Tom Warren thinks PC ports of PS5 exclusives will release a lot faster after Spider-Man 2
- Thread starter R4tion4l Sk3pt1c
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It's just a matter of time until Sony's games are day one and wasn't Spider Man 3 confirmed to be day one on PC in the Insomniac hack/leak a year ago? I don't know why so many people believed that Microsoft was going to increase their ports to PlayStation despite being a $3T dollar company yet somehow want to believe that the company that's worth around $100B is either going to stop doing PC ports or slow it down to a snail's pace. It makes no sense.
But whatever. It is what it is and I still play Sony's games on PlayStation 5 day one and even if PC got the game first for whatever reason, I would still be playing it on PlayStation 5 because that's where I want to play their games.
My one wish in my heart of hearts is that as more of their games become available on PC, they spend a bit more time working on the PC optimization. I certainly appreciate how hard it must be to develop for the virtually infinite variety of hardware combinations you can have with a PC, but I'd still like to get to a world where there's a bit more stability across platforms.
This is just an example of their short term gain strategy of selling as many copies, opposed to nurturing their eco system for the future.
Why does it matter… truly? From a consumers standpoint this has no impact on you. So tired of you guys fixating on some damn PC ports.
The same leaks also showed a roadmap for several Spider-Man 2 DLCs. They are and will remain leaks. But I would be surprised if Spider-Man 3 comes out on PC Day 1, because it would have to come out around the PS6 launch, which would take away a reason to buy the PS6. And that is also the difference between Sony and MS, which some still don't understand or don't want to understand. MS is a company that develops software and afaik has not been successful with any hardware in the long term. Sony is a company that primarily manufactures hardware. While MS probably doesn't care where the new Doom is bought, Sony is of course interested in selling its own titles in its own ecosystem. If the big exclusives all come out on Day 1 for PC, some won't buy a PS5 or PS6.
Some believe that only a few players will switch, but they forget that some PC players also bought a PS5 in 2020 to play titles like DeS Remake. Even if only 5% of current PS5 users switch, that would be almost 3 million users. If 50% of them are PS+ subscribers or invest $200 annually in service games, Sony is already losing sales in the millions. Let's then assume that a multiplatform Spider-Man 3 sells 10 million copies in a week, 50% on PS and 50% on PC. Of the 5 million PC sales, Sony doesn't get 100% but only 70%. The PC version is probably cheaper thanks to key sellers or isn't bought at all. Pirated copies aren't a problem on the PS5 afaik.
These are all factors that don't apply to MS, as they make money with every PC that runs Windows anyway and MS was never perceived as a console manufacturer. Day 1 PS games on PC are a big risk because nobody knows whether some people will buy a PS6 that costs at least $600 or would rather buy a cheap mid-range PC that also runs games like Fortnite. The PS5 isn't currently breaking any global sales records, on the contrary, global sales figures are now well behind those of the PS4 in the same period. There can be many reasons for this, one of which is certainly that PC gamers don't need a PS5 to play Playstation games. A Day 1 strategy doesn't work given the latest sales figures for ports. Even if Sony offers its own PC store or app, PC gamers will boycott them even more than games that require a PSN account to be linked.
MS didn't port the exclusive titles to PC or competing consoles back then or currently because they were successful, but because the sales figures for the console and games weren't good. So as long as Sony and Nintendo are successful with their current strategy, it would be an incalculable risk to change the strategy and torpedo their current success. And Sony currently makes most of its revenue not from selling its own games, but from third-party games that don't cost a cent to develop and MTX in various service/F2P/Gacha games. And these are all games that are available on multiple platforms, or all of them are available on PC. Sony therefore needs good arguments to sell its own console, and the power argument alone doesn't work, as can be seen with the Xbox Series X. The PS6 can be as good as it wants and PSSR 2.0 can be better, but if everything except Nintendo games can be officially played on the PC, many people won't need a console anymore.
I could of course be wrong in my assessment, but what happens if I'm right and PC ports on day 1 lead to a decline in console sales and revenue? Of course, the first thing that will happen is developers will be laid off and studios will close, which will have a long-term impact on the quality of the games, which can be seen clearly on Xbox. There are also rumors that Sony and Apple may enter into a partnership and Sony will only port the titles to Mac and mobile Apple platforms and then drop the PC. I have no idea if there is any truth to that, but I can't imagine that Sony wants to make PCs, Windows and Steam even more successful with day 1 PC ports and weaken itself in the process. Since 2016, Sony has repeatedly said that the PC is its main competitor; an interesting strategy would be to further strengthen the competitor and weaken its own platform.
I agree with this. I'm expecting Sony to hire more people as they get closer to being day one on PC in order to ensure that the game is ready on PC and PlayStation.
I'm expecting all of Sony's published games to be day one on PC by the time PlayStation 6 releases including Spider Man 3. I know some believe that less people would buy a PlayStation 6 but would they when let's say for argument sake, PS6 is $800 at launch. To get a really good PC in 2028, you're looking at spending at least $3000 minimum. In my mind, if you're going to PC, you're going for the best that you can get because anything less than that defeats the point of going to PC in the first place in my opinion.
