Most do not. Most interpret concurrent as total users. And then they run with it…
With Starfield’s newest peak that also most likely indicates a greater peak on both Xbox and windows gamepass player pools. Most likely surpassing the previous one million across all platforms. In this instance there might be more players on windows than steam due to gamepass. It’s not like pc users need to switch hardware.
Well here's the problem: since Microsoft provides ZERO numbers, only vague statements, and usually with no stated methodology to whatever metric is being used to provide a given data point. So as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft's statements in terms of player counts are worthless. It's not like investors & shareholders care; Game Pass means absolutely nothing to Microsoft's bottom line and is a non-critical part of the company.
So long as no perceptible downfalls in the important parts of the company occur which could be tied to the service, Microsoft can give any data point with any metric using any methodology and most won't bat an eye.
Another bad interpretation is the assumption that late PlayStation ports like god of war don’t do well on pc. Concurrent means far less for single-player games and you can’t gauge total users from it since it’s players on at that very moment or window of time. Single player narrative driven games just take less hours to complete etc… bigger RPGs like Elden ring, bg3 and Starfield accumulate many hours and player overlap just due to the timesink aspects.
Agreed. Though I think it also suggests that a good portion of the concurrent at any one time, are the same people from previous sessions. Combined with information on how MS counts players as mentioned by
@Old Gamer , that could suggest a game like Starfield has a high percentage of customers who are very active with the game, but that total sales or unique players volume is smaller than certain other major releases this year.
God of War has a bigger concurrent than Halo Infinite right now for instance. This indicates consistent sales and new players. These releases on pc are for the most part easy money. This also speaks volumes to how big of a flop infinite is when its seasonal model can’t compete with with a ps4 game from 2018.
No complaints here. But one thing with GOW to keep in mind, it was both a rather big window between PlayStation and PC releases (~ 4 years), but the port for 2018 coincided within ~ 10 months of the sequel, Ragnarok, releasing on PS4 & PS5.
It's a game that perfectly fits all preferred timing criteria for 1P AAA traditional releases between console and PC IMHO. I know Sony will be porting more such games to PC; without their own storefront and launcher on PC to push, this type of approach as demonstrated by GOW 2018 would be the best one to take, to maximize revenue across both streams and not break the knees of console sales early on.
A problem IMO, that we've seen potentially manifest with FF XVI in terms of perhaps less-than-expected PS5 sales because they were already advertising a PC port in the fine print for commercials well before the initial version launched. Whether or not the PC version releases January 2024 isn't important; the fact that was put out there from the jump by Square-Enix in the PS5 marketing was incredibly stupid and muted sales impact of the game on PS5 to some degree.
And that is all 100% on Square-Enix.