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[Forbes]‘Helldivers 2’ On Xbox? Even PS5 Players Want It To Happen

PS5 Players Want It To Happen?

  • Yes

    Votes: 113 28.7%
  • No

    Votes: 281 71.3%

  • Total voters
    394

Neofire

Member
You're really dying on that hill huh?

You've really gone out on a ledge with this one. You've misinterpreted the blogpost and there is nothing in the blogpost to suggest this is the case.

Edit: It makes great financial sense. You're assuming that PSVR2 is sold at a loss simply because it is expensive when in reality they are probably selling it at a serious premium. PSVR already received a price drop at this point in its life cycle. Not sure Sony would have built PSVR2 without something similar in mind.

I think by the time this support is enabled, the PSVR2 should likely receive a price cut and should STILL be making money.

It will also help them push GT7 VR and Horizon Call of the Mountain. And it will also get more developers supporting PSVR2 with PC games coming to PS5.

A streaming client makes the least amount of sense. That's a technical hurdle far larger than just allowing native support and that would make developers even LESS likely to develop PSVR2 games, when they could simply put the games on PC and avoid the larger royalties altogether.
All of this speculation just like the I individual you are replying to. Let's not be hypocritical 👀. The scenario you laid out is what YOU hope will happen and the last bit of your argument has zero evidence that PCVR developers are going to start making Ps5 ports just because Sony is adding PC support lol.
 
All of this speculation just like the I individual you are replying to. Let's not be hypocritical 👀. The scenario you laid out is what YOU hope will happen and the last bit of your argument has zero evidence that PCVR developers are going to start making Ps5 ports just because Sony is adding PC support lol.

Think about it logically.

What makes MORE sense and is MORE plausible.

A) That Sony is creating a native driver for the PSVR2 so that it connects to the PC, allowing PCVR games to play with PSVR2 controls. Note that there is a multitude of headsets that support SteamVR.

or

B) That Sony is creating some PC-based (SteamLink) streaming app that will stream from PCVR games that are already sitting in a layer (Steam) on top of Windows and emulating controls through the PS5 and PSVR2? Giving Sony additional revenue whatsoever. Such a streaming connection would be janky far more janky.

It's not that they're 100% wrong, but that based on what the blogpost actually says, there is no reason to assume this is the direction they're taking. They've also misinterpreted the benefits of SteamLink which is it allows you to play Steam games on Oculus wirelessly. PSVR isn't wireless. There is zero point in connected your ethernet based PC to an ethernet based PS5 to your tethered PSVR2.
 

IDappa

Member
If the game's sales are roughly 50/50 between both platforms, then the active player base is probably also similar, and if it leans Steam then only by a bit. It could also be that in certain territories, more of the active base is on Steam and more of it is on PS5. Transparent CCUs and player metrics for games on PSN from Sony would be nice, but until that happens we can only guess.

If you want to believe the graphic Mat Piscatella put up on Twitter you can go ahead and do such, but it's extremely unrealistic to think that Fortnite and GTA5 each have less than 100K concurrent players across PS5 platforms at peak hours. As to Helldivers 2 finding more fans...how does bringing it to Xbox get them more fans? The vast majority of Xbox owners already have a PC or a PS5, they already have one of the two platforms they can easily go and play the game on. "Xbox is PC and PC is Xbox", remember that mantra? Well considering the sales collapse of the system last year I'd assume a lot of gamers have taken to literally believe that mantra, giving them few reasons to buy an Xbox console.

And yes you are kinda port-begging, it's a weird form of port-begging hiding behind flimsy "pro-consumerism" talk...as if Arrowhead or Sony are discriminating against Xbox players and barring them from getting a PS5 or PC, or buying the game on one of those platforms. Even a half-decent PC can run the game and the game is only $40.

I mention that because we know 100% that if Sony did in fact announce a port for Xbox, the very next thing Xbox owners would start asking would be "Is it coming to Game Pass?". That's how a major chunk of the base has been conditioned over the years. It's sad.



Okay but Helldivers 2 isn't their game, it's Sony's and Arrowhead's, and Sony owns the IP. Why would Sony care about a commitment Microsoft's expected to do for platforms they have vested interests in (Xbox and PC)? Sony's not obligated to put its games on Xbox just because Microsoft's obligated to provide games for Xbox.



It's not 2008 anymore, my guy. You're getting nostalgic over glory years long past gone. Halo is a shell of its former self and most people feel bad for the IP if they don't already laugh at it like it's a meme. Who in 2024 gives a crap about Halo's sales in the 360 era? Is that helping Halo Infinite or 343 stay relevant today? I didn't think so.



Helldivers 1 was also a PS/PC release Day 1 on both platforms, so uh...Helldivers 2 is just continuing that tradition. Plus Sony's always dabbled with PC releases going all the way back to the '90s, like when games such as Wipeout got PC ports, or the Everquest series. Them doing PC releases for GaaS titles isn't really that different from what they did with stuff like Everquest decades ago. That didn't stop them from prioritizing their consoles back then, it shouldn't (and hopefully doesn't) stop them from prioritizing their consoles today.

