Killjoy-NL
Member
If you don't understand the devalue talk, how is Xbox hardware sales going?
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mat Piscatella: PC has been a huge part of the success of Helldivers II in the US.
Little Chicken
Member
Sony finding more value as a third party developer, interesting 
feynoob
Member
It's a hassle explaining things to you guys, when you are bringing this point nonstop.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Because it's relevant, whether you want to accept it or not.
It's a hassle explaining things to you guys, when you are bringing this point nonstop.
How well do you expect Series to continue selling now that their games are going to Playstation and Nintendo as well?
feynoob
Member
At this stage, waiting 2 years is meaningless, if this list continues to grow.
Because this list should make Sony PS irrelevent in the long term according to your logic.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Should've used the search function sooner, because this was you last year:
It's a hassle explaining things to you guys, when you are bringing this point nonstop.
People forget that even Helldivers 1 launched on PC just 6 months after PS4 in 2015. Helldivers 2 isn't some new discovery they're making a decade later. It was always a multiplatform strategy with these type of games even if people want to frame it as one or try and push a narrative that you can’t find success without PC releases.
feynoob
Member
Sales people are crazy. I appreciate the effort sony is taking putting their games on steam.
Hopefully they can establish themselves as a key player in steam/pc.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
The bolded sounds great to me. Playstation has never been super tied to any direct franchises like that in the past.
Then what is PC gaming?
feynoob
Member
PC stands for Private communism. We value the idea of sharing your belongings to everyone.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Sure but they also eat single player games for breakfast see Steams sales history for the last 4 years. Sony games don't do well because they launch late unlike all of those successful games all of which launch simultaneously on PC & consoles.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
That's bullshit PC is one of the biggest platforms for single player story games see: Resident Evil 2, 3, Village, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk and the Cyberpunk expansion which sold more on PC than PS, Hogwarts Legacy which still often shows up on Steam top seller, Baldurs Gate 3 which broke records on Steam before it even launched on any other platform. Elden Ring sold massively on Steam and that's a primarily single player game, Mount & Blade 2 sold incredibly well (10+mil sales), Starfield despite being on PC Gamepass and Xbox as well as Xbox Gamepass sold really well on Steam.
There's a reason Capcom a traditionally single player game publisher switched their main platform from Playstation to PC and that's because they make more revenue from those games on PC. In 2007 you would have been right but that was 15 years ago, times have changed. Steam is a power house in many ways bigger than PS5 and it is a growing market unlike consoles which are currently tracking slightly lower than their predecessors in userbase.
James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
Why does launching late matter?
Are you not going to play a game just because it launches late?
So GTA6 on PC is going to be a flop?
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
GTA is literally too big to matter they could launch GTA6 in 2033 and it would still sell. GTA is on the level of Minecraft or Roblox on PC/Consoles they are outliers, Minecraft and GTA5 could launch on PS6 in 2030 and they'd still sell a ton of units. As for why does it matter?
- 1) The finality of the Marketing budget, when a game launches the launch window marketing budget is massive as that's when marketing matters most as that's when most preorders and sales happen and that's when you need your game to get noticed in the sea of digital store games. Points in time before then receive a much smaller portion of the marketing budget (think 1 year before launch or earlier) as do points after it (think the marketing budget of a new update), a later PC or Switch release of a game generally gets a vastly smaller marketing budget because the majority of the budget was spent when the game originally launched. All of those mega expensive commercials, TV spots, Superbowl style ads, local ads tend to all be passed on the for a later release and that's because there's just not much budget to spend on a late release of game to a new platform. But if it was a multiplatform day 1 launch all platforms benefit from the massive launch window marketing budget (think Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, Resident Evil 4 and Hogwarts Legacy).
- 2) The X Factor. The X factor is the mystery factor i.e the "nobody has played this game yet so it's a mystery" this creates hype, anticipation and excitement because people don't know how amazing of an experience the game will be and marketing always promises something great "but will it be?". People will then preorder in anticipation of a great game and watch the (Steam) game launch countdown to play the game day 1. If the game is already old then the industry already knows what the game is, when the Witcher 3 came out on Switch it wasn't some new Witcher, people understood it was an old game, something many had played before and there wasn't this excitement like there is for the Witcher 4. If Cyberpunk launches on Switch 2 (it likely will) it'll be the same, prerelease people were massively hyped about CP77 because they didn't know what it was yet, a Switch 2 release will not have the excitement because the game is a known quantity.
- 3) The Zeitgeist effect. This is the memetic (in the traditional sense) or cultural effect of consumers simultaneously experiencing the game at the same time at launch. This creates a word of mouth buzz and social event where people are discovering things together and sharing those experiences with their friends and online (think launch of Elden Ring or Hogwarts Legacy). If Nintendo releases Smash bros Melee or Ultimate on PC there wouldn't be a big Zeitgeist because those games are old and a very well known quantity with entire wikis filled with every mystery and thing that can happen in those games.
- You put together these effects and it creates a tsunami of excitement for an unreleased product. The kind of tsunami games like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk and Hogwarts Legacy have benefitted from. Before Cyberpunk had even launched it already had sold 7mil preorders despite nobody knowing what the game really was until release, people didn't care they were wrapped in the tsunami people tend to call the hype cycle. God of War 2018 launching on PC in 2022 wasn't going to benefit from a massive marketing budget, the X factor nor the Zeitgeist because Sony wasn't going to spend GoW 2018 launch or GoW Ragnarok launch level marketing, on a single late release of an old game. There would be no X factor because everything has ready been discussed to death when it launched and you could find entire story walkthroughs and breakdowns on YouTube before it even launched on PC. And finally no Zeitgeist because it's a known quantity the gaming community isn't experiencing this together for the first time like the day 1 launch of Elden Ring.
