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If Sony really cared about making money on PC with single player games

SNG32

Member
If Sony is serious about maximizing revenue on PC for its single-player titles, it would have made more sense to begin by releasing the legacy entries of its major franchises. Launching earlier installments of series like Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, and God of War would allow PC players to build familiarity with these IPs and better understand the overall narratives, rather than jumping straight into the most recent entries.

From what I understand, Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima performed well on PC in part because players had access to the first installments of those stories. By contrast, releasing only the latest entries from long-running franchises limits engagement and long-term investment.

If Sony intends to continue delivering underwhelming or technically inconsistent ports—such as the initial launches of The Last of Us and Spider-Man—then maintaining console exclusivity may ultimately protect the brand better. PC players tend to reward quality. When a strong, polished product is delivered—like the Resident Evil franchise, where nearly every installment is accessible on PC—sales reflect that commitment.

It can sometimes feel as though Sony expects PC players to purchase years-old console titles at premium pricing while also expecting console-launch-level sales performance. That approach overlooks how the PC market operates. If the effort and quality are there, PC players will support the product. If not, exclusivity may be the better option.

Do you agree?
 
This might be a moot point if Sony is backing away from putting their titles on PC. If so, sure, a better made product is likely to get higher sales.
 
They won't be anymore, if you want to play the epic PlayStation Studios AAA games you need to buy a PlayStation - only GAAS slop goes on PC as well.
 
They're scrambling to figure out how to survive next gen. I agree that taking their exclusives off PC gives them the best chance. They have little to steer young people to a $900 PS6 when $400 generic Steam Machines will be available
 
Sony doesn't give a fuck about PC

Lock this thread
You are a very salty man when it comes to PC my bro!

Facial Expression Ugh GIF by Yeremia Adicipta
 
They're scrambling to figure out how to survive next gen. I agree that taking their exclusives off PC gives them the best chance. They have little to steer young people to a $900 PS6 when $400 generic Steam Machines will be available
Survive against who? Sony is the sole player in the premium console market.
 
They're scrambling to figure out how to survive next gen. I agree that taking their exclusives off PC gives them the best chance. They have little to steer young people to a $900 PS6 when $400 generic Steam Machines will be available
But let's be honest especially with the younger gen they don't give a fuck about the single player games like that either other than the marvel games really. The third party games are want really moves the needle for PlayStation.

You will probably be able to count on one hand maybe two of the amount of single player exclusives that will be on PS6 and we know 3 of them are remakes.
 
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I don't think they are serious or the games would of course launch at the same time.

I think they have a separate part of the company mining/salvaging the back catalog for revenue as long as it doesn't interfere with the main show. It's not the priority though. Hopefully sony will hold back some crown jewels just for the console or at least delay the time before release to 2-3 years instead of just 1 year(or 6 months). Of course gaas, indie level games(kena) and 2nd party style games can go to PC but Sony needs to hold a couple back for the folks.
 
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Survive against who? Sony is the sole player in the premium console market.
I think it all changes when Steam OS goes out to Chinese OEMs who can litter Amazon and TikTok shop with $400 boxes that can play e-sports, 2K, FIFA and the current rage game slop of the month. I've got three teenagers in my house and consoles to them are a quaint boomer relic. Especially when it comes to spending their own money on one.
 
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I think it all changes when Steam OS goes out to Chinese OEMs who can litter Amazon and TikTok shop with $400 boxes that can play e-sports, 2K, FIFA and the current rage game slop of the month. I've got three teenagers in my house and consoles to them are a quaint boomer relic. Especially when it comes to spending their own money on one.
They could have already been doing this though. Why would they wait for Steam OS?
 
If Sony is serious about maximizing revenue on PC for its single-player titles, it would have made more sense to begin by releasing the legacy entries of its major franchises. Launching earlier installments of series like Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, and God of War would allow PC players to build familiarity with these IPs and better understand the overall narratives, rather than jumping straight into the most recent entries.

From what I understand, Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima performed well on PC in part because players had access to the first installments of those stories. By contrast, releasing only the latest entries from long-running franchises limits engagement and long-term investment.