MLB being on Xbox and Switch isn't much different from Wipeout being on Saturn and N64 back in the day. And the PSVR2 stuff is likely not what people are reading into it being (as it wouldn't make financial sense). Most likely, it's a streaming client for PC VR games on PS5 owners with PSVR2 headsets. That way they can play PC VR games which don't have native ports to PS5, if they're okay with streaming them. Basically an implementation of the PS Portal concept, but for the PSVR2.



IKR? Imagine what we would've missed out on if that happened o.0

I may have gotten things mixed up but I does steam db only keep count of players on steam?. Taking in account their concurrents and the fact that they capped the servers to 450k wouldn’t that mean the majority of players are on pc?. Or do they have a seperate server cap for PlayStation users?. Either way the Pc release concurrent release is what pushed this game to be bigger than what they expected..

Everything’s a fanboy war to you guys. You cannot stop caressing your plastic boxes and corporations. I have the game I won’t be buying it again so there is no reason for me to port beg. Fuck the other day I said I would welcome PlayStation players to gears of war if Microsoft released it. I really only care about good games and the health of them. Works wonders when you aren’t a shill. Should try it.

Edit. Meant to clarify they capped it a few days ago.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I may have gotten things mixed up but I does steam db only keep count of players on steam?. Taking in account their concurrents and the fact that they capped the servers to 450k wouldn’t that mean the majority of players are on pc?. Or do they have a seperate server cap for PlayStation users?. Either way the Pc release concurrent release is what pushed this game to be bigger than what they expected..

Everything’s a fanboy war to you guys. You cannot stop caressing your plastic boxes and corporations. I have the game I won’t be buying it again so there is no reason for me to port beg. Fuck the other day I said I would welcome PlayStation players to gears of war if Microsoft released it. I really only care about good games and the health of them. Works wonders when you aren’t a shill. Should try it.
I would had guessed the PC crowd is way more than 50/50 or even 60/40.

When Arrowhead stated their servers were capped at 450k, at the very moment Steam checks showed the count was around 380,000. So that means 70k PS5.
 

IDappa

Member
I would had guessed the PC crowd is way more than 50/50 or even 60/40.

When Arrowhead stated their servers were capped at 450k, at the very moment Steam checks showed the count was around 380,000. So that means 70k PS5.
Well that’s what I was thinking also. I am not sure the split now since this game is still going up. I would assume the hype around this on pc has had the knock on affect of other purchasing it where they can. Very well deserved either way.
 

ToadMan

Member
I would had guessed the PC crowd is way more than 50/50 or even 60/40.

When Arrowhead stated their servers were capped at 450k, at the very moment Steam checks showed the count was around 380,000. So that means 70k PS5.
No.

That meant about 200k steam users waiting in the queue to get on a server.
 

panda-zebra

Member
I would had guessed the PC crowd is way more than 50/50 or even 60/40.

When Arrowhead stated their servers were capped at 450k, at the very moment Steam checks showed the count was around 380,000. So that means 70k PS5.
That wasn't 380k Steam players in-game, it also included those trying to get in. All the number shows is those who launched it and attempted to play - the servers were maxed long before it got to 380k. You could do this kind of comparison more accurately now that capacity has increased as long as it isn't reached for a rough idea.

There's more PC players, that's undoubtable for all kinds of obvious reasons, but a worse than 80:20 ratio of PC to PS5 players that Steam charts CCU suggests, when the game was very difficult to get into, has a very high probability of painting an inaccurate picture.

We know it was 50:50 at one point early on. And we've seen non-UK/DE European sales data with a 60:40 split. 60/40 seems a reasonable guess in terms of sales given the reach of each platform, but it's only a guess.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
What is there to say about your comment about being banned? I'd find it hilariously hypocritical and move on with my life.
N3UXqA6.gif
 

drganon

Member
Okay, let's pretend a majority of users here aren't in the Sony boys club, all taking a shit on Xbox users. And now it's serious. Now I need to call specific people out after tinfoil hat posts about undercover xbox agents trying to undermine the status quo or some bullshit.

Anyway, I agree with you about name calling, which is why I called out that bullshit. I only give what is gotten.

What is there to say about your comment about being banned? I'd find it hilariously hypocritical and move on with my life.
Womp womp.
 
Okay, let's pretend a majority of users here aren't in the Sony boys club, all taking a shit on Xbox users. And now it's serious. Now I need to call specific people out after tinfoil hat posts about undercover xbox agents trying to undermine the status quo or some bullshit.

Anyway, I agree with you about name calling, which is why I called out that bullshit. I only give what is gotten.

What is there to say about your comment about being banned? I'd find it hilariously hypocritical and move on with my life.

When you come back. Please stop port begging. Its annoying.
 

