Not really the same. They (Sony) aren't going out their way to release on competitors platform, just yet. Which is where the warriors from both angles came out to play.
They're probably looking at ROI on upcoming live service games that need a strong player base to get going, and keep people engaged on them. And releasing Bungie next games plus some of theirs will do that. That and double down on PC releases. Plus rein in on spiralling AAA development.
Steam is already a competing platform with PlayStation. It's one of the last things Jim Ryan said before announcing his retirement.
So at that point, if they get more aggressive with 1P games to Steam, why not do the same for Nintendo's hardware, or even Xbox? What is really the difference anymore, at that point?
This is why the PC strategy was always a slippery slope to me when it came to PlayStation, because like with Xbox, it starts small. Then before you know it, everything's Day and Date.
And as tomorrow might end up showing, that can eventually mean 'Day and Date' on all gaming devices. PC, consoles, mobile you name it.
That said, I hope their plans of action are in line with what you're saying they likely should be. That would be the preferred outcome. Make most of the GaaS multiplatform (and not just PC; some should be on mobile as well) Day 1 offerings (but try including perks for PS+ members). Get the costs of the AAA games down. Get back to making some 1P AA games. Don't devalue the 1P AAA games too quickly by rushing them into PS+ (like they did with HFW) or to PC.
Also, anytime a PC port does come along, make sure console is getting something new to balance it out.
Going by the statement, it’s logical Sony will push more first party games day one or a lot closer than usual for PC.
They already just did Helldivers 2 and it’s been a big success. Literally like 50x bigger than Helldivers 1 being ported and it barely found 5000 Steam gamers at any given time.
For every PS gamer actually going PC is small. And everyone knows it. You’ll get way more incremental sales opening it up on PC early as opposed to the laughable Trojan Horse theory saying if you delay games on PC it’ll make them all but a PS5. If that’s true Helldivers 2 would come out a year from now where all the PC gamers begging to play would buy a PS5 and Sony will maximize revenue as they are now in the PS ecosystem instead of a Steam sale.
Apple found that out 20 years ago when then opened up the Macs and IPods and iTunes to PC users. There’s only so much growth you can get be walled off for decades, hence Sony doing PC ports and even MLB The Show on Xbox and switch. It’s just that a company like Apple did it decades ago. For every hardcore pissed off Apple fan lost to PC, they probably gained 1000 users using Apple stuff. They expanded their pie slice a million times over.
Every PS customer who migrates to PC is probably also a high ARPU customer, though. Let's look at it like attach rates: the typical PS customer who decides to still buy the console, has an attach rate of between 1:1 to 5:1. The ones who probably decide to go to PC, likely have attach rates of between 15:1 to 20:1.
If I'm a business, I'd be a lot more upset losing that 20:1 customer than four 5:1 customers, because per-customer I get a lot more return on my investment from the 20:1 person than any of the 5:1 ones.
