Can someone explain why the other threads devolved into people arguing about PC versus ps sales?
Just saw pages of arguments and my eyes glazed over. Who is upset about a larger player base?
I didn't see people complaining about cheating which seems like the biggest concern BTW ps and PC games working together.
Just seems like a really weird thing to argue about as a Playstation lover.
Well, there are a
LOT of disingenuous Xbox fanboys who are trying to masquerade as PlayStation players wanting both all Sony 1P games on PC Day 1, and for Sony to bring Helldivers 2 to Xbox (really: Game Pass. They just aren't saying the quiet part out loud yet).
That compounds with Good Guy Phil™ crying and port-begging about Helldivers 2 not being on Xbox, and trying to signal that a world without exclusives is better for everyone (because exclusives haven't done much for boosting Xbox consoles in particular...maybe because all of its "exclusives" are also Day 1 on PC?). So, two related narratives feeding off each other, and of course you have the Steam & PCMR diehards who have their own reasons for pushing Sony to make all their games Day 1 on PC, at the very real detriment of their own console hardware, similar to what's happened with Xbox.
Therefore it's important to keep the knowledge of those dubious narratives in mind because if someone like Dring reports 60^% of HD2 sales are on PC, it inevitably leads to those aforementioned narratives being spun up. Without even taking into considering factors such as PS5/PC owners who opted to buy the game on Steam due to potentially cheaper prices, better performance, streamer/influencer element (if all the biggest streamers/content creators are playing it on Steam, that's a network effect convincing new people to buy it on Steam rather than PS5), and free online play.
Notice that when Sony waived the PS+ requirement last weekend there was an even bigger surge of purchasing & playing behavior on the console? Well, Steam regularly enjoys that benefit, plus things like transparent player data metrics, game metrics (CCUs, pricing history, etc.) and integrated forums that consoles like PlayStation lack. With those factors accounted for, I'm not surprised that even a good number of PS5 owners prob bought the game on Steam instead, and why Steam consists of 60%+ of current sales.
However, many of these are things Sony could be a lot more competitive with PlayStation on, if they take Jim Ryan's quote about PC being competition for PlayStation to heart. Because clearly Xbox consoles aren't providing much competition anymore and Nintendo "competes" but in a very different way, so which platform is the one most directly similar to Sony's? PC.
Ironically I'd say say Sony are in a similar spot Microsoft were in during the late '90s/early '00s when they feared PlayStation would destroy Windows. Let's just hope Sony doesn't make the same mistake Microsoft did. Microsoft's mistake was they left PC behind (assuming it'd be there for them always in terms of PC gaming dominance) to chase Sony in the console market, then Valve came in and usurped PC gaming from right under Microsoft altogether (in terms of the platform getting the vast majority of the money).
Sony "chasing Valve" to put all their games on PC storefronts like Steam would be effectively the same mistake, leaving a big gap open for someone like Nintendo, a new company (maybe Valve decides to make a console?), or even a resurgent Xbox (not likely, but until they officially exit the traditional console market with their hardware you can't say it's a 0% chance) to erode away their console market presence.
More day and date PC releases is just a no-brainer at this point.
For GaaS titles yes it probably makes sense. For the tentpole AAA single-player titles it would be detrimental to the console's value appeal towards a subset of core gamers, and lead to a decline in early adoption of new hardware (meaning overall decline in lifetime hardware sales since non-core gamers buy in later based a lot on early momentum set by core gamers), plus decline in revenue & even profits.
What uptick there'd be in PC sales wouldn't offset it because a lot of that "uptick" would just be a lateral transfer of console owners shifting to PC instead.
There is zero chance that the console-demographic will collectively move to PC gaming for the foreseeable future.
And console-exclusivity will always be important to Playstation and especially Nintendo.
Yeah, most console owners won't, even if Sony did for example push Day 1 for all games to PC.
But it's the ones who
would jump to PC that would be troubling. Say out of a typical 100 million PS install base for console, 30 million are hardcore/core gamers, 55 million are mainstream/casual, and the other 15 million aren't unique players but hardcore/core who buy multiple consoles for whatever reason.
Say out of the 30 million hardcore/core, 50% are the highest ARPU customer type in the ecosystem. They're the ones who mainly buy those other 15 million "leftover" systems, for example. So that's 15 million. And out of that, 50% will stay locked into console no matter what but the other 50% could be swayed one way or another. Considering 20 million PS4 Pros were sold, and PS4 Pros mostly sold to (I'd assume) hardcore & core gamers, I don't think it's a reach to say that there are ~ 30 million hardcore/core gamers in that ecosystem and roughly half being among the highest ARPU customer.
So say the customers with the highest ARPU not only spend the most (let's say $7,500 each over the course of the console generation), but also buy new hardware Day 1 (or within the launch period), sub at the highest subscription tier, spend the most on peripherals etc. They also are the ones Sony have to spend the least money on to net into the ecosystem, so ROI they make on these customers is highest. That's a total of $56.25 billion Sony are making in revenue off those 7.5 million highest-ARPU hardcore/core customers who WOULD consider switching to PC if given enough reasons to, during the course of a console generation.
7.5 million out of 85 million (in terms of unique users) is still pretty small, but it's the money that goes with them where it'd hurt PlayStation console-wise. If they go PC, they likely aren't buying consoles anymore, they likely aren't buying as many 1P peripherals anymore, any 3P peripherals they buy won't get Sony a cut, they likely aren't subbing to any tier PS+, they aren't buying any of their 3P games through PS Store or for a console (no 30% cut for Sony), etc. And they do all of that at far higher frequency ($$$ spent) than the majority of mainstream & casual console owners, or even some of the mid-ARPU hardcore/core enthusiasts.
That's an inherent risk Sony runs if they decide to push Day 1 on PC for all their games, without some serious contingencies on the PC side like relegating that push to their own launcher/storefront (which has its own major risks). And it's way too soon to be considering that anyhow, because consoles overall are still doing very well. This weird obsession with "growth" is what will end up probably killing the industry. I don't see analysts saying the cable industry needs to constantly keep getting new viewers, or the book publishing industry needs more and more readers in order to be considered "healthy". The need for "growth" is really just capitalist greed from investors & shareholders who don't even truly understand the non-monetary qualities and value of the gaming market, because many of them aren't gamers and don't know or appreciate gaming history from a cultural POV.
I'd even bet most of them are just vulture capitalists and speculators, we've seen the same happen with industries like comics in the past (and that led to the direct implosion of the physical comics market in the '90s).