This is why 99.999% of all publishers stopped doing late PC launches (unless there's an exclusivity contract which usually just means Square Enix) which used to be the meta for PC releases back in the day. They stopped because they noticed they made way more money from simultaneous launches than late launches.
Killjoy-NL
Member
It doesn't matter though, what other publishers do irt releasedates.
Playstation is a platformholder and market-leader by far in the console-market.
They're not 1:1 comparable to publishers like EA or Ubisoft.
Consoles are the core of their business and they cannot follow Xbox in going day 1 on PC for all games and ultimately lose marketshare for their core business.
The only one that did, was MS, because they were kinda forced as they were going to lose a lot of marketshare anyway.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
You're right that it's not 1 to 1 but this is the same argument people made for 40 years now as to why a console platform holder shouldn't put their games on other platforms. Eventually Xbox did it and then Sony followed suit. What I'm saying is that the rules of the game aren't static you can't count on what worked in the past being what'll work in the future. In 2016 nobody would have guessed that Sony was putting their flagship games on PC. In march 2020 when Horizon was announced on PC nobody would have guessed that Sony would ever put **any game** day 1 on PC. Yet now we have Helldivers 2. Times change, no one can say what Sony will do in the future.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Xbox and Playstation also can't be compared.
Playstation is market-leader, Xbox is dead last.
That's like comparing Usaine Bolt to some champion from the Paralympics.
Last edited:
Zathalus
Member
What downfall? There has been no major drop in player count.
Fabieter
Member
For now. Wait until June and let's see how it will change.
Topher
Gold Member
Even if the PC numbers are halved, that is still better than if the game were only on PlayStation so what you are saying doesn't make any sense.
Last edited:
Zathalus
Member
feynoob
Member
Correct. I am not wrong on that part. Us old farts would not spend on all 3 systems, if one device has their games.
However, there are new audience to gaming every gen. People who leave will get replaced by new audience. Like kids who turned 16+.
feynoob
Member
PC has other purposes, console don't. Gaming is just tiny part of PC
Fabieter
Member
The younger generation is doing most of that stuff on mobile, the problem is they are doing gaming on mobile as. well.
demigod
Member
How did you gain 30 years in just 7 months?
Killjoy-NL
Member
I don't even think you truly believe that yourself.
feynoob
Member
feynoob
Member
You will see yourself in 3 years time.
feynoob
Member
This is the real problem. My little siblings don't want to play on consoles at all. They are all busy on their tablets.
Fabieter
Member
Well they don't go for pc either. They do all their homework also on tablets. Old folks will have to settle with this in the future.
Killjoy-NL
Member
See what? Xbox making a comeback?
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
You're just proving my point, folks absolutely did compare Xbox to Playstation in the 2005-2013 era. But guess what now you don't, you wanna know what changed? The times.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "The only constant is change"
yurinka
Member
Microsoft will have way more revenue, profit (or less loses) and game sales being full multiplatform, even if their console dies.
Sony has been releasing PC ports for years. Their console active userbase is at all time records level and growing. Their console game sales keep improving and reaching new records of revenue. Their first party games too. And the sequels of the first party games ported to PC too, even break all time fastest selling records for any Sony exclusive.
Sony's strategy is very different than the MS one, and their results too.
Last edited:
bender
What time is it?
Maybe you are adopted.
feynoob
Member
feynoob
Member
That ship sanked down long time ago. There is no saving for them, if MS doesnt give a crap about them.
PC is slowly becoming useless for these tasks. Everything is mobile/tablet these days.
Fabieter
Member
They missed their target for hardware, falling back behind the ps4 again this upcoming year because they expect decline in hardware mid generation with the rumored ps5 pro coming up, which never happened before. Steam players are reportedly refunding this game in the millions. Sony is loosing more and more players and sales to pc and switch but everything is fine.
Topher
Gold Member
Last edited:
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
Except there’s no list for “greatest trajectory of all time”.
Whatever that even means.It’s a live game, it’s honeymoon phase will pass.
Last edited:
feynoob
Member
Hardware is a loss sale for them.
The revenue is higher with game sales due to MTX and other garbage monitization. You can sell less and make more money in the process if you add too much mtx. Its why MS stopped caring about Xbox hardware. They know they will make more money with live service games and software sales on other platforms. Subs is even bringing more money to them.
We are thinking too much about hardware sales.
Fabieter
Member
Yes but we can't compare sony to ms. Ms gets money through people moving to pc and playing games on steam just because they are getting so much data from us. It doesnt matter to Microsoft as a whole because they win anyway, that's not true with sony.
feynoob
Member
isnt steam refund 2 hours?Where is this "report" that "millions" are refunding the game?
Meanwhile....
Topher
Gold Member
Yes, but Valve seems to be making an exception in the case of Helldivers 2. I've seen nothing suggesting the number of refunds are in the millions though.
feynoob
Member
Geez, uncle Gabe cares about us too much.
Topher
Gold Member
Last edited:
demigod
Member
Similar threads
- Poll