RGB'D

Member
Good luck trying to play nintendo games on pc ever .. (outside emulators)

And Sony going day 01 pc for all their games make as much sense as it did for MS .... none ... is unbelievable for me how people dosent see how this move in the end diminished the xbox hardware value
Umm guy. SONY's COO literally emphasized growth into PC. They realistically can't do better on console than they are as the dominant #1 in the industry. Despite all that success, their profit margins suck and they are looking to expand their reach to help boost them. It's not like they make a ton of money on the consoles and were losing money for the first 1.5 years on every PS5 sold.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Umm guy. SONY's COO literally emphasized growth into PC. They realistically can't do better on console than they are as the dominant #1 in the industry. Despite all that success, their profit margins suck and they are looking to expand their reach to help boost them. It's not like they make a ton of money on the consoles and were losing money for the first 1.5 years on every PS5 sold.
Yet, Playstation generates more revenue than Xbox + ABK combined.
Their problem is streamlining their operations to maximize profits, as going by that new Sony accountant.

PC will primarily be GaaS, because it will generate more revenue.

Day 1 PC is not on the cards for non-GaaS titles.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Umm guy. SONY's COO literally emphasized growth into PC. They realistically can't do better on console than they are as the dominant #1 in the industry. Despite all that success, their profit margins suck and they are looking to expand their reach to help boost them. It's not like they make a ton of money on the consoles and were losing money for the first 1.5 years on every PS5 sold.
He did and helldivers prooved there is much growth to be had in gaas and mp, which Im all for it, even though I dont care about this games, a lot of gamers do... but saying this strategy also includes their Single Player games from big studios ... well thats reaching and hopium for now.

Sony cant be oblivious of how this day 1 strategy devaluated xbox hardware and how the opposite strategy works just fine for nintendo, they have to cut costs, trimmer down development costs, better invest their money and improve game output looking for a little smaller and less costive games.

Trying to just reach the PC audience while taking value off their consoles is suicidal, this myth that consoles users wont jump ship for a now more powerfull, customizable and with all the games in the market avaible in just one box is ludicrous... just ask xbox.
 

RGB'D

Member
Yet, Playstation generates more revenue than Xbox + ABK combined.
Their problem is streamlining their operations to maximize profits, as going by that new Sony accountant.

PC will primarily be GaaS, because it will generate more revenue.

Day 1 PC is not on the cards for non-GaaS titles.
Why is it not in the cards? Totoki can't shut up about expansion into PC. No one believed any games would come to PC and slowly but surely since the end of PS4 generation SM, Horizon, GOW, Days Gone, Death Stranding have all come.

Ruling it out is just delusional copium. Sure improving efficiency will help with profit margins but they aren't going to ignore the only growing gaming sector (console has been slightly shrinking, as has mobile while PC continues to grow). Japan themselves are surging in PC adoption. And they don't even have to subsidize the cost of a console to allow people to spend money on PS purchases. And again, this is literally what they have been saying and showing with their actions. They aren't going to ignore revenue so they can make console players feel important, especially in a sector they aren't in direct competition with (i.e. console sales).
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Why is it not in the cards? Totoki can't shut up about expansion into PC. No one believed any games would come to PC and slowly but surely since the end of PS4 generation SM, Horizon, GOW, Days Gone, Death Stranding have all come.

Ruling it out is just delusional copium. Sure improving efficiency will help with profit margins but they aren't going to ignore the only growing gaming sector (console has been slightly shrinking, as has mobile while PC continues to grow). Japan themselves are surging in PC adoption. And they don't even have to subsidize the cost of a console to allow people to spend money on PS purchases. And again, this is literally what they have been saying and showing with their actions. They aren't going to ignore revenue so they can make console players feel important, especially in a sector they aren't in direct competition with (i.e. console sales).
But they aren't going to ignore PC.
Hence why they're going to release GaaS day 1 on PC.

PC is a milk-cow, Playstation consoles are still very much the bread and butter for Playstation.

We only have to look at Xbox what happened when they started day 1 releases on PC for all their titles.
It’s the perfect example why a company should  not do it.

Don't you think it's quite telling that the two platform-holders who realize this are thriving and leading, while the other that did as you say is near-death?
 
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GeoramA

Member
God damn Helldivers 2 has done a quite a number on the psyche of the Xbox fanbase.
They are desperately scrambling for hope. Losing their exclusives and missing out on GOTY contenders like FF7 Rebirth is playing a part as well.

All they have to look forward to anytime soon is 8 hour Hellblade 2, likely another timed-exclusive.
 
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RGB'D

Member
But they aren't going to ignore PC.
Hence why they're going to release GaaS day 1 on PC.

PC is a milk-cow, Playstation consoles are still very much the bread and butter for Playstation.

We only have to look at Xbox what happened when they started day 1 releases on PC for all their titles.
It’s the perfect example why a company should  not do it.

Don't you think it's quite telling that the two platform-holders who realize this are thriving and leading, while the other that did as you say is near-death?
XBOX's success with integrating into the PC market is less a cautionary tale and more why they have been able to stay invested into gaming, especially after making major missteps in the Xbox one generation with Kinect/TV and then running into lack of studios producing 1st party content (hence 2018 purchases).

Also you're determining behavior based off a perceived failure from the company that was always last. XBox was a very late arrival to a firmly entrenched market that has some weird levels of tribalism/fanaticism. If Xbox releases on PS blow up and Xbox starts killing it, are you advocating for PS to do the same since your argument against it is based off of Xbox's results?
 

elmos-acc

Member
XBOX's success with integrating into the PC market is less a cautionary tale and more why they have been able to stay invested into gaming, especially after making major missteps in the Xbox one generation with Kinect/TV and then running into lack of studios producing 1st party content (hence 2018 purchases).

