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God of War PC Has Been in Development for 2 years

ZywyPL

Banned
That's a long time.
I was expecting x86 ports to be super fast and easy... like almost automatically working on pc.
So the consoles are not so similar to PCs like we expected ?

MS releases their games on day 1, so it's not that. I guess it has a lot to do with custom API plus testing the ports on Intel and Nvidia hardware as well to ensure everything is running correctly. MS uses UWP and DX12 during development of their games since XB1 so they have that more years of experience and tools for PC ports, whereas Sony just jumped onto the bandwagon so they need some time to learn a thing or two and refine the tools, but I'm pretty sure that once they lay the foundations it'll a much faster job, just like HZD took some time to port the engine, but once that was done DS was ported very fast, and now DS DC will arrive even sooner.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Yup, Sony alpha cameras, Sony Bravias, Sony Xperia, Sony car system, etc. I love this company. Hopefully could afford a new Sony car, and probably their drone Airpeak.

Ryan Reynolds Reaction GIF
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned


The only change I'm feeling really hard to adapt to is going out of Xperia after 17 years (since 2005) as it's not officially released here in the middle east and $1800 for a fucking cellphone doesn't sound good to me for the Xperia Pro-I. While they're still made, I'll order them from Amazon or BH :).
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Grew up with Sony around, also here people tend to like Japanese products, which aren't a lot lately in terms of electronics. Also all of them have a story built around trust and long term satisfaction.
Where you at?

If the products have always delivered then it aint a bad idea and Sony have been consistent throughout the years. However tech is always changing and sometimes other companies just make better products, I guess it would take out the stress of choosing and everytime you wanna upgrade you just buy the desired price range. I would not want to miss out on better deals ftom other companies though.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Where you at?

If the products have always delivered then it aint a bad idea and Sony have been consistent throughout the years. However tech is always changing and sometimes other companies just make better products, I guess it would take out the stress of choosing and everytime you wanna upgrade you just buy the desired price range. I would not want to miss out on better deals ftom other companies though.

Indeed. Nearly bought Panasonic S1H just because Sony didn't bring 10-bit videos, nor 4K@60fps. But had to stop as the lens selections is pretty shallow and bad for my usage. Finally, a7S III came and it brings 4K@120fps 10-bit instead with 16-bit raw externally if needed! a7S III is considered by many as the best mirrorless video camera, but Nikon Z9 has something to say now. Z9 is $5500 though. Sony E-mount has the biggest lens selection among all mirrorless cameras out there.

For TV's, I use them as my PC monitor as well, and had a bad experience with previous LG that was so hard to nail a neutral picture. Sony TV's tend to be the most accurate out of the gate, and they're not expensive compared to Samsung and LG and they do age well.

For Xperia, started with Sony Ericsson Walkman 550i, and with it I started photography. Although the first camera was Panasonic Lumix FZ-35 because it was considered the best compact zoom camera back in 2009, so I always pick up the best for my usage anyway. Also their phones seem to age good with me, like my current budget Xperia XA2 is just like when I bought it 4 years ago in terms of battery life and performance. Xperia 1 III, along with Pro-I, are hand-calibrated so their colors are very accurate. As a7S III could use a smartphone as a monitor, this could be helpful to me, along with the 3.5mm jack in case I wanna use the phone as an action cam if needed with an external mic.

For car system, bought a $400 system before that died within 3 months, so aiming to upgrade to Sony system this time around. Kenwood and other brands seem to look goofy so not lots of options out there.

Hope this clears out "whys".
 
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kingfey

Banned
Indeed. Nearly bought Panasonic S1H just because Sony didn't bring 10-bit videos, nor 4K@60fps. But had to stop as the lens selections is pretty shallow and bad for my usage. Finally, a7S III came and it brings 4K@120fps 10-bit instead with 16-bit raw externally if needed! a7S III is considered by many as the best mirrorless video camera, but Nikon Z9 has something to say now. Z9 is $5500 though. Sony E-mount has the biggest lens selection among all mirrorless cameras out there.

For TV's, I use them as my PC monitor as well, and had a bad experience with previous LG that was so hard to nail a neutral picture. Sony TV's tend to be the most accurate out of the gate, and they're not expensive compared to Samsung and LG and they do age well.

