Do you think poor Sony would be able to achieve this?
Not even your triple trillion-dollar company (which made the very own platform) was able to do it....3 times.
Well, GOG managed to and they're worth a fraction of Sony and Nintendo who are worth a fraction of Microsoft.
This makes me think they will continue without their own store, or that they don't plan to buy Valve, Epic or CD Project. Or at least that they will continue publishing their PC ports on multiple stores and that won't go exclusive with any of them.
I think that in the long term Sony will end having their own PC PSN store/launcher to save the 30%, but won't do it for a while because they only have a few games now.
Maybe for some F2P or for some remaster, but I don't see it for brand new games.
TBH I don't think they'd need to buy either of those companies (and for various reasons, couldn't buy Valve without probably having it ruled as anti-competitive), just a partnership.
While their latest investments in Epic probably aren't specifically tied to EGS, I wouldn't be surprised if that is at least a factor into the investments. Epic already only take 12% of the cut; maybe they reduce that to 10% with Sony's games, and Sony might look to publish certain 3P games on PC or co-publish PC versions of certain 3P games.
Or possibly Epic waives their cut for Sony's games altogether but they work on integrating PS+ features and compatibility into EGS, and tie subscription perks into EGS to match PS+ ones (current and forthcoming). That would also incentivize more 3P publishers to bring their releases to EGS as the favored storefront. I wouldn't expect them or Sony to stop bringing their games to Steam, just that there could be benefits like the aforementioned and maybe some others (like a 10% discount) for buying them on EGS vs. Steam.
It's an interesting possibility but it's probably a decent ways out before seeing if there's any movement towards it.
Sony also makes a good amount of money from people buying 3rd party games on their console storefront. It doesnt make sense to lead those buyers away to other storefronts
Glad someone mentioned it; this is probably why their plans might just be mainly for the live-service games on PC. Especially for Day-and-Date, it makes sense for most of those to be on PC because it's best for playerbase parity. If the playerbase has parity (in terms of time to learn the game) then they're more likely to be invested to also buy content in the game over time.
Plus, PlayStation's brand image in terms of exclusives that are drivers for console sales and image isn't based on live-service games. Stuff like TLOU2 Factions I can easily see Day 1 on PS5 & PC. But the single-player games, no not for a while. Seems like Sony's plan is to use the recurring revenue from live-service proliferation on PlayStation & PC platforms to offset development & marketing costs of the AAA single-player games, and then bring those to PC maybe a year or so after release (though it could be longer).
I'm curious what bringing all of their 1P games to PC Day 1 would do in terms of affecting console sales and, potentially, revenue from 3P sales and MTX/DLC on the console. But I'm sure it would depreciate that to some degree, and I don't think Sony are going to ever consider Day 1 or any severely shortened window between PS & PC releases until or unless they can gauge the revenue from a couple of the live-service games they use as tests on both platforms. If those can show enough revenue to offset projected losses in 3P revenue and hardware sales revenue (and potentially subscription revenue too), then they'll be more open to the idea. If they can't, they won't.
Also they have to consider how that possible side-effect (depreciation of 3P sales from less consoles due to doing Day 1 for PS & PC for all games) impacts their 3P partners; if they can't ensure enough of the PS playerbase that'd buy their game on PS, moves over to doing so on PC, then they potentially lose out on customers as well, and that puts a strain on Sony's relationship with those publishers. So it's more than just Sony having to look out for their own interests; they're kind of responsible for making sure their 3P partners also make out of that situation with net positives, too, or it costs Sony.
I wouldn't be so sure that investment has anything to do with the Epic Game Store at all.
Not specifically, no. But it might be a factor into influencing the rounds of investments they've done into Epic. But yeah I do think stuff like UE5 usage in film/television/games, Fortnite etc. are bigger reasons for those investments.