Also you're determining behavior based off a perceived failure from the company that was always last. XBox was a very late arrival to a firmly entrenched market that has some weird levels of tribalism/fanaticism. If Xbox releases on PS blow up and Xbox starts killing it, are you advocating for PS to do the same since your argument against it is based off of Xbox's results?
Strongly agreed. Halo 5 was probably their highest profile exclusive in the Xbox One era and as far as I know it never made it to PC. Did it sell consoles the way MS wanted to? I honestly think not. Most Xbox exclusives aren't desired enough to sell consoles, which is why PC releases attract mindshare.
 

Neofire

Member
Yet, Playstation generates more revenue than Xbox + ABK combined.
Their problem is streamlining their operations to maximize profits, as going by that new Sony accountant.

PC will primarily be GaaS, because it will generate more revenue.

Day 1 PC is not on the cards for non-GaaS titles.
Unfortunately it's like talking to a brick wall when it comes to PC players that pray day and night for all playstation games to come PC. So the guy you are replying to is going to extract the narrative he hopes to happen no matter what logic you throw at him.
 

ByWatterson

Member
Not sure I understand the distinction between "writer" and "contributor" but he is still a well-known writer on Forbes. This isn't some random blogger is my point.

Staff writers are employed by Forbes. Tassi is not.

Paul Tassi is a blogger who gets little checks to publish on Forbes - a freelancer. He is Forbes only slightly more than I am NeoGAF.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Staff writers are employed by Forbes. Tassi is not.

Paul Tassi is a blogger who gets little checks to publish on Forbes - a freelancer. He is Forbes only slightly more than I am NeoGAF.

Disagree that he is just a blogger but that's fine. He is a well-known writer regardless.
 
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ByWatterson

Member
Yeah, he is more than "just a blogger". We have to be honest about this.

I mean you can be a well-known blogger. He's well-known, for sure.

But so far as I can tell, he doesn't do actual journalism, doesn't write reviews really, doesn't break stories, doesn't have his own platform, etc. He writes columns (often riddled with typos) about tweets he sees and message boards he frequents.

To me that's a blogger and threads like this one should say "Paul Tassi." Giving him the imprimatur of the Forbes masthead gives credibility he doesn't deserve. Unless he's a staff writer.

Which he isn't.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
I mean you can be a well-known blogger. He's well-known, for sure.

But so far as I can tell, he doesn't do actual journalism, doesn't write reviews really, doesn't break stories, doesn't have his own platform, etc. He writes columns (often riddled with typos) about tweets he sees and message boards he frequents.

To me that's a blogger and threads like this one should say "Paul Tassi." Giving him the imprimatur of the Forbes masthead gives credibility he doesn't deserve. Unless he's a staff writer.

Which he isn't.

He strictly writes columns from what I've seen. A columnist for a publication is not the same as a blogger. Bloggers, to me at least, are writers who have no affiliation with the outlet and are not paid unless they are paid for reviews and positive press, aka shill. Florian Mueller immediately comes to mind.

I'm not trying to back the guy. I think he is a hack really, but he has made a name for himself, as I said, primarily with clickbait shit like this. I think we just have different perspectives on what a blogger is.
 
I may have gotten things mixed up but I does steam db only keep count of players on steam?. Taking in account their concurrents and the fact that they capped the servers to 450k wouldn’t that mean the majority of players are on pc?. Or do they have a seperate server cap for PlayStation users?. Either way the Pc release concurrent release is what pushed this game to be bigger than what they expected..

Everything’s a fanboy war to you guys. You cannot stop caressing your plastic boxes and corporations. I have the game I won’t be buying it again so there is no reason for me to port beg. Fuck the other day I said I would welcome PlayStation players to gears of war if Microsoft released it. I really only care about good games and the health of them. Works wonders when you aren’t a shill. Should try it.

Edit. Meant to clarify they capped it a few days ago.

Yes, SteamDB only tracks Steam usage. Recently the server caps raised to 800K, so a little over half the players are on PC. I'd say it's probably ~ between 55% Steam/45% PS5 to 53% Steam/47% PS5.

As to the rest of that comment...surely you aren't saying I'm shilling or fanboying for Sony/PlayStation, right? Just because I'm trying to see the bigger picture with the game's popularity across PC & console, and know that if it were in fact leaning heavily on PC (Steam) carrying the game, there are many disingenuous people who'd be using it to push flimsy narratives and agendas? Which has already been happening.

My issue is people are using Helldivers 2 performance on Steam to draw conclusions that Sony should do certain other drastic things for PC going forward, when the correlations they're trying to make to reach that conclusion are extremely weak. I'd be doing the same if it were Xbox, but there's no point because Microsoft have already gone full-in with simultaneous console/PC Day 1 push (which I stand by saying, at some significant detriment to the appeal of their console to a lot of would-be customers).