For Xperia, started with Sony Ericsson Walkman 550i, and with it I started photography. Although the first camera was Panasonic Lumix FZ-35 because it was considered the best compact zoom camera back in 2009, so I always pick up the best for my usage anyway. Also their phones seem to age good with me, like my current budget Xperia XA2 is just like when I bought it 4 years ago in terms of battery life and performance. Xperia 1 III, along with Pro-I, are hand-calibrated so their colors are very accurate. As a7S III could use a smartphone as a monitor, this could be helpful to me, along with the 3.5mm jack in case I wanna use the phone as an action cam if needed with an external mic.

For car system, bought a $400 system before that died within 3 months, so aiming to upgrade to Sony system this time around. Kenwood and other brands seem to look goofy so not lots of options out there.

Hope this clears out "whys".
you know, there are other brands right?
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
you know, there are other brands right?

Indeed, know all about them and do lots of research before each buy. For example, nearly bought the Canon R5 instead, but the overheating, the laughable 4K@120 image that looks like 1080p, and other downsides lead me to stick to plan and get a7S III. Also 200-600mm telephoto lens doesn't seem to have any direct competition besides Sigma/Tamron that don't perform as native lenses. Anyway, seems to a lot of off-topic, but wanted to explain "why". Don't worry, gonna buy Samsung Tab8 next. :messenger_winking_tongue:
 

kingfey

Banned
Indeed, know all about them and do lots of research before each buy. For example, nearly bought the Canon R5 instead, but the overheating, the laughable 4K@120 image that looks like 1080p, and other downsides lead me to stick to plan and get a7S III. Also 200-600mm telephoto lens doesn't seem to have any direct competition besides Sigma/Tamron that don't perform as native lenses. Anyway, seems to a lot of off-topic, but wanted to explain "why". Don't worry, gonna buy Samsung Tab8 next. :messenger_winking_tongue:
I think its best you go for function, not the specs. Some brands have great function, other brands dont have.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
I was expecting x86 ports to be super fast and easy... like almost automatically working on pc.
So the consoles are not so similar to PCs like we expected ?
That's a common misconception, similar to 'BC is free on PC' (hw vendors pay a substantial continuous cost to maintain BC across their products - for both software and hw).

But maybe it helps to look at this another way.
PS1, N64, PS2, PSP all share the CPU ISA/architecture (MIPS) in the same way PCs do (and the post PS4 consoles) - hell PSP was actually using a dual-core variant of the N64 CPU clocked 3x higher. Likewise GC/Wii/Ps3/360 shared the CPU-ISA too.
Yet I doubt anyone thought ports there were supposed to be 'fast and easy'.

Though to be fair - I doubt this was reflective of production length here - chances are the initial work on PC version was a handful people (or less) just running it as a feasibility experiment until the business side figured out when/how PS on PC portfolio was supposed to evolve.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Indeed. Nearly bought Panasonic S1H just because Sony didn't bring 10-bit videos, nor 4K@60fps. But had to stop as the lens selections is pretty shallow and bad for my usage. Finally, a7S III came and it brings 4K@120fps 10-bit instead with 16-bit raw externally if needed! a7S III is considered by many as the best mirrorless video camera, but Nikon Z9 has something to say now. Z9 is $5500 though. Sony E-mount has the biggest lens selection among all mirrorless cameras out there.

For TV's, I use them as my PC monitor as well, and had a bad experience with previous LG that was so hard to nail a neutral picture. Sony TV's tend to be the most accurate out of the gate, and they're not expensive compared to Samsung and LG and they do age well.

For Xperia, started with Sony Ericsson Walkman 550i, and with it I started photography. Although the first camera was Panasonic Lumix FZ-35 because it was considered the best compact zoom camera back in 2009, so I always pick up the best for my usage anyway. Also their phones seem to age good with me, like my current budget Xperia XA2 is just like when I bought it 4 years ago in terms of battery life and performance. Xperia 1 III, along with Pro-I, are hand-calibrated so their colors are very accurate. As a7S III could use a smartphone as a monitor, this could be helpful to me, along with the 3.5mm jack in case I wanna use the phone as an action cam if needed with an external mic.

