With Xbox dead and Nintendo relegated, is Sony going after Steam next?

[Gods&Monsters]

Steam more so, because there's a larger degree of audience crossover with PlayStation (and Xbox, hence why MS's support of Steam is part of the reason for Xbox's console decline).

The effect on Xbox was not instant, it took years to notice the decline and they never recovered. The same will happen to Sony.

The numbers look good now but by the end of the gen it will slow down a lot faster and it will be too late to get back these customers.

They missed their target by 4 millions or more this year and that's with SM2, Helldivers, FF7, Ronin and Xbox games. There's already a sudden slowdown they were not expecting.

Many customers are wondering why bother getting a PS5 if all the games are getting announced on PC one after the other? Same interface, trophies and dualsense integration.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

The effect on Xbox was not instant, it took years to notice the decline and they never recovered. The same will happen to Sony.

The numbers look good now but by the end of the gen it will slow down a lot faster and it will be too late to get back these customers.

They missed their target by 4 millions or more this year and that's with SM2, Helldivers, FF7, Ronin and Xbox games. There's already a sudden slowdown they were not expecting.

Many customers are wondering why bother getting a PS5 if all the games are getting announced on PC one after the other? Same interface, trophies and dualsense integration.

Well about the FY target: I do think they might've gotten close to the 25 million target, but not without big pricing sales promos and basically taking losses on hardware in big markets they didn't want to do that in. And the PC revenue this FY might look good but that'll be almost 100% off the back of Helldivers 2, where a percentage of the PC sales were lateral sales transfer from would've-been PS5 buyers of the game. So in that percentage (whatever it is), Sony got less money than they would've gotten otherwise.

But yeah, to everything else...it would take a while for the negatives of the porting strategy to kick in longer-term. Though I think it would take less time to do so with PlayStation than Xbox, because we'd already know the signs to watch for from Xbox doing so and weary players sensing PlayStation taking the same path could "jump out" earlier than those who did with Xbox. PlayStation also doesn't have a cult of personality public CEO like Phil Spencer to goad the sheep along a fairytale. Phil may've made a metric ton of mistakes with Xbox but his persona also probably prevented a total collapse of fandom from the brand setting in sooner than it otherwise would have.

SIE doesn't have that type of benefit since they have no similar public-facing figurehead who engages with the community and media as often as Phil does. There are people on places like ResetERA who literally think he is their friend, refer to him on a first-name basis and think he is directly responsible for every single action that transpires at Xbox & thinks he's "doing them a solid" the way an actual buddy would. It's parasocial programming to a disturbing degree, but it exists with Phil Spencer.

Again, I still have some hope that internally plans have been adjusted regarding any multiplatform approach. How those plans should have preferably been adjusted, I already talked about at-length in a massive thread here specifically on Sony/SIE & PlayStation. Question is do I have faith they have made those adjustments or at least a substantive number of them? At this point, I have heavy doubts to it. I'd say there's one in five odds they have, and as the year goes on that'd just drop more steeply until they start signaling such changes have been made and will be enforced going forward.

 

[Yurinka]

The effect on Xbox was not instant, it took years to notice the decline and they never recovered. The same will happen to Sony.

The numbers look good now but by the end of the gen it will slow down a lot faster and it will be too late to get back these customers.

Many customers are wondering why bother getting a PS5 if all the games are getting announced on PC one after the other? Same interface, trophies and dualsense integration.

Xbox has been in decline since the 360 days for many reasons, and not because having their games on PC. It's a mixture of having worse and less exclusives than the others, having not some but all their games on a game sub and PC DAY one, having way less support regarding 3rd party multiplatform games (like titles available in PS and Nintendo but not Xbox) etc.

PS5 hardware sales will decline this year because as happens in all consoles, after its peak year it gradually will sell less units per year until it gets discontinued around 11-12 years after release (2031-2032).

PS5 will continue breaking records as usual, and its software/addon/game sub sales will continue growing. Plus they'll continue breaking thier PC/off-console revenue and profits records (and same for SIE). Things like the library that users built on PS, great and exciting games released on PS that won't be available on PC -at least for a couple years-, and well, people simply prefering to play on console due to preferences (like playing in the sofa/tv, cheaper hardware, more plug and play experience, etc).

A small portion of players may move to PC, but would be more than compensated by new players who would move to PS thanks to getting new fans via PC ports, movie/tv show adaptations and different Asia focused strategies like parterships with many top or indie Asian companies, which will also provide more exclusivities with a new flavor (case of Stellar Blade or ZZZ).

They missed their target by 4 millions or more this year and that's with SM2, Helldivers, FF7, Ronin and Xbox games. There's already a sudden slowdown they were not expecting.