Of course ultimately the game being successful is what should matter, but I don't think we have to dive into questionable, flawed takes like "No more exclusives!" "Exclusives are anti-consumer!!", "This is why Sony should go all-in Day 1 PC for all their games!" and other similar hogwash. Because unfortunately for the few that may just be saying that stuff with ulterior motives, that type of talk IMO has been poisoned by influencers, media and diehard fans of a very specific platform holder because that type of push just happens to conveniently fit the market strategy of said platform holder. And when even the CEO of the division of that platform is saying and signaling the same crap, then we get these narratives spun up with very convenient timing.

That is in some form, some type of (in this case nefarious) agenda to sway public opinion, and it's not nearly as "pro-consumer" as it lets on. It all "conveniently" works out best for that specific platform holder's financials and getting more control of the market. So it's actually purely capitalist desires hiding behind "pro-consumer" sentiment.

I don't like that.

Regardless of title, I think we can all agree that Tassi sucks.

BIG facts.

I would had guessed the PC crowd is way more than 50/50 or even 60/40.

When Arrowhead stated their servers were capped at 450k, at the very moment Steam checks showed the count was around 380,000. So that means 70k PS5.

Wasn't that correlated with the infographic Mat Piscatella put up on Twitter? The one he then redacted because it wasn't representative of actual player counts across the console?

Because people were using that infographic (and point-in-time metrics like the one you're using here) to insinuate the overall player count on PS5 is very low for the game relative Steam. Yet that also matched with times the game was #1 on the platform for Most Played, even ahead of games like Fortnite and GTA5.

The infographic was for US-only but it still was a questionable graphic because I find it very hard to believe the biggest F2P games in the US had CCUs lower than 70K on PS5, except at the very lowest of load sessions. Regardless any takeaway that the Steam player-base for game is some > 6x larger than on PS5 based on a snapshot of CCUs at a very specific point in time, or a very limited infographic for only one region in the world, is foolish.

For example it could also be that in the US specifically most of the game's traffic is on Steam but in other parts of the world it's PS5. Yet since those parts of the world probably have peak game times outside of the peak hours the US has time zone-wise, if those other parts of the world are mainly accessing it on PS5s then during the US peaks PS5 usage would be low, freeing capacity on servers for Steam players.

That's how you might get things like the infographic Mat posted on Twitter a few days ago.

He did and helldivers prooved there is much growth to be had in gaas and mp, which Im all for it, even though I dont care about this games, a lot of gamers do... but saying this strategy also includes their Single Player games from big studios ... well thats reaching and hopium for now.

Sony cant be oblivious of how this day 1 strategy devaluated xbox hardware and how the opposite strategy works just fine for nintendo, they have to cut costs, trimmer down development costs, better invest their money and improve game output looking for a little smaller and less costive games.

Trying to just reach the PC audience while taking value off their consoles is suicidal, this myth that consoles users wont jump ship for a now more powerfull, customizable and with all the games in the market avaible in just one box is ludicrous... just ask xbox.

It's mystifying how so many refuse to see what's so obvious. There's an idea I had for Sony in terms of reigning in development costs though, although it might be somewhat contentious.

In the Insomniac hack we saw that their plan for Spiderman 3 is to split it up or "compartmentalize" it into hefty smaller chunks, with the single-player and then multi-player, and then some other thing. Maybe, in addition to the obvious measures for reducing costs (cutting some project redundancies with too much overlap of demo/genre, less licenses in some areas, more AA games etc.), Sony should consider making their AAA single-player epics "episodic".

I know some people hate the phrase "episodic" but I did always kind of think this would be a potential solution. In fact, with Game Pass I thought Microsoft would do this with a lot of their own games, but it's dawned on me they have very few games that actually lend themselves well to an episodic format. Whereas with Sony, they have tons of cinematic story-driven games, which go perfectly well with an episodic or semi-episodic approach.

So maybe for example, instead of one massive traditional release for say TLOU Part 3, they split it up into three parts, and release them in two-year intervals. They still can tell the same story they'd tell if it were a game with all three parts, but maybe in a semi-episodic format they can add a bit more content to each part vs. what they could do if it were a full game, and this would also let them get the game out there (at least part of it) sooner. You will still have the fans who want to get each part ASAP, meanwhile you can get more casual fans (old and new) to pick the game up down the line with al three parts packaged together, and that's also when they could bring the game to PC.

Why would this work? Because with a lot of these games, it's the content that takes the most time to make, by far. So having say a 2-year buffer between parts (but each part can feel like a full game in itself, sort of like a Miles Morales or Uncharted 4 Lost Legacy expansion) would give enough time to develop content for the next part. Meanwhile, they can price each part at say $30, which is probably the sweet spot, and treat it the same way they would with the game if it were released "normally". But if you do it in parts, people can start actually playing the game years earlier, and if there are small QOL improvements introduced with latter parts, the older parts can get updates to include them.

Of course, progress would have to be continued between them, but we already see how stuff like the Telltale games do it, or even better one of my favorite games ever, Shining Force III. That's actually the game I'm thinking of a lot while typing this, because even though it's split into three Scenarios, each one practically is a whole game unto itself, and decisions you make in the earlier Scenarios will carry over to the succeeding ones. But more importantly, they all feel like a seamless story and narrative, you don't feel like you're missing cut content, and they have all the things in each Scenario you'd get in a full game (full utilization of game mechanics, full normal challenge/difficulty curve, resolution to multiple (not all) plot points, etc.).