For car system, bought a $400 system before that died within 3 months, so aiming to upgrade to Sony system this time around. Kenwood and other brands seem to look goofy so not lots of options out there.

Hope this clears out "whys".

Agree on the camera front, a7s's are quite popular. Wish I could afford one.
Yeah when it comes to cameras sony are still at the top of there game. Phones and TVs I could always get better for cheaper from other brands. On the audio side I would say sony are still a preferred brand.
 
That's the average salary?! I'd imagine it would be much more. Like at least 70k.
70k euro average? Lol no, 70k is what the very top end programmers would make and is a lot of goddamn money; and even then the most senior programmers go for software companies because they pay more than game studios.
 

Reallink

Member
In an earnings report Sony revealed Horizon PC sales and profit, which could be used to estimate the cost of the port. It was a surprisingly high figure IIRC, something like $10-20 million.
 

Neofire

Member
I think their PC approach is perfect so far if they keep the timing like that. Probably even day one might not hurt PS5 sales as we would think with all the production restraints so far. I would think that Ghost of Tsushima's movie will see a PC version hitting PC around its release, same ghost with future releases.

As a Sony lover first, PS second, that could help the company much more. Especially if most games are using the touchpad then the DualSense would be the PC controller of choice for their games = more controllers sold at a profit.
I disagree with this, considering they gave ps5 owners a half assed upgrade but the PC version got a damn near a full revamp. I don't think Sony alienating its own platforms is "helps the company much more"
 

Sygma

Member
That nixxes talk is so utterly pointless its kinda baffling. Jetpack did an amazing job with GoW
 
As a playstation owner myself, I'm happy to see moves like this. This is going to make Playstation stronger, not weaker. This will create more competition, will lead to more success for Playstation first party titles, which will come right back to benefitting the Playstation gamer, because it will mean more to invest back into Playstation exclusives, bigger risks taken. I'm amazed people were so resistant to this for so long.

With the Last of Us TV show coming, you know they're going end up bringing the last of us to PC also. In fact, I half expect the supposed remake that's dropping to also release on PC, potentially in simultaneous fashion.
 

Dr Bass

Member
That explains why GOW Ragnorak got delayed to 2022. These things take long and delay other projects. SSM isnt a huge studio. Only around 200 employees and Cory already took some devs with him for his new IP.

Lets hope Nixxes handles all ports going forward. Let them work on Ragnorak on PC for a day one release. Doesnt look like Horizon will be getting one, but GOW is months away so that should be their priority. I loved playing Forza and Halo on PC on day one.
No it doesn't, they already explained why and it had nothing to do with PC porting.

 

Arun1910

Member
Uncharted Collection later this month.

Edit: just realized the PC version on the Uncharted collection won't be released this month. Sorry about that. It's releasing on PS5 only for now
This got me too. I thought it was coming out end of the month too.

Kind happy it isn't. GoW/Dying Light 2/Horizon and Sifu are enough for the first 2 months of the year
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
its developed on pc, shouldn't pc version be released before console ? :d
No... because the code even for the PC is tailored to run on the compiled version of PS. There is a whole pipeline that they have to reconfigure for making their platforms completely multiplatform. Their graphics engine was in DX11 and they had no time to convert it to DX12. GoW 2 will definitely use the PC/PS5 pipeline going forward though.
 

nani17

are in a big trouble
Can we expect a pc version of GOWR in a year or less. Having pc players wait another 2 years for the sequel isn't a good idea imo.
 

sncvsrtoip

Member
No... because the code even for the PC is tailored to run on the compiled version of PS. There is a whole pipeline that they have to reconfigure for making their platforms completely multiplatform. Their graphics engine was in DX11 and they had no time to convert it to DX12. GoW 2 will definitely use the PC/PS5 pipeline going forward though.
that was joke ;)
 