They missed their hardware target in the previous year, before Helldivers, FF7, Ronin and Xbox games were released. And not because they had bad sales (they had their best Q3), it was because their target for the holiday having only Spìder-Man 2 as big top seller exclusive that quarter/year was too optimistic.

Even if missed their target number in hardware units, they still did perform great in hardware and kept breaking records in the other areas, like revenue in all parts, active userbase, etc. Once they complete paying coss of previous acquisitions, and release more PC stuff, unless the hardware components costs get pretty wong, they'll go back to break records with profitability too soon.

 

[KnittedKnight]

Nothing like a good clown to provide a couple laughs.

Anyway... one the main reasons you won't see an instant mass exodus and you should neither expect it nor predict it is very simple: the tyranny of Nvidia's pricing strategy in what is effectively a rule of 2, aka an oligopoly aka a monopoly of 2 for PC graphics cards. Since that tyranny is bound to continue for several years with no end in sight, the value proposition will continue to favor consoles in an overwhelming fashion - and Sony benefits from that, wherein its new, self-inflicted weaknesses won't be necessarily exploited by market competitors to its full potential extent. The absence of that "full potential exploitation" does not mean that the weakness does not exist, and is not taking its toll both on brand and consumer disposition to stick to the brand... in effect a reshaping of the market dynamics with respect to the product. The Xbox brand took 15 years to get to its current state (with competitors taking advantage (not full) along the way). Begs to reason it will take that many years or more for PlayStation to fully crater (it's a bigger ship), even factoring potential course corrections amid a sudden debacle (drop off). An odd-ball that may speed up the almost assured, but very slow trajectory is Intel with their Arc GPU's - and Intel has at least 2-3 years to go to fully set their feet in this market - also assuming they continue to target the low-range to mid-range market segment, in the process bringing Nvidia down a peg (race to the bottom effect), and successfully and effectively displacing AMD from that market segment, which has comfortably become Nvidia's little partner in crime in pricing strategy, and a nuisance for Intel on the CPU side of the market. The PC hardware market needs a "1060 era" sustained run of sorts again that bridges a couple generations. PC can't solve the simplicity factor, but it can definitely tackle the affordability factor, and exploit vulnerabilities there, and eat away at console market share, namely Sony's PlayStation, as Xbox is almost exhausted. You can also throw a wild odd-ball of Valve entering the console market with a PC-like device, akin to the Steamdeck, in the full absence of MS as a serious player. That could also shake the speed of things and highlight/exploit the vulnerabilities being created. Nintendo gunning for full third party support in some fashion, whether them catering to devs with the hardware or devs going to them due to market facts- on-the-ground if you will can also have an effect (or a bit of both). Bottomline, dilution of product differentiation will always end poorly for a product amidst proper competition - it's basic business fundamentals. Failure to evolve with emergent trends, and lack of vision or poor vision also ends badly amidst proper competition. What is lacking is proper competition, not necessarily the vulnerabilities. Now you can argue that the overall market dynamics will stay exactly as they're today for the next decade+ and so "nothing to worry about" - everyone plays their role, fills their niche, and respects each others turf. That bet obviously goes contrary to history despite there being precedent of periods of predictable and managed competition. To that, well, never underestimate greed.

It's all an equation, full of factors (variables) with coefficients that affect the end result.

The full cratering is least a decade+ away, and so for the short-term foreseeable future your console and library investment is safe, but anyone with brains should know the ground that edifice is standing on is becoming shakier by the day. Until then you will have jokers with narratives pushing make-believe about the nature of hardware competition and product differentiation - some, fully aware, thus, intellectually dishonest clowns - the worst type of clown. Don't for a second believe they're not deliberate and feast of the idiocy that is "benefit of the doubt" - the jokes on you if you believe that.

Talking of dumpster fires, Paramount Global, cause it sure worked for TriStar and Columbia which under Sony Pictures became greater than self..... cough, cough.....

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Xbox has been in decline since the 360 days for many reasons, and not because having their games on PC.

Every topic about Xbox, every forum, articles and comments are saying getting an Xbox is pointless because all the games are elsewhere. When they announced the Xbox ports coming to PS5, it dropped even further but sure, let's believe an Activision cheerleader that wants Sony to go down for "competition"

Xbox started crashing when their games were everywhere. This is the reality and everybody knows it no matter how many times you copy/paste your chatAI replies. It won't change the reality. The more Xbox ports their games the more they become irrelevant. This is why Valve keeps their games, Riot keeps their games, Disney, Netflix, HBO, Nintendo even a fucking clothing store keeps their brands. This is basic shit. It applies to Sony too.

 

[Puff]

I’m kind of curious how Sony will react when Console sales collapse. Sony needs to sell a lot consoles because Sony gets most of there revenue from there. Sony would be absolutely screwed without PlayStation consoles

 

[Gediminas]

I’m kind of curious how Sony will react when Console sales collapse. Sony needs to sell a lot consoles because Sony gets most of there revenue from there. Sony would be absolutely screwed without PlayStation consoles

i hope, they will get reality check sooner than later.

they are at Fuck Around stage - Find Out coming..