The difference is that selling the game on PC day one at a 70% cut would still give Sony more revenue because you're adding another platform with as of this past June, has 132m monthly active users and while obviously, not all 132m will buy the game, there's more people that would buy the game on PC than there would be PC gamers buying a PlayStation 6 to play it. While Sony would lose some money and users on the console side, they would easily make it up and then some on PC because they would gain more than what they would lose. It's why they're on PC to begin with. It's to gain more users because what they have on PlayStation simply isn't enough and they want more.
It's a far bigger risk for Sony to NOT port their games to PC because it's a bigger user install base than what they have for their own and it's consumers that they haven't gone after. Those who are console gamers aren't going to PC because they want the easy streamlined process of playing games which is console. PC also requires more upkeep, more money upfront and more time to setup every game with settings, drivers, etc.
I don't see Sony doing their own store front at all. This would make no sense because first, those on PC want to use Steam and are not going to jump to another store front/launcher. Second, Sony would have to get publishers on board to releasing their games on their store front because if not, it would only be Sony's games and I don't see all that many people using Sony's store front for only their games when they should just put them on Steam and Epic.
Ubisoft just went back to Steam. EA did the same. ABK did the same which was a given since Microsoft owns them but not being on Steam day one is shooting yourself in the foot.
Microsoft didn't port their games to PC mainly because the console tech is different than the PC tech. Now, it's basically all the same tech. Publishers release their games on PC, PlayStation and Xbox at the same time because it's easy to do as all the tech is basically the same.
Sony would still make a lot of money from third party games. Just because Sony releases their games on PC day one doesn't mean that publishers are going to all of a sudden skip PlayStation and most people who are console gamers are going to stay where they're at especially if they have digital collections and whatnot. People aren't going to give all of that up, spend more money on a great PC and then more money buying all the games that they owned on PlayStation.
Sony can sell PlayStation 6 with their brand name, reputation and world wide dominance in of itself. Even if let's say it's $800, the tech you're going to get easily makes it worth the money and those who want the streamlined process will stay there. Add in those that have their digital collections and they're not going anywhere. Plus, im pretty sure Sony has made a deal with AMD so everything from PS4/PS5 should easily carry over. People aren't going to give that up.
Not only that but the main games for both PlayStation and Xbox are third party games and basically all of them are on PC but did people switch to PC? Did those who play 2-3 live service games a year switch to PC? The answer is no and it's for various reasons. The main reason will always be the ease of use and convenience over everything. Spending less and having your collections go with you just adds to it.
Even if it leads to less console sales and revenue, Sony will still get it back and then some on PC. The laying people off can't be used as a valid reason because every company is doing this and it's because they all over hired during Covid thinking that it was going to stay where everyone stays home all the time and that was never going to happen.
While Sony's PC ports have had some issues, their quality overall has been better than what it was on PS4 in the same time frame so this belief simply holds no weight. I have no idea about the Apple stuff. Steam is huge on PC and going with Apple and being exclusive to Mac would be a dumb ass decision in my opinion. If it's to release their games on Mac in addition to PC, then I can see it.
Like Microsoft, what Sony says and what they do are usually two very different things. PC is a competitor but it's a high end high cost competitor that requires a lot more money, time and effort put into it than gaming on a console does which majority of people who are comfortable on consoles are simply going to stay where they're at.
It truly doesn't matter. People just want to keep their toys to themselves. Only problem is that it's not their toys. It's Sony's toys and Sony is going to do what they want.
"But how does this affect you personally, chud?"
Reddit-tier handwaving take if ever I saw it.
Some people are able to see past the end of their nose and know this will end up tanking playstation.
If Sony were to exit the hardware market, would you continue to buy games they publish, if they chose to remain in the gaming space?
are there Sega fans that stopped buying Sega games after the dreamcast died?
Maybe. While I had a Dreamcast growing up, I wasn't really cognizant enough of the "gaming industry" to have any sort of awareness of how it effected fans of the hardware, when they exited the market.
Conceptually, the existence of games like Sonic, Yakuza, Persona, Metaphor suggest to me that a hardware manufacturer can continue to exist as a successful games publisher.
I'd have to do some research, if any data is available from that time period, to have a more definitive answer.
Haven't you heard? It doesn't matter to Sony if people don't upgrade
From a consumer standpoint, we are already seeing the consequences:
Fewer games, more buggy releases.
And this is without thinking of long-term damages.
Anybody saying developing for multiple platforms has no impact, has never written a line of code.
What makes you think that PlayStation without console would be able to make games of the same quality as now, if at all?
I don't buy their games now and haven't for a while. I'll wait until the PS5+PSVR2 is £499 in a bundle before I dip back into the ecosystem.
The silliness of this thread is something to behold.
"What!? PlayStation will port Spider-Man 2, 18 months after its PS5 release? It's over, PlayStation will stop making consoles."
"What!? PlayStation will port Spider-Man 2, 18 months after its PS5 release? It's over, PlayStation will stop making consoles."