If Sony intends to continue delivering underwhelming or technically inconsistent ports—such as the initial launches of The Last of Us and Spider-Man—then maintaining console exclusivity may ultimately protect the brand better. PC players tend to reward quality. When a strong, polished product is delivered—like the Resident Evil franchise, where nearly every installment is accessible on PC—sales reflect that commitment.

It can sometimes feel as though Sony expects PC players to purchase years-old console titles at premium pricing while also expecting console-launch-level sales performance. That approach overlooks how the PC market operates. If the effort and quality are there, PC players will support the product. If not, exclusivity may be the better option.

Do you agree?
I somewhat agree but you don't really need background knowledge to play Rift Apart, Sackboy or whatever. Also PC players do not "reward quality" if anything they're really into early access jankfests more than others and often forgive broken games like cyberpunk down the line. Its when they always had an unhealthy hatred for the game to begin with for other reasons that you can't do anything about.
 
I mostly agree. If Sony wants long-term PC success, releasing earlier entries first and ensuring polished ports would build stronger investment and trust. PC players reward quality and complete experiences, not just big names at premium prices.
 
Because Windows is expensive and they get to ride on Steam and Xbox Magnus marketing.
There's several other Linux OS's that are very good alternatives to Steam OS and function very similarly using Proton and linux version of Steam and other stores.

Bazzite being the most popular: https://bazzite.gg/

Many prefer it to Steam OS.

You are right that kids are caring less and less about game consoles, but they also likely aren't buying a $400 PC to play Spider-Man 2 on it either.
 
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People forget that at first porting to PC was justified with: well it's a lot of money for no effort at all! And that was true at the beginning with Horizon, God of War and Days Gone.
But right after some games flopped and the excuses started. Sony should have done this, this and this! Wait a minute didn't you tell me that it was no effort at all?
Should've pulled the plug back then, took them long enough but 4 years later they're finally thinking about it.
 
People forget that at first porting to PC was justified with: well it's a lot of money for no effort at all! And that was true at the beginning with Horizon, God of War and Days Gone.
But right after some games flopped and the excuses started. Sony should have done this, this and this! Wait a minute didn't you tell me that it was no effort at all?
Should've pulled the plug back then, took them long enough but 4 years later they're finally thinking about it.
Have you seen some of the videos of what last of us looked like when it released and the memory leaks Spidr-man 2? So what people should pay premium price for a product and when it's not good port people shouldn't complain?
 
You seem to think that porting those old games to PC is as simple as right clicking on the file and selecting "export for PC". Theres a real economics question to answer there as well. The PS1 Final Fantasy games are like $12 on Steam, for example. Does it make sense to sell the old Ratchet games on PC for $9 a pop?

How bout porting Bloodborne and Demon's Souls… Nah, that would be too easy.
Would be easier than what OP is suggesting lol.

I do agree that they need to be more consistent in their approach to PC. But as someone said in another thread recently. The reason for the gap is a reflection of the gap in first party releases over the last few years.
 
if that's what it takes it's not worth it

Why isn't it worth it if it makes money? Is Sony not a business at the end of the day. A whole studio has been shutdown and people laid off and the studio that got shutdown specializes in legacy ports Sony maybe could have used them to help alongside of Nixxes to get these people work and who knows these ports could have sold decent enough to prevent people from losing their jobs.
 
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Sony needs to either go day and date. Or release these games on PC at a 30-50 dollar price tag. Not many people are paying 70 dollars for a 1-2 year old game.
 
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just release on PC like a gen later, that way theyre not cannibalizing their consoles
I find that argument weird. People say all the time, people buy consoles because they're cheap and easy. No hassle, no adjusting settings, no windows, just plug n play. All of a sudden people are going to fork over thousands because God of war remake is on PC? I'd wager Sony is doing this because the next Xbox. Only way it makes sense.
 
I find that argument weird. People say all the time, people buy consoles because they're cheap and easy. No hassle, no adjusting settings, no windows, just plug n play. All of a sudden people are going to fork over thousands because God of war remake is on PC? I'd wager Sony is doing this because the next Xbox. Only way it makes sense.
This is what I believe the reason is to. They don't want hardware with the name Xbox having open access to their games.
 
If they didn't then why release games on the platform then?