 

[Puff]

i hope, they will get reality check sooner than later.

they are at Fuck Around stage - Find Out coming..

The entire Company would collapse. That means no more gifts for Sony Pictures & Sony Music. I can't imagine that they're not aware of this

 

[Airbus]

The entire Company would collapse. That means no more gifts for Sony Pictures & Sony Music. I can't imagine that they're not aware of this

This list shows game are the highest form of entertainment right now....

Back then music are the king...in the 60s, 70s, 90s, 00s it was music..from bob marley, queen, michael jackson, sting, phil collins, rolling stones, backstreet boys, red hot chili pepers, linkin park, will dwarf anything...

 

[Yurinka]

Every topic about Xbox, every forum, articles and comments are saying getting an Xbox is pointless because all the games are elsewhere. When they announced the Xbox ports coming to PS5, it dropped even further but sure, let's believe an Activision cheerleader that wants Sony to go down for "competition"

Xbox started crashing when their games were everywhere. This is the reality and everybody knows it no matter how many times you copy/paste your chatAI replies. It won't change the reality. The more Xbox ports their games the more they become irrelevant. This is why Valve keeps their games, Riot keeps their games, Disney, Netflix, HBO, Nintendo even a fucking clothing store keeps their brands. This is basic shit. It applies to Sony too.

The original Xbox already tanked. 360 had a great start mainly because PS3 was released way later specially in EU, it was too difficult to develop for (specially at the start), it was too expensive and because several some big 3rd party IPs had to go multiplatform due to the generation upgrade causing a huge budget increase plus other PS3 issues, and the online being better at the start of the generation.

Even though, launch PS3 did it better launch aligned, fixed their shit and ended outperforming it in total numbers and kept increasing its distance until today. Several other things like the tvtvtvtv kinect tvtv sports and mismanagement of their teams did put some people away, but yes, obviously having their games day one somewhere else -particularly if day one and also day one under a sub- is anoter reason to don't own/want their console.

I assume the only reason to own Xbox today is liking GP and wanting to play on a console, and/or being a fan of their games and wanting to play them on a console day one. Or hating PS for some reason, because most multiplatform games even perform slightly better on PS, plus has some extra perks like a better streaming, VR, larger and better collection in the game sub, Sony's console exclusives, etc.

The number of Sony's exclusives instead increases every year, even if some of they get ported some time later to PC, and even some GaaS 1st party game will be released day one elsewhere. Because every year they release more exclusives than PC ports of old games.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Nuh, Steam is strong and they shouldn't invest on PC store that could fail miserable.
Also if Xbox officially dies, it will leave a space for someone to jump in. There is a big chance a new competitor will sell 50 million units of their first generation console and build 20+ million subscribers in their services.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Because every year they release more exclusives than PC ports of old games.

Not true and nobody buys a console for 1 game that just came out and nothing else. The back catalog is important too. PS5 will have none besides PS3 streaming

Other platform holders are still keeping their games that came out last decade but you think Sony games have zero value after 1 year. That shit is straight to the trash according to you.

When Switch 2 is announced with backward compatibility and all your games with better graphics, the ejaculation will be fierce while Sony will be compared with PC ports and maybe 1 exclusive (that will get ported in a few months). What a way to lose momentum

 

[Yurinka]

Not true and nobody buys a console for 1 game that just came out and nothing else.

What I said is true. And well, obviously nobody sane would buy a console to play a single game. A single specific game isn't the only reason of why someone buys a console.

But people cares about having games at launch because if not the platform holders wouldn't pay for timed exclusives.

The back catalog is important too.

Yes, and PS5 has a lot of PS1, PS2, PS4, PS5, PSP games not available in PC.

PS5 will have none besides PS3 streaming

In your fantasy world, maybe.

Other platform holders are still keeping their games that came out last decade but you think Sony games have zero value after 1 year.

I didn't say that.

When Switch 2 is announced with backward compatibility and all your games with better graphics, the ejaculation will be fierce while Sony will be compared with PC ports and maybe 1 exclusive (that will get ported in a few months). What a way to lose momentum

PlayStation will continue having a bigger active userbase, generating more revenue and selling more games than Nintendo.

And in a couple years from now, after having released a few very successful GaaS titles more, plus having released more PC ports, and having completed the payments of past acquisitions and maybe also somehow having addressed the components cost rise, SIE will pass Nintendo regarding profits.