If each part takes 2 years to release, then you first do the normal B2P release at $30 (maybe $40 depending on the game but that'd be the upper limit), then when the next part is releasing you put it in PS+ for a limited period of time, then release the second part as B2P. Repeat the process until all the parts have been released and had some time in the service, then release them together as a single game on Steam. That'd be a good 4-6 years after initially releasing the parts (or Scenarios if sticking with SF III lingo) on console, and maybe there are additional QOL or bonus content included in the PC release but make that release priced at $50 or $60, and make the additional QOL and bonus content accessible to console owners for a free or small fee. And then 1-2 years later comes another new 1P AAA release for console using that same model.

Honestly I think if they take that approach, and they can combine it with something like a per-game sub model for the digital version (so maybe instead of paying $30 or $40 upfront, you pay $6/mo or $7/mo over a 6-month period, or even $3/mo - $4/mo over a 12-month period, that is a winning formula. The vast majority of the same people who buy the normal games for $70 Day 1 are going to buy the parts/Scenarios Day 1 for $30/$40, plus with the sub option get a lot of people who'd rather had waited until down the line to buy the game, to pick it up Day 1 as well. And since these would be digital sales, that means more profit each copy.

In fact, I think with the per-game sub option in particular it could free Sony up to change up stuff with PS+, such as getting rid of the online paywall on console, because even if some notable number of people drop PS+ Essentials as a result, they are very likely going to shift that spending towards buying more games Day 1 between both, say, 1P AAA games being broken up into parts/Scenarios and priced cheaper per-part/Scenario, and the sub option that can compound with that. Not all 1P AAA games can probably be broken up this way; I think something like Gran Turismo for example could only be separated in terms of the single-player and multi-player and that's it. But I'm mainly thinking of the story-heavy titles anyway.
 
XBOX's success with integrating into the PC market is less a cautionary tale and more why they have been able to stay invested into gaming, especially after making major missteps in the Xbox one generation with Kinect/TV and then running into lack of studios producing 1st party content (hence 2018 purchases).

Also you're determining behavior based off a perceived failure from the company that was always last. XBox was a very late arrival to a firmly entrenched market that has some weird levels of tribalism/fanaticism. If Xbox releases on PS blow up and Xbox starts killing it, are you advocating for PS to do the same since your argument against it is based off of Xbox's results?

Why would Microsoft's games do dramatically better on PlayStation than they have on Xbox consoles? I'm not asking this because "I" think they won't do better, or even dramatically better. I just want to know why you feel they will.

Thinking back to SEGA, one of the few examples I can think of for them, once they went fully multiplatform, when an IP did better on a competing platform than their own was Virtua Fighter. VF4 and VF4: Evo were pretty big hits in the West, first time for a VF game honestly, and being on PS2 helped a lot there.

But that didn't repeat with VF5, despite that having a first (and for a long time, better) release on the 360, which dominated the US & UK that gen. Something else to consider is, the Wii U itself was an abject failure yet Nintendo's own games did very well on that system with extremely high attach rates. So it can be argued that saying MS's games, in terms of sales, have been stifled by only being on Xbox console-wise, may not be true because Nintendo's own games did very well even on dead systems like the Wii U.

If there is some "default" factor that could help MS's games sell better on PS than Xbox consoles just by virtue of being there and existing, it's probably because Sony haven't made their console irrelevant to a large group by doing Day 1 on PC for all of their games. So by virtue of that, there are more PS console owners, and more who exclusively or primarily use the console over something like PC.

Meaning a larger base for Microsoft to sell their games to with less crossover of having already accessed those games on Xbox OR PC.
 
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IDappa

Member
Yes, SteamDB only tracks Steam usage. Recently the server caps raised to 800K, so a little over half the players are on PC. I'd say it's probably ~ between 55% Steam/45% PS5 to 53% Steam/47% PS5.

As to the rest of that comment...surely you aren't saying I'm shilling or fanboying for Sony/PlayStation, right? Just because I'm trying to see the bigger picture with the game's popularity across PC & console, and know that if it were in fact leaning heavily on PC (Steam) carrying the game, there are many disingenuous people who'd be using it to push flimsy narratives and agendas? Which has already been happening.

My issue is people are using Helldivers 2 performance on Steam to draw conclusions that Sony should do certain other drastic things for PC going forward, when the correlations they're trying to make to reach that conclusion are extremely weak. I'd be doing the same if it were Xbox, but there's no point because Microsoft have already gone full-in with simultaneous console/PC Day 1 push (which I stand by saying, at some significant detriment to the appeal of their console to a lot of would-be customers).

Of course ultimately the game being successful is what should matter, but I don't think we have to dive into questionable, flawed takes like "No more exclusives!" "Exclusives are anti-consumer!!", "This is why Sony should go all-in Day 1 PC for all their games!" and other similar hogwash. Because unfortunately for the few that may just be saying that stuff with ulterior motives, that type of talk IMO has been poisoned by influencers, media and diehard fans of a very specific platform holder because that type of push just happens to conveniently fit the market strategy of said platform holder. And when even the CEO of the division of that platform is saying and signaling the same crap, then we get these narratives spun up with very convenient timing.