Shortsighted management, nothing more nothing less.

Bringing most of the GAAS to PC makes sense, and ports of very old games with some QOL features would've made sense too. But SIE went the full stupid route this gen and are lucky MS lobotomized themselves with 10x worst business decisions, to a degree.

I find that argument weird. People say all the time, people buy consoles because they're cheap and easy. No hassle, no adjusting settings, no windows, just plug n play. All of a sudden people are going to fork over thousands because God of war remake is on PC? I'd wager Sony is doing this because the next Xbox. Only way it makes sense.

It's less that and more just PC in general. SIE have to consider their console as a long-term hardware business; it's a big factor into their gaming revenue and considering PC already has an advantage in various games with no console ports, making PS stand out in the market comes down to three things: software library, system features, and price point.

Sony have their work cut out for them to bring general PS features on par with gaming PCs, specifically now that stuff like SteamOS is so polished and Valve are committed to expanding on both that and purpose-driven hardware like Steam Machine. Sony also can't guarantee that PS will remain competitive against such devices on price, particularly if they themselves are scaling back on the types of subsidization they did during the PS1, PS2, and PS3 eras.

That leaves just software library as the main thing they have some immediate control over, and when you share almost all of your library with PC, then having games which act as product differentiators matters that much more. It's why they're shifting on their multiplatform strategy to some degree, if the talks are true & pan out. Doesn't mean they get to skimp on providing good performance-for-price competitive with other consoles or emerging PC/console hybrids, or get to skimp on improving their suite of features & services. It's just that for the immediate term, realigning a portion of their 1P output is something they have fully control over and can implement rather easily.

Of course, there could be a catch to this, i.e if SIE 1P studios only collectively make 8-10 non-GAAS AAA or AA games a gen, but they pump out 20-25 GAAS titles, then you can argue those wanting more non-GAAS are still getting shortchanged in some capacity. Also worth asking how many non-GAAS AAA/AA games going forward will be cross-gen vs. not, because anything cross-gen may ask the question of what specific PS6 features are they utilizing to justify acting as a push for that system (and drive customer engagement to it over, say, PS5).

SIE could treat PS6 somewhat like a GPU upgrade in such a case, but they'll need silicon like PSSR which can be upgraded over the course of the gen to provide better & better performance, as asking console gamers to buy new hardware every 1-2 years isn't going to go over well.
 
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I find that argument weird. People say all the time, people buy consoles because they're cheap and easy. No hassle, no adjusting settings, no windows, just plug n play. All of a sudden people are going to fork over thousands because God of war remake is on PC? I'd wager Sony is doing this because the next Xbox. Only way it makes sense.
pc market is the largest market. lots of people who already having PCs.
re-releasing an old game on pc is relatively cheap and easy. large ROI potential for sony.

when ps5 is out, dont release ps5 games on pc (protect console sales).
when ps6 is out, then start to release ps5 games on pc (tap into large market, double dippers, "best version", etc).
 
Those are the kind of titles that would sell like shit on Steam, for anything more than 15 bucks a pop.

So no, you're wrong.

Although not putting Uncharted Thieves Collection before UC4 and expecting good sales was kinda a dumb move as well
 
Those are the kind of titles that would sell like shit on Steam, for anything more than 15 bucks a pop.

So no, you're wrong.

Although not putting Uncharted Thieves Collection before UC4 and expecting good sales was kinda a dumb move as well
The price should've definitely be cheaper especially if these games are two years old. Only way games should be full price on PC is if they are doing day and date.
 
I think it all changes when Steam OS goes out to Chinese OEMs who can litter Amazon and TikTok shop with $400 boxes that can play e-sports, 2K, FIFA and the current rage game slop of the month. I've got three teenagers in my house and consoles to them are a quaint boomer relic. Especially when it comes to spending their own money on one.
These boomer relics sure sure sell a lot though.
 
What about they dump everything, cancel Playstation all together then keep releasing everything on Steam!

We are getting advance ways to portbeg! Lol
 
If they didn't then why release games on the platform then?
Because they were curious about how much of an audience was on PC to generate extra revenue, that experiment failed in their eyes, only a small handful sold well, a lot bombed.
 
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