The console market is in total stagnation, it's not growing and it hasn't been for a long time. If you look at the last three generations it's just been roughly the same people migrating around between different platforms.
With the cost of development, the amount of time it takes to develop games, no real growth and a flatlined market there's no potential for verticality. That's why they're bridging out into PC, and it's going to take time.
There's potential for millions upon millions of more sales for them, and some people may migrate, that's going to happen. However the cost of these people migrating would be incredibly offset by the amount of people they can potentially reach with PC in the fray if they start doing things right.
They need to cut down on time to release for PC, they need to release older games as it makes sense and not place them next to juggernaut new releases. They need to not charge $50-$60 for years old games and expect it to be embraced.
The PC community is timid, without steadfast dedication like Microsoft is now doing these games will not be embraced. PC people need to be included in the hype as well, they need to be involved in the release window so there's excitement. You can't just dump games on a platform with no real advertisement or buildup and expect it to lead to the masses.
They need to actually enter the room, not just have a foot in the doorway.
My opinion is that turning to PC is just a temporary solution, or would have been if better measures were in place. Cost of development, time & labor requirements for development etc. are definitely factors, but I personally don't see migrating everything to PC as being a sound strategy without taking measures to ensure vertical integration is maintained as much as possible, in order to ensure profit margins stay as high as possible among the different devices in the ecosystem.
The ironic thing with the PC strategy in a way is, it's the mobile market that has the biggest growth potential for platform holders, not PC. Just being honest here. If you add in Steam's total user install base to the consoles you don't get anything more than what the install base size was between 360, PS3, Wii, and NDS during the 7th gen for example. Maybe you're getting more revenue for the platform itself (Steam), but that's coming from many, MANY games being sold doing so at steep discounts so it's questionable how viable a PC-only strategy is for most publishers and probably suggests why many of them in fact are not PC-only and also support the consoles.
The mobile market is where it's always seemed the real growth for Sony would be in terms of revenue and profits, and also bring less risk of eating into their console model, providing a stronger mobile & portable presence (would be helpful in places like Japan), and enable easy turnaround of new games with smaller legacy IP fitted for mobile & mobile business models that could generate a ton of revenue on its own. Not to mention, still providing actual PlayStation 1P and 3P content playable through mobile devices via cloud (though they would need to bring PS+ to mobile devices and have a tier priced for just cloud game streaming of content).
Here's what my preferable business strategy would have been for PlayStation to grow revenue & profit, if I were in someone like Jim Ryan's shoes. It's a hypothetical, but bear with me:
[HARDWARE]
-Focus on increasing PS5 supply in all markets
-Enable a way to establish cloud streaming of PS5 titles to PS4 devices for those unwilling/able to upgrade
-Develop a fit-to-form mobile series controls dock with PS DualSense-style buttons, analog sticks, haptic triggers for Xperia-line mobile devices
-Develop an Xperia smartphone model with baseline specs roughly on par with PS4 and at large enough volume scale to saturate a potential portable customer base. This device should be provided to potential customers both as part of a targeted mobile data contract plan with various global carrier partners, and a device users can purchase outright at mobile shops and retailer stores if they prefer that option (though obviously, it will cost them quite a bit to do this)
Could be two versions: one with all the features needed for a high-end smartphone device (high-quality MP camera, SIM card slots, mobile OS, dual-boot OS support for mobile-friendly PS4 OS (for playing PS4 games natively), all the expected mobile apps etc.), and another that strips things down to just the required processing hardware, physical input hardware (fit-to-form controls dock), mobile-friendly PS4 OS and necessary storage, dropping the high-quality camera, SIM card slots, mobile OS and apps etc. and maybe a lower-resolution screen priced at $399 - $499 that can sell at the more traditional model with a decent profit margin on the hardware.
-Expand into PC with monitors, keyboards, mouses, headsets etc. targeting various PC gamers but also being compatible with PS consoles, and enable DualSense & PSVR2 hardware compatibility on PC platforms
[SERVICES]
[CONSOLE]
-Revamp PS+ by integrating PS Now into it
-Keep PS Now around and integrate some PS+ features into it, but raise the price (this would be for mobile side primarily)
-Bring better value to some of the tiers (PS+ Premium in particular; real emphases on Trails for new AAA releases at time of release or even 2 weeks - 1 month ahead of release for example)
[MOBILE]
-Bring PS+ to mobile devices via cloud streaming option (basically revamped PS Now with PS+ features and compatibility across mobile & PS consoles)
-Port PS4 OS to mobile devices (even if just Sony's own mobile devices) with QoL and UI tweaks for mobile users. This would be for enabling native play of PS4 games at PS4 specifications on qualifying mobile devices
-Establish a gaming-centric mobile plan with a network of carriers globally to tie a plan with an Xperia phone (at PS4-level of performance) & fit-to-form controller dock made available to users at a monthly rate. Throw in tiers for this plan: base tier just provides the carrier service & hardware for one rate, another tier throws in PS+ (cloud streaming option) at an additional cost, the third tier throws in PS+ Extra or Premium for both console & mobile.
