Will Sony become third party publisher?

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The "PS and consoles are doomed" threads are hilarious when Playstation is doing better than ever:
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Sony is in control of one of the main platforms for "traditional" (as in not mobile) gaming. They make a ton of money by just taking a cut from every game, DLC and microtransaction sold on their platform. The exclusives are the cherry on top, not their main income source.
Why would they give it up?


You think they'd make more money selling 2-3 AAA games a year on Steam?
 
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It's pretty obvious the old console model will go the way of the Dodo eventually, it just takes a lot of time. Younger generations simply don't accept the premise of closed ecosystems that are made obsolete every couple years.
 
They've been putting games on PC for 5 years now. They are posting record profits. They aren't gonna stop. They are also licensing out their IPs to Namco for Switch and PC releases. Compare this to Nintendo who basically has their own dev team at Namco that only works on Nintendo exclusives. I think they are still gonna make hardware obviously but they are basically already a 3rd party publisher.
 
Punished Miku said:
All the untapped growth globally and in Asia will mostly be on PC also.
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I repeat what I've said about this before:

One has to consider that Microsoft has had an aggressive PC strategy for most of 10 years at this point, and it hasn't helped the sales of their games or their consoles, which are and were selling worse than ever even pre-Gamepass, let alone post. Europe, America, China, India, it has absolutely not helped them in any region in any way.

If there ever comes a point when the Chinese audience's gaming diet isn't a closed rotation of League, Genshin and Chinese mobile gacha, it would behoove PlayStation to be in a position where their hardware is protected.
 
PC players seem to care as much about Sony's third person open world games as much as they do about Ubi's third person open world games so it might not make much sense right now.

If they ever have an studio that releases stuff like BG3, KCD2, or even some great JRPG like Persona/Expedition 33 then i could see them releasing these games on PC day 1, but for stuff like Ghost of Yotei, i doubt that's the kind of game that would do great numbers on Steam.
 
Fbh said:
Sony is in control of one of the main platforms for "traditional" (as in not mobile) gaming. They make a ton of money by just taking a cut from every game, DLC and microtransaction sold on their platform. The exclusives are the cerry on top, not their main income source.
Why would they give it up?


You think they'd make more money selling 2-3 AAA games a year on Steam?
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They aren't giving up on anything. PlayStation and PlayStation Store ain't going away. They'll keep getting their cut and sell dlc.

But they're a third party publisher on PC, and they've been that for awhile now, they have 26 games there at this moment.
 
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Fbh said:
Why would they give it up?
You think they'd make more money selling 2-3 AAA games a year on Steam?
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Actually, their PC game sales dropped by at least 8% for the fiscal year and we can tell that there's a very short half life on the enthusiasm to pick up PS Studios games on PC with each port that releases.

But Sony has already ceded ground by putting their games on PC at all. You may have asked many of the same questions about Xbox, who at least had Windows to point to as an excuse with "Microsoft gets the money!!" and we can see where the slippery slope got them.

The only hope here is a new regime and a massive pivot. I'm talking about actually removing PS Studio games from Steam retroactively and gaslight like they were never there levels of extreme. But it's not looking good atm.
 
MoreJRPG said:
People are buying Xbox games instead of first party Playstation games. They're getting 30% instead of 100% and it's killing their profit margins because of all their live service failures. Astro Bot hasn't even sold 3 million yet. Forza sold 1.4 million in a month and will pass Astro Bot by Christmas. It's dire at PlayStation studios, hence why they kicked Ryan and Hulst to the curb and out of the decision making chair.
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Spyxos said:
Since some Sony first party games now cost 200 to 300 million to develop and most Live Service games from Sony have failed (Except for Helldivers 2) Does it still make sense for Sony to produce consoles at all? Especially since they are getting even more expensive over time. I don't even want to see the Ps6 launch price.

They are also slowly making themselves comfortable on the PC. Live service games should probably cushion the immense costs of the single player games. But now that most of that has been dropped, does it make any sense for Sony to continue like this?
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jason schwartzman btd* GIF
 
Fess said:
They aren't giving up on anything. PlayStation and PlayStation Store ain't going away. They'll keep getting their cut and sell dlc.

But they're a third party publisher on PC, and they've been that for awhile now, they have 26 games there at this moment.
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Sure, but OP is literally asking:
"Does it still make sense for Sony to produce consoles at all?"

Which is hilarious as the console, more than the games, is the main thing making them more money than ever.
 
ProtoByte said:
Actually, their PC game sales dropped by at least 8% for the fiscal year and we can tell that there's a very short half life on the enthusiasm to pick up PS Studios games on PC with each port that releases.

But Sony has already ceded ground by putting their games on PC at all. You may have asked many of the same questions about Xbox, who at least had Windows to point to as an excuse with "Microsoft gets the money!!" and we can see where the slippery slope got them.

The only hope here is a new regime and a massive pivot. I'm talking about actually removing PS Studio games from Steam retroactively and gaslight like they were never there levels of extreme. But it's not looking good atm.
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I doubt that it's better if they make even less money on software when software is where they're making their money.