That is in some form, some type of (in this case nefarious) agenda to sway public opinion, and it's not nearly as "pro-consumer" as it lets on. It all "conveniently" works out best for that specific platform holder's financials and getting more control of the market. So it's actually purely capitalist desires hiding behind "pro-consumer" sentiment.

I don't like that.



BIG facts.



Wasn't that correlated with the infographic Mat Piscatella put up on Twitter? The one he then redacted because it wasn't representative of actual player counts across the console?

Because people were using that infographic (and point-in-time metrics like the one you're using here) to insinuate the overall player count on PS5 is very low for the game relative Steam. Yet that also matched with times the game was #1 on the platform for Most Played, even ahead of games like Fortnite and GTA5.

The infographic was for US-only but it still was a questionable graphic because I find it very hard to believe the biggest F2P games in the US had CCUs lower than 70K on PS5, except at the very lowest of load sessions. Regardless any takeaway that the Steam player-base for game is some > 6x larger than on PS5 based on a snapshot of CCUs at a very specific point in time, or a very limited infographic for only one region in the world, is foolish.

For example it could also be that in the US specifically most of the game's traffic is on Steam but in other parts of the world it's PS5. Yet since those parts of the world probably have peak game times outside of the peak hours the US has time zone-wise, if those other parts of the world are mainly accessing it on PS5s then during the US peaks PS5 usage would be low, freeing capacity on servers for Steam players.

That's how you might get things like the infographic Mat posted on Twitter a few days ago.



It's mystifying how so many refuse to see what's so obvious. There's an idea I had for Sony in terms of reigning in development costs though, although it might be somewhat contentious.

In the Insomniac hack we saw that their plan for Spiderman 3 is to split it up or "compartmentalize" it into hefty smaller chunks, with the single-player and then multi-player, and then some other thing. Maybe, in addition to the obvious measures for reducing costs (cutting some project redundancies with too much overlap of demo/genre, less licenses in some areas, more AA games etc.), Sony should consider making their AAA single-player epics "episodic".

I know some people hate the phrase "episodic" but I did always kind of think this would be a potential solution. In fact, with Game Pass I thought Microsoft would do this with a lot of their own games, but it's dawned on me they have very few games that actually lend themselves well to an episodic format. Whereas with Sony, they have tons of cinematic story-driven games, which go perfectly well with an episodic or semi-episodic approach.

So maybe for example, instead of one massive traditional release for say TLOU Part 3, they split it up into three parts, and release them in two-year intervals. They still can tell the same story they'd tell if it were a game with all three parts, but maybe in a semi-episodic format they can add a bit more content to each part vs. what they could do if it were a full game, and this would also let them get the game out there (at least part of it) sooner. You will still have the fans who want to get each part ASAP, meanwhile you can get more casual fans (old and new) to pick the game up down the line with al three parts packaged together, and that's also when they could bring the game to PC.

Why would this work? Because with a lot of these games, it's the content that takes the most time to make, by far. So having say a 2-year buffer between parts (but each part can feel like a full game in itself, sort of like a Miles Morales or Uncharted 4 Lost Legacy expansion) would give enough time to develop content for the next part. Meanwhile, they can price each part at say $30, which is probably the sweet spot, and treat it the same way they would with the game if it were released "normally". But if you do it in parts, people can start actually playing the game years earlier, and if there are small QOL improvements introduced with latter parts, the older parts can get updates to include them.

Of course, progress would have to be continued between them, but we already see how stuff like the Telltale games do it, or even better one of my favorite games ever, Shining Force III. That's actually the game I'm thinking of a lot while typing this, because even though it's split into three Scenarios, each one practically is a whole game unto itself, and decisions you make in the earlier Scenarios will carry over to the succeeding ones. But more importantly, they all feel like a seamless story and narrative, you don't feel like you're missing cut content, and they have all the things in each Scenario you'd get in a full game (full utilization of game mechanics, full normal challenge/difficulty curve, resolution to multiple (not all) plot points, etc.).

If each part takes 2 years to release, then you first do the normal B2P release at $30 (maybe $40 depending on the game but that'd be the upper limit), then when the next part is releasing you put it in PS+ for a limited period of time, then release the second part as B2P. Repeat the process until all the parts have been released and had some time in the service, then release them together as a single game on Steam. That'd be a good 4-6 years after initially releasing the parts (or Scenarios if sticking with SF III lingo) on console, and maybe there are additional QOL or bonus content included in the PC release but make that release priced at $50 or $60, and make the additional QOL and bonus content accessible to console owners for a free or small fee. And then 1-2 years later comes another new 1P AAA release for console using that same model.

Honestly I think if they take that approach, and they can combine it with something like a per-game sub model for the digital version (so maybe instead of paying $30 or $40 upfront, you pay $6/mo or $7/mo over a 6-month period, or even $3/mo - $4/mo over a 12-month period, that is a winning formula. The vast majority of the same people who buy the normal games for $70 Day 1 are going to buy the parts/Scenarios Day 1 for $30/$40, plus with the sub option get a lot of people who'd rather had waited until down the line to buy the game, to pick it up Day 1 as well. And since these would be digital sales, that means more profit each copy.

