAA SP Sony games that get ported to PC (not all of them get ported) are released on PC around 2 years or more after their original PS release.
I feel like you are getting a tad repetitious when you keep bringing this up.
AI is only another one of many other gamedev tools/techs that will help devs. I doesn't do magic, it only helps a little in some areas. People is getting too dramatic regarding AI because they have no idea about its real current usage and potential and the amount of work it needs to properly use it.
It's also a fact that no one has actually developed a development pipeline maximized around (smart and ethical) AI implementation. So, you can't actually say how valuable or invaluable as a resource boost to game creation it can be until companies start doing that, and it's still very early days in that regard.
Actual
. That's cope.
and has no important competition in the portables market and even inside their own console. Their games keep getting good sales numbers during year because there's only a few big selling games released on their console and since their users don't see good new releases they go to buy older good games even if overpriced.
You do realize many people with a Switch also have a PlayStation or PC, right? So, their buying habits aren't just focused on Switch games; their budget is spread about between two or three systems any given year. Meaning Nintendo's games still have to compete for their dollar against Sony's, against Ubisoft's, against Capcom's, against EA's, so on and so forth.
And Nintendo's price retention strategy is one Sony should have probably taken a page from on the console side, if they don't want situations where people feel they can just wait for a big price drop to finally buy the game later. If the price is known to stay the same months or a year later as at launch, then they're more likely to just buy it at launch.
And, Sony could one-up Nintendo (and Microsoft) in that department by making a monthly installment program for new releases. Let people spread out the payment over the course of some months or a year, but still get the game Day 1 in full as normal. The industry will probably have to eventually move to this model as an option anyway, Sony are arguably in the best position to kick it off.
@Killer_Sakoman adds further on this in terms of how it could be done effectively.
Sony makes much more expensive AAA games. The budget AAA games skyrocket every generation, but they compete against a lot of AAA publishers even inside their own console. There's a shit ton of great releases on PS every year, so they have to compete with prices. Even more in PC, where there are way more games. The only alternative has been release DLC/GaaS stuff and PC ports, plus to raise a bit the price of the games.
But that price increase had more to do with the price of the games not being rised to match inflation or budget increases during decades in gaming more than with Sony particularly.
All the more reason for an implementation of a solution as an option mentioned right above