Work out a good plan rate (i.e Tier 1 = $59.99/month or something like that), market it as a serious mobile/portable option for gamers also providing native play of PS4 games at base PS4 spec, Remote Play streaming for PS5 games, etc.
[PC]
-Keep a PS+ tier option on PC focused on cloud streaming access to that platform (similar to on mobile devices)
[SOFTWARE]
[CONSOLE]
-Keep non live-service marquee 1P games on the console exclusively up until time for a sequel release, in which case consider having a PC version of the previous version release within a year of the new installment on console
-Non marquee 1P games (remakes or small-ish scale new installments utilizing legacy IP i.e Mark of Kri, Mr. Mosquito, Tomba! etc.) can be developed with mobile in mind WRT specifications, cross-gen, PC & mobile native releases with more liberal stagger timings compared to the marquee 1P (i.e GoW, GoT, Spiderman etc.) type of games
[MOBILE]
-Bedrock for cost-effective AA-style ($5 - $10 million average budget, some maybe slightly more a few potentially less) games with mobile-friendly business models also adaptable (& adjustable) to console business models, leveraging legacy IP smaller-scale IP (i.e Tomba, Mr. Mosquito, Patapon, Tearaway, Puppeteer, Echochrome etc).
-On the console side, some of these games could be used to push PS+ adoption by releasing them into the service.
-Pricing for non-F2P games of this type on console & PC should be fair and stay within $30 - $40 MSRP range; most won't need physical retail copies anyway.
-Shared ecosystem between mobile, console, & PC players (i.e DLC & MTX not platform-specific purchased on one platform should be usable on all platforms that have the game, MP should be shared between platform (with option to opt-out by the user but provide ecosystem rewards/incentives for those who enable cross-platform MP anyway)
[PC]
-Establish a clear cadence for non live-service software ports to PC: ports will arrive within a year of new installments of that IP on the console
-Ensure that console versions of games getting PC ports with large QoL and visual/framerate benefits over the console releases, are able to get those upgrades for their copy of the game at a nominal to free charge as long as there is record of them having purchased the console version by a certain date (which would ensure they have already paid at least a specific price for that console version anyway)
-Establish Day 1 PC versions of various live-service games
-Tie in bonus in-game content incentives for users buying the PC ports of non live-service games that can apply to new installments of those games in IP coming to console. This can incentivize PC users to pick the game on that platform, jump in sooner on the sequel on the console, console users to pick up the PC version (double-dip) and feel comfortable knowing the game will be only on the console for a few years therefore driving vast majority of purchases to that platform (where Sony gets the most revenue and biggest profit margins)
-PC ports of non live-service 1P marquee titles coming years later should be fairly priced: $30 to $40 depending on the title, with a potential discount for PS+ subscribers with registered copies of the PS version who double-dip on the PC release
Now, that's roughly MY ideal strategy for the division if I were running it. It's a general outline so to speak, and yes Sony have actually done some of these things but definitely not others and some in particular seem there are no plans for them to do. If it were up to me, expansion of revenue & profit margins would come mainly from focusing on ensuring primary catering to the console audience, and pushing mobile growth over PC growth but utilizing live-service games (both F2P and non-F2P) as a means of providing Day 1 gaming content across all three platforms.
You still get the big growth you're looking for, but each category segment is more neatly in its own lane, meaning management of them (from hardware and software production, to marketing to PR communication, to the optics, to stabilizing the revenue streams etc.) is more robust and easier to keep track of. We also have a generally good idea of what types of software people on these device types like, so organizing the content flow around that (I don't think Sony need to "test" a lot of this with the way they're currently doing PC ports; data on how something like Sackboy would've performed for example has already been plenty available on Steam through other releases going back years) can be done relatively easily.
Like I said though, Sony have already chosen a somewhat different approach that is putting a lot of emphasis on PC in particular; if that eventually gets realized further through something like their own launcher & storefront on PC, that's something which can help maintain vertical integration stability on their end and still satisfy all sides more or less. If that's not a part of the plans, then I do seriously start to wonder what some of the longer-term impacts could be. I know people like to say that the strategy to effectively blur console & PC to be nearly indistinguishable has worked for MS, but how much of that revenue growth has come from 1P sales that weren't the result of buying out 3P publishers like Zenimax (and adding their revenue to Xbox's)? How much of that revenue growth has come from 3P sales on the platform (software, MTX, DLC) and how does that compare to 3P sales on the platform prior to the big PC push/Day 1 on PC? How of that 3P sales revenue growth is from selling to more people vs. increasing the prices for higher ARPU (yes I know this is what Sony are doing with PS+ but that's just a subscription service to host gaming content, not the actual gaming content itself)?
We never got those numbers or breakdowns because Microsoft constant obfuscate them, and I doubt Sony got those either so there isn't a lot of prior data they could have leveraged to go for this strategy of aggressive expansion into the PC market
the particular way they seem to be going about it without making some educated guesses or just turning to 3P sub services and going from there (but they aren't platform holders so the worth of the data isn't 1:1 the same). Those are ultimately the reason why I personally would've taking the expansion into that market with a different approach, but hey, I'm not Jim Ryan and he's got Sony/PS data and connections I obviously don't, so there's always that in this as well.