In fact, I think with the per-game sub option in particular it could free Sony up to change up stuff with PS+, such as getting rid of the online paywall on console, because even if some notable number of people drop PS+ Essentials as a result, they are very likely going to shift that spending towards buying more games Day 1 between both, say, 1P AAA games being broken up into parts/Scenarios and priced cheaper per-part/Scenario, and the sub option that can compound with that. Not all 1P AAA games can probably be broken up this way; I think something like Gran Turismo for example could only be separated in terms of the single-player and multi-player and that's it. But I'm mainly thinking of the story-heavy titles anyway.
I honestly think that at least at the start of all the hype that it was predominantly the pc crowd pumping the numbers up and hyping the game to the point more people on PlayStation have taken note and now are jumping in. I would say that the pc influence is un questionable at this point and has made this game smash internal projections.

I don’t think all games should be release on Xbox btw just that games like this where word of mouth and community are big factors in the success of said games.

My bad I was getting annoyed at being called a port begger when I have no dog in the race. I more so should have aimed the fanboy talk to the drive by empathy likes on my post.

In the end I think we will at the very least be seeing a lot more day and date Sony games on pc. I think the PlayStation “temporary” CEO said as much.
 
I honestly think that at least at the start of all the hype that it was predominantly the pc crowd pumping the numbers up and hyping the game to the point more people on PlayStation have taken note and now are jumping in. I would say that the pc influence is un questionable at this point and has made this game smash internal projections.

I don’t think all games should be release on Xbox btw just that games like this where word of mouth and community are big factors in the success of said games.

Well, it's nice to think games like this should be on Xbox because of factors like WOM, but I'd say Sony could amp up effect of WOM with the platforms they already support (PS5, PC), specifically PS5, by taking features from Steam that help with WOM and implementing them into the PlayStation experience. They don't "need" Xbox and neither do games like Helldivers 2.

Take it from this POV: did Fall Guys need Xbox to become super-popular when it did? What about Among Us? What about games like DOTA 2 and Counterstrike 2 (both Steam exclusive Valve games)? What about Splatoon 3? Honestly, none of those games "needed" Xbox, but FWIW Palworld didn't "need" PlayStation or Switch in order to blow up in popularity the way it did.

My bad I was getting annoyed at being called a port begger when I have no dog in the race. I more so should have aimed the fanboy talk to the drive by empathy likes on my post.

In the end I think we will at the very least be seeing a lot more day and date Sony games on pc. I think the PlayStation “temporary” CEO said as much.

It's hard to gauge what Totoki truly meant with those statements. But Day 1 PC could mean a lot of different things. They could just be referring to GaaS titles, as one example.

I strongly doubt it means the big tentpole single-player games, because there is no actual need. Neither to improve margins or to add value to the ecosystem. Besides, that would have some footprint of a negative effect on console adoption rates and revenue/profit margins on the console side. There isn't a reason to pursue that type of product cannibalization.

This was all too obvious:

They're not winning this one. But these could be pre-approved "thought experiments" you know 😉
 
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graywolf323

Member


Look at his shit. Seems this is the new talking point. Exclusives are suddenly bad now because of a failing platform's change in strategy. I wonder where all theses post were when Starfield released.

oh look Piscatella suddenly pushing a narrative that conveniently is what Xbox brass wants pushed recently 🤔

didn’t he have a different tune back when Starfield released? IIRC he was trying to help push narratives then too
 
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IDappa

Member
Well, it's nice to think games like this should be on Xbox because of factors like WOM, but I'd say Sony could amp up effect of WOM with the platforms they already support (PS5, PC), specifically PS5, by taking features from Steam that help with WOM and implementing them into the PlayStation experience. They don't "need" Xbox and neither do games like Helldivers 2.

Take it from this POV: did Fall Guys need Xbox to become super-popular when it did? What about Among Us? What about games like DOTA 2 and Counterstrike 2 (both Steam exclusive Valve games)? What about Splatoon 3? Honestly, none of those games "needed" Xbox, but FWIW Palworld didn't "need" PlayStation or Switch in order to blow up in popularity the way it did.



It's hard to gauge what Totoki truly meant with those statements. But Day 1 PC could mean a lot of different things. They could just be referring to GaaS titles, as one example.

I strongly doubt it means the big tentpole single-player games, because there is no actual need. Neither to improve margins or to add value to the ecosystem. Besides, that would have some footprint of a negative effect on console adoption rates and revenue/profit margins on the console side. There isn't a reason to pursue that type of product cannibalization.



They're not winning this one. But these could be pre-approved "thought experiments" you know 😉
Only problem is word of mouth only gets you so far, eventually population will fall off take fall guys for instance. It ended up needing to get onto more platforms, if that was due to decline or that was the plan all along idk. I would say it benefited from the extra players a great deal.

I fully believe that it will start off with their gaas games and then they will start to release their big single player games. May take a couple sp to come late and underperform, but either way it will happen.

Edit. When I say under perform I mean not hit their expectations…..
 
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