It is and I already said that 2yrs ago.
I assume that you have ties to the gaming industry directly, I apologize, I didn't know that. I am not sure that I will be able to find your exact comment from all those years ago, so I shall ask directly if that is okay, what you said before, does that apply to the second game as well? I have this perception that there are certain games that will remain exclusive to PlayStation for as long as the console exists, "The Last of Us Part II", any upcoming "Gran Turismo" games, and "Spider-Man" are among those, but I am hoping that I am wrong about this.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
I assume that you have ties to the gaming industry directly, I apologize, I didn't know that. I am not sure that I will be able to find your exact comment from all those years ago, so I shall ask directly if that is okay, what you said before, does that apply to the second game as well? I have this perception that there are certain games that will remain exclusive to PlayStation for as long as the console exists, "The Last of Us Part II", any upcoming "Gran Turismo" games, and "Spider-Man" are among those, but I am hoping that I am wrong about this.
Yes, the 2nd one will come to PC - after the first one. And yes, I have ties to the gaming industry. From what I hear "all the games are coming to PC" - hyperbolic for sure, but it means a LOT of them are.
 
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yurinka

Member
That explains why GOW Ragnorak got delayed to 2022. These things take long and delay other projects. SSM isnt a huge studio. Only around 200 employees and Cory already took some devs with him for his new IP.

Lets hope Nixxes handles all ports going forward. Let them work on Ragnorak on PC for a day one release. Doesnt look like Horizon will be getting one, but GOW is months away so that should be their priority. I loved playing Forza and Halo on PC on day one.
The port didn't affect the delay, It has been ported to PC by Jetpack Interactive, not Sony Santa Monica.

The main reasons for the delay pretty likely were the Kratos actor getting surgery in the back and covid. Plus seems Sony now seems to want to reduce crunch hiring a ton of people in all studios and being more open to delay and release games when ready.

They have Nixxes for PC ports (plus supporting in the engine & tools area), but knowing Jetpack ported this one and Iron Galaxy ported the Uncharteds, I assume Nixxes is working on the TLOU and maybe TLOU2 ports to release them on PC slightly before the TLOU tv show. And I bet after it they will release Spider-Man 1 on PC next year, a few months before Insomniac releases Spider-Man 2 on PS5.

In addition to continue growing SSM (exactly a year ago they updated their website to mention that they were over 250 people, had many job offers last year, and as of now I see they have job offers for 19 different roles), they bought not only Nixxes, but also Valkyrie who is a support studio who did work in both GoW and GoWR. And Bluepoint, who handles remakes and remasters even if they are working now on 'new content'. So all these teams plus -if needed- external ones like Jetpack or Iron Galaxy could help.
 
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yurinka

Member


So what other PC related news is Sony hiding, like possibly say and date launches in the future. Maybe Sony is taking an Xbox approach where the hardware is purely just another method of access to their software (the real money maker).
I assume their next PC port may be TLOU (+maybe TLOU2) in the 2nd half of this year, to be released a month or two before the TLOU tv show. And after that, Spider-Man 1 PC port to be released a few months before Spider-Man 2 gets released on PS5 only.

I think that as they said they will continue porting only some -not all- games and releasing them on PC some years after their PS release, once they sold most of their units on console, and offered them on PS Plus/Now. But I think there may be some exception for some GaaS MP focused (probably F2P) games, specially 2nd party: like Helldivers 2 or the some of the ones under development at Firewalk/Deviation/Haven.

How many devs worked on this? I'd say like 10.

Average salary of a game programmer in a large corporation (according to google) between 54300€ and 43700€ = 49000€

So ten times 490000€ x 2 years = 980000€

980000€ / 34.993€ (if 70% of 49.99€ is what the company gets) = 28005 copies to break even.

I guess the PC version of the game will make a lot of profit.
Maybe the company who ported it had 10 devs working on it. But add their producers, department managers, executives, HR, etc. Plus in Sony's side, the people from localization, testing, marketing, PR, CM, producers from SSM overviewing and greenlighting it, producers and executives from PS Studios, SIE America, SIE and Sony. Plus their budget spent on marketing for ads and so on.

The total amount of money spent on this port very likely is way above than $1M. But if the PC ports of Days Gone, Death Stranding and Horizon were profitable, this one seems will be even more profitable since looking at both the early Steam concurrent users and to their previous sales on PS seems it's going to sell more than the previous PC ports of Sony games.
 