What they should do is remove the PC delays. Late releases always get less hype and have lower marketing budget and sell worse.

And some of us don't want to double dip but want to know how much better it is on PC. So we wait. But once it's there the hype is gone and the price is often too high, and we might skip it or forget about it. Like me with Spider-Man 2. Forgot all about it until the recent patch, but paying full price today seemed too much, so nothing yet.
 
Uh? It's already happening, you can even consult their 3rd party publisher page right here:

store.steampowered.com

Steam Franchise: PlayStation Studios™

PlayStation Studios is home to the development of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s own outstanding and immersive games, including some of the most popular and critically acclaimed titles in entertainment history.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

22 games and counting, great time to be a PC player!
 
Does no one here understand the gaming industry?
Neither Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo want to make games. They want to own a platform where they can charge others to be on. Sony, Nintendo and MS make highly expensive games because they are system sellers.
 
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Durin said:
Only really Nintendo remains, but they have significantly lower budgets + their IP sells more machines than the other 2.

Even if they dump the live-service stuff, Sony still needs to contend with their first-party games taking longer to make and increasing in budget. Spider-man 1 was around 100 million, but the sequel was 3x that.

Only way they stop porting to other platforms is if they drop budgets, otherwise they're likely to port to even more platforms.
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But Nintendo is facing the same problems, it's industry-wide.
 
It's endearing how they try to lump Sony and Xbox together, the famous "sonytoo", no, Playstation is not going to become a third-party publisher and bring its God of War, TLOU, Gran Turismo, Uncharted, etc. to other competing consoles.
 
Punished Miku said:
They bought Minecraft in 2014.
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Absolutely nobody circa 2014-2016 went around stating "Xbox are a 3rd party publisher" purely on the basis of Minecraft and them releasing their games on PC.

Have you considered them to be a 3rd party publisher this whole time?
 
HerjansEagleFeeder said:
Younger generations simply don't accept the premise of closed ecosystems that are made obsolete every couple years.
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Yes they do. Where is the proof in this? What would make you say this in a generation where Switch has sold over 100 million units and PS5 is on it's way to 100 million units right after it's predecessor sold over 100 million units itself...

People need to stop believing in the bullshit Microsoft puts out cause their consoles (minus the 360) have been failures. Playstation is making money like it never has before. Nintendo is in an extraordinarily healthy position. The ONLY console that is fucked is the Xbox, so what does Microsoft do? Rebrand the name Xbox to not be about consoles anymore, but to mean Microsoft games! So all of a sudden, Xbox "games" like Doom and Oblivion are on PS5...
 
I remember the early 00's "why doesn't Nintendo go third party?" discourse. The tables have really turned. Don't mean that in a console warring way. I just think the roads Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo have reached are interesting. I really wanted three strong console manufactures. I thought it would be healthy for the industry. You could argue it was because the Wii, 360 and PS3 era is looked back on fondly and I think all 3 of the console manufacturers were doing well at that time. Nintendo found a niche that let them be Nintendo and not in the graphics/power arms race. 360 was carving out some brand identity with exclusives of Halo, Gears and I think Oblivion was exclusive as well (I may be misremembering). PS3 was a major step down from PS2 but they course corrected throughout that gen and still had success and momentum with the PS1 and PS2 legacy helping it out.
 
GHG said:
Absolutely nobody circa 2014-2016 went around stating "Xbox are a 3rd party publisher" purely on the basis of Minecraft and them releasing their games on PC.

Have you considered them to be a 3rd party publisher this whole time?
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PC was mostly invisible to me as a platform back then. You can be both at once. If you have your own platform they are 1st party games on your platform, but you also are publishing it on other platforms as 3rd party games. If Nintendo put their console games on PC, it would be a huge deal and everyone would react accordingly. If anyone avoided calling out MS, its mostly because of Windows and because Sony is a lot more popular than MS and gets talked about more in console circles.
 
Punished Miku said:
PC was mostly invisible to me as a platform back then. You can be both at once. If you have your own platform they are 1st party games on your platform, but you also are publishing it on other platforms as 3rd party games. If Nintendo put their console games on PC, it would be a huge deal and everyone would react accordingly. If anyone avoided calling out MS, its mostly because of Windows and because Sony is a lot more popular than MS and gets talked about more in console circles.
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It's not about what it is to you, it's about how a business is perceived and what the industry definition is.

It's interesting that we have some Xbox fans stretching the definition in order to try and make it seem like Sony are doing the equivalent of what Xbox are currently doing, all while there are some other individuals who are still in denial and refuse to acknowledge Xbox as being a 3rd party publisher.
 
GHG said:
It's not about what it is to you, it's about how a business is perceived and what the industry definition is.
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I dont know why you asked me a question then. Sure, go with whatever the industry says if that is what you like.
 
Little Chicken said:
???