I think Switch 2 will have record numbers of the fastest selling console ever in units sold during a year or maybe two but after that quickly will fade out as the PC handheld consoles will eat their market. Pretty likely being one of them from Sony, which in case of being made would be the best selling one among the pc ones.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Nuh, Steam is strong and they shouldn't invest on PC store that could fail miserable.
Also if Xbox officially dies, it will leave a space for someone to jump in. There is a big chance a new competitor will sell 50 million units of their first generation console and build 20+ million subscribers in their services.

Yeah man, no one should try to even compete with Steam, which earns peanuts compared to PlayStation, but there's a big chance of someone entering the console market vs Sony, who averages 100m consoles sold per gen and is ripe for the taking. Big chance. Huge!

Honest to god what Valve fanboys have done to discourse is irredeemable.

 

[Hezekiah]

Sony can’t compete w Steam nor Nintendo PS no longer has a close wall garden & exclusive.

Steam has its own exclusive first party + the exclusive third party & Steams wall garden isn’t down like PS. Nintendo will become what PS fans wish PS was. At this point PS is nothing more then a Xbox just much more delayed & slower in its 3rd party “strategy”.

Nintendos gap in power will shrink w other console & PC as Nintendo incorporates AI into its console. But hey keep ignoring Nintendo as a competitor in the console market.

If PS wanted to compete w Steam it wouldn’t port games to direct competitors. Instead the would double down on what made PS a success & that’s quality exclusive games that you couldn’t find anywhere elsewhere, especially anywhere on there direct competitor platform. Differentiating itself from other platform & storefront.

People still pedalling this bullshit.

Switch 2 games will look like slightly higher res PS4 games. They will be releasing a console using some archaic Nvidia chips in the same year that Nvidia realises the 5000 series headed up by the 5090 and DLSS 4

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Yeah man, no one should try to even compete with Steam, which earns peanuts compared to PlayStation, but there's a big chance of someone entering the console market vs Sony, who averages 100m consoles sold per gen and is ripe for the taking. Big chance. Huge!

Honest to god what Valve fanboys have done to discourse is irredeemable.

I am not a fan of Valve thought and I don't game on PC. Also, not everyone entering console market should come after Sony. The market is huge. The 50 miilion xbox fanbase is huge enough to make money. It's just Microsoft who wants 2 Gazillion player base which fucked their 50 million player base.

 

[Nhomnhom]

The entire Company would collapse. That means no more gifts for Sony Pictures & Sony Music. I can't imagine that they're not aware of this

The entire company would be long gone if not for the success of PlayStation. Honestly it's probably for the better at this point.

Let's see for how long Doja Cat, Madame Web, InZone, Steam Ports and whatever else they have going on for them will keep them afloat when PlayStation console business is gone.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Imagine thinking the Switch 2 will collapse in sales a year after launch because of PC portables . By that logic, the Switch should already be seeing a sales collapse because of the Steam Deck, ASUS Rog Ally and so forth, yet it isn't. Gee, I wonder why? Is it possibly because that notion is just complete bunk?

And the idea that Sony is going to make a PC portable...well in the event they do that, guess what happens to the console sales? They collapse. Because Sony wouldn't even do such a thing without committing to Day 1 on PC for all of their games. Then that screws over console owners because very likely Sony won't have a means for them to run their PlayStation games on a new PC handheld, so they're just stuck to their console, and I doubt Sony would give console owners free versions of the PC ports on their own storefront/launcher. Even so, that doesn't resolve all the 3P games that'd be locked to the console.

Giving up 100+ million console sales for probably a quarter of that at best in an increasingly crowded PC handheld market...put down the joint and think it over a lot more clearly.

 

[PlacidusaX]

Every topic about Xbox, every forum, articles and comments are saying getting an Xbox is pointless because all the games are elsewhere. When they announced the Xbox ports coming to PS5, it dropped even further but sure, let's believe an Activision cheerleader that wants Sony to go down for "competition"

Xbox started crashing when their games were everywhere. This is the reality and everybody knows it no matter how many times you copy/paste your chatAI replies. It won't change the reality. The more Xbox ports their games the more they become irrelevant. This is why Valve keeps their games, Riot keeps their games, Disney, Netflix, HBO, Nintendo even a fucking clothing store keeps their brands. This is basic shit. It applies to Sony too.

Like I said a couple times here...
Xbox has been on the decline since putting all its games on PC and hence no longer having exclusives.

Porting games to PlayStation and Nintendo is them waving the white flag.

Sony has yet to fully commit to doing this and if they do the decline will be real.

 

[Cool hand luke]

I am not a fan of Valve thought and I don't game on PC. Also, not everyone entering console market should come after Sony. The market is huge. The 50 miilion xbox fanbase is huge enough to make money. It's just Microsoft who wants 2 Gazillion player base which fucked their 50 million player base.

But your talking points are poisoned by Valve fanboy discourse. No real statistics or analysis of the facts would lead anyone to believe that Valve is in the better, more unassailable position of the two.