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VFXVeteran

Banned
I think that as they said they will continue porting only some -not all- games
Well duh. But I can assure you that the ones that people rave over will be the ones ported.

and releasing them on PC some years after their PS release, once they sold most of their units on console,
Stop acting like you know what's going to happen. You don't work for Sony. You are just trying to mitigate the importance of the exclusives coming to PC by trying to say no one will be interested in the game any more and it will have lost it's appeal.
 

Holammer

Member
Stop acting like you know what's going to happen. You don't work for Sony. You are just trying to mitigate the importance of the exclusives coming to PC by trying to say no one will be interested in the game any more and it will have lost it's appeal.
Unless they have Bryank75 handling marketing, one would imagine Sony wants to maximize the effect of a multi million ad campaign for Ragnarök.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Well duh. But I can assure you that the ones that people rave over will be the ones ported.


Stop acting like you know what's going to happen. You don't work for Sony. You are just trying to mitigate the importance of the exclusives coming to PC by trying to say no one will be interested in the game any more and it will have lost it's appeal.
Yeah these are impossible decisions for us to guess.
They might profit on ox sales lose on future console sales. This might add or remove value from their ips.

Or they are simply cashing on ragnarok. Or this might bounce back and hurt 70usd gow2 sales on ps5.

If these are not complex business decisions of analysts then I would be surprised
 

yurinka

Member
Well duh. But I can assure you that the ones that people rave over will be the ones ported. Stop acting like you know what's going to happen. You don't work for Sony. You are just trying to mitigate the importance of the exclusives coming to PC by trying to say no one will be interested in the game any more and it will have lost it's appeal.
You are the one falsely claiming to have insider info about Sony's plans with their PC ports, when you have no fucking idea about them. Not me.

My theory is that Sony will continue doing what they did until now and what their involved current and past executives said what their PC strategy is: to don't release all their games on PC, but instead strategically choose only some of them. And the ones ported, wouldn't be released on PC day one (but I think there may be some exception with some MP GaaS/F2P or some remaster/remake), but instead will strategically analyze case by case when it's better for them to release each port. And seem to be happy and successful releasing 2-5 years old games.

Plus we have Horizon and GoW released on PC some months before their sequels are released on PS5, and the Uncharted games like a month before the movie. So I think it makes sense that they would do the same with the TLOU tv show and Spider-Man 2, releasing on PC Spider-Man 1 and TLOU (plus probably bundled with TLOU2 in PC too, as Jason Shredder said they planned to do for PS5 when the San Diego folks pitched the remake). But I don't think it makes sense to expect them to port KNACK or Destruction All Stars.

I never said no one will be interested, I acknowledge that Horizon, Death Stranding and Days Gone sold very well in PC and the almost 4 years old God of War looking at his early concurrent users count and its PS sales seems to be on track to outsell all the previous PC ports of Sony games. And I also acknowledge that there is a lot of port begging betwen the PC gamers asking for this or that PS exclusive to be ported next, or desperatly wanting to see Sony porting their games to PC day one.

I also think ther current strategy is a good and smart one: to release first their games on PS only, once they milked during some years almost all their sales there, to include them on PS Plus/Now and after that when they got all the revenue they could from them in console to release them on PC (not all, only some of them because even if they would want they can't because they don't have enough porters to port all their games) with a good timing to use them as marketing and bait to promote their sequels or movies/tv shows. By doing this they get extra revenue and profit from old games that weren't going to generate revenue anymore, other teams handle the ports so their main teams continue focused on making PS games, they reach new players who will never buy a console and will even convince some of them to buy a console.

All this by not alienating their fans and providing reasons to buy their consoles with exclusives, both temporal and permanent. Because not all games are ported and because the ported ones aren't released day one on PC.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
VFX redeemed. You guys should had listened.

Years back he was saying PC ports were coming and tons of people downplayed it. At that time (at most), maybe Horizon ZD was announced for PC, but I'm not sure that game was even announced yet.

And since then.... GOW, Days Gone, UC and Sony is amping it up with Nixxes and more games coming. And everyone knows Sony is ramping it up. It's not like they are going to release these handful of games and cut the cord after the UC/LL game comes out. More are coming.
 
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