All of their games are on PC.
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Lol no

Not inFamous Second Son, not inFamous First Light, not Bloodborne, not Killzone, not Uncharted 1, 2 or 3, not God of War III, not Astrobot, not Demon's Souls, not Shadow of the Colossus, not Gran Turismo Sport, not Gran Turismo 7, not the Last Guardian, not WipEout Omega Collection, not Gravity Rush, not Ratchet and Clank 2016. And I am only mentioning PS4 and PS5 games.
 
Fess said:
I doubt that it's better if they make even less money on software when software is where they're making their money.
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No, they primarily make money on the revenue that comes in by virtue of their platform.

Trading away 100% revenue for 70% revenue for 1st party games and losing everything else doesn't make mathematical sense. Again, this happened with Xbox. I'm sick of having to repeat the obvious.

Fess said:
What they should do is remove the PC delays. Late releases always get less hype and have lower marketing budget and sell worse.
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You'd have to explain Spider-Man 2 and practically every Xbox release since 2017 to convince me of that.

Fess said:
And some of us don't want to double dip but want to know how much better it is on PC. So we wait. But once it's there the hype is gone and the price is often too high, and we might skip it or forget about it. Like me with Spider-Man 2. Forgot all about it until the recent patch, but paying full price today seemed too much, so nothing yet.
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You've just made the argument of excising PC ports all together. No ambiguity of release on another platform = force to ensure that the person buys the first party platform and the game sooner to its initial release. There's practically zero chance that that doesn't net more money on that purchase and over the long term. Exactly as it was for 20 years before the PS5 and as it continues to be the case for Nintendo. So much so that they can charge 80 dollars for the next fucking Mario Kart.
 
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GHG said:
You avoided answering the question by claiming PC was "invisible".

Watch This GIF
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I literally didn't think about PC in 2014. That was my answer. I was playing mostly Wii U and 3DS. PC didn't have a show around E3. It might as well have not existed for me at the time. I also didn't make anywhere near the money I make now so it was a complete fantasy to even consider it. 100% was not on my radar, like I said.
 
They already are third party. I've played Helldivers and TLOU on my Microsoft Windows PC with an Xbox Series X controller and also on my Steam Deck.
 
Punished Miku said:
I literally didn't think about PC in 2014. That was my answer. I was playing mostly Wii U and 3DS. PC didn't have a show around E3. It might as well have not existed for me at the time. I also didn't make anywhere near the money I make now so it was a complete fantasy to even consider it. 100% was not on my radar, like I said.
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GHG said:
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I literally didn't even say I considered Sony a 3rd party publisher. I pretty much just talked about industry trends affecting everyone and how that could look in the future.

I can't believe the effort you waste on trolling lol.
 
Punished Miku said:
I literally didn't even say I considered Sony a 3rd party publisher. I pretty much just talked about industry trends affecting everyone and how that could look in the future.

I can't believe the effort you waste on trolling lol.
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You don't need to say anything explicitly when it's implied in your responses throughout this thread.

It's quite simple, if people want to currently consider Playstation to be a 3rd party publisher, then by the same token they must have considered Xbox to be a 3rd party publisher since 2015 (or 2014 if we want to consider the purchase of Minecraft as being the turning point).

When looking at things through that lens, it makes the reactions to what's been happening regarding Xbox ports over the last couple of years look peculiar. Why all the hullabaloo if they were widely considered to be a "3rd party publisher" this whole time?
 
GHG said:
You don't need to say anything explicitly when it's implied in your responses throughout this thread.

It's quite simple, if people want to currently consider Playstation to be a 3rd party publisher, then by the same token they must have considered Xbox to be a 3rd party publisher since 2015 (or 2014 if we want to consider the purchase of Minecraft as being the turning point).

When looking at things through that lens, it makes the reactions to what's been happening regarding Xbox ports over the last couple of years look peculiar. Why all the hullabaloo if they were widely considered to be a "3rd party publisher" this whole time?
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So again for anyone else reading, I literally never said it and he's so stubborn he can't even acknowledge it. Just 100% made up.

I think the answer to your question is more nuanced than you're really capable of processing. The role of consoles and PC is changing. MS barely even acknowledged PC and Steam ran away with it. Consoles are becoming more similar to PC. PC is becoming more similar to console. PC is getting more Japanese games this gen which was previously unheard of, which was the main reason for consoles. The whole gaming landscape has completely changed since 2014. Console players are more aware of high performance settings now and pro consoles when they were playing sub-30 fps before. Almost everyone is full digital now also.

Or do you think its that everyone was so pro MS during the Xbone era that everyone conspired to not discuss it so they could wait 10 years and shame Sony? You are consumed by a desire to paint Sony as a victim and to troll.
 
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They are third party publishers on PC already. The real question is will they become third party publishers on Xbox. Seriously doubt it.
 
HerjansEagleFeeder said:
It's pretty obvious the old console model will go the way of the Dodo eventually, it just takes a lot of time. Younger generations simply don't accept the premise of closed ecosystems that are made obsolete every couple years.
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It's ironic when Phil was complaining about Gen Z, while Nintendo (arguably the most closed ecosystem) is thriving despite having a much younger audience.

it's not a question of demographics. it's a question of knowing how to sell your product.
 
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