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[Mibu no ookami]

With the news of Sony adding PC support for PSVR2 are people still in doubt that they're planning a PC Storefront?

In 2022, I called out that Sony had a unique ability in the VR space and we're about to see it play out here and that they would eventually leverage that in a PC Storefront.

Games like Horizon Call of the Mountain and Gran Turismo 7 are going to be ported to PC with VR support.

They aren't going to sell PSVR2 on PC and not port these games over and they aren't going to keep selling these games through Steam just to hand over 20-30 percent of their revenue to Valve. That's not what Totoki means when he thinks about growth and margins. Sony is thinking why pay 20-30% to Valve to sell our games, when we can sell our own games AND get paid from 3rd party publishers for selling their games.

Everything Sony has been building for the last few years points to it.

I've heard people say, Epic is failing and even ABK and T2 failed and they have COD and GTA.

Epic only has Fortnite and while it's a major game, they don't have enough continued support to bring in enough users. It's why they approached Sony about getting their games exclusively on EGS, they desperately needed them. ABK and T2 didn't have 3rd party publishers on board for theirs. No one game can make a successful storefront.

Sony brings something unique to the space as a publisher and an existing Storefront. No one else has the following:

• VR Support - Meta and Valve
• Extremely popular 1st party titles - Nintendo
• An industry-dominant storefront and the ability to leverage royalties across multiple storefronts - Nobody
  • Primarily as a result, their relationship with 3rd parties

Steam has never really had real competition before. CDPR and Epic were both too small to compete. Arguing that ABK and T2 could have been real competitors is like suggesting either of them could create their own subscription service successfully. Their content catalog isn't big enough for that and it isn't big enough for a storefront.

 

[Topher]

I just want trophy integration on PC. If that comes from a Sony storefront or integration with Steam.....either way, just make it happen.

 

[T4keD0wN]

I think its just a matter of time for them to make a store, tut the following takes are laughable and dont matter one bit:

Everything Sony has been building for the last few years points to it.

I've heard people say, Epic is failing and even ABK and T2 failed and they have COD and GTA.

Epic only has Fortnite and while it's a major game, they don't have enough continued support to bring in enough users. It's why they approached Sony about getting their games exclusively on EGS, they desperately needed them. ABK and T2 didn't have 3rd party publishers on board for theirs. No one game can make a successful storefront.

Sony brings something unique to the space as a publisher and an existing Storefront. No one else has the following:

• VR Support - Meta and Valve
• Extremely popular 1st party titles - Nintendo
• An industry-dominant storefront and the ability to leverage royalties across multiple storefronts - Nobody
  • Primarily as a result, their relationship with 3rd parties

Steam has never really had real competition before. CDPR and Epic were both two small to compete. Arguing that ABK and T2 could have been real competitors is like suggesting either of them could create their own subscription service successfully. Their content catalog isn't big enough for that and it isn't big enough for a storefront.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think its just a matter of time for them to make a store, tut the following takes a laughable:

Rather than say something is laughable, you should say why you think it's laughable. One is a lazy response the other is a well formed debate.

 

[Jigsaah]

People doubted this? Why wouldn't they do this?

If they plan on bringing games to PC anyway, why be beholden to Steam? I'd argue they'd probably fare better than the Microsoft store in terms of gaming.

Sony typically has better UI design in my opinion, which is a big drawback of the Xbox app. Also as long as they can avoid the proprietary issues that comes with playing PC Gamepass versions of games on their own store I think it's an absolute inevitability and they should have done this yesterday.

I'm not bashing the PC Gamepass/Xbox App as a whole. I think it's serviceable. However I imagine Sony could make a better store.

 

[Gaiff]

And watch them fail like all the others.

 

[Topher]

GHG Believe you said in another thread that this would be a bad idea. Curious to know your thoughts as to why.

 

[joeygreco1985]

I'm hoping they have the foresight to see that people don't want another launcher and are crazy loyal to Steam as it is. They have the numbers

 

[MisterXDTV]

What's the point if their games are sold on Steam???

 

[spons]

Zero point to invest millions in this when everybody uses Steam anyway.

 

[Killer8]

Eventually everyone comes crawling back to Steam, because for as much as these companies bitch about Valve's cut, it's clear that the lost revenue from not being on Steam more than outweighs that. Sony might be thinking that those 400k concurrent Helldivers 2 players would be better served under their own store banner, but these companies always make this risky assumption that people will follow the game to new pastures. They don't. "Not on Steam? Fuck that" is a real thing.

EA learned the lesson. Ubisoft learned the lesson. Microsoft learned the lesson. If the idea is to put out games on both Steam and their own storefront, then the question is: what's the point? Why would the consumer even bother picking Sony's option?

I think you are reading too far into the fact that the PSVR2 has essentially been a flop and Sony are now pragmatically looking at other ways to shift the hardware.

 

[Kacho]

I doubt they do it since it will be ignored by most.

 

[IFireflyl]

GHG Believe you said in another thread that this would be a bad idea. Curious to know your thoughts as to why.

I think it's a bad idea if they start buying exclusivity like Epic does. Epic is already a cancer trying to force people into their storefront. I don't need or want another storefront pulling that same kind of crap. (Obviously this doesn't apply to Sony first-party titles.)

 

[analog_future]

I don't want it to come, but I do believe it's coming.

Hopefully they still release Steam versions as well.

 

[Senua]

 

[Mibu no ookami]

People doubted this? Why wouldn't they do this?

If they plan on bringing games to PC anyway, why be beholden to Steam? I'd argue they'd probably fare better than the Microsoft store in terms of gaming.

Sony typically has better UI design in my opinion, which is a big drawback of the Xbox app. Also as long as they can avoid the proprietary issues that comes with playing PC Gamepass versions of games on their own store I think it's an absolute inevitability and they should have done this yesterday.

I'm not bashing the PC Gamepass/Xbox App as a whole. I think it's serviceable. However I imagine Sony could make a better store.

Many people say they doubt this not because they don't think it'll happen, but because they don't want it to happen.

Most of the arguments are why it would fail i.e. where others have failed, ignoring largely that those reasons don't apply to Sony and this belief that someone who has significant market share in an industry can't be challenged as if that's never happened before.

As for why they didn't do this yesterday, they didn't really have the first party titles ready yet and they were mostly focused on competition with Xbox.

The money Sony was spending on exclusivity from Xbox is now going to be targeted at exclusivity on their pc storefront, and I get why that might make some steam users angry, especially if they like to have all their games in one launcher.

I don't think anyone can argue that Sony doesn't have bigger games than Microsoft and that unlike Microsoft they have their own VR infrastructure, but most important is that they have the biggest console storefront in the industry.

 

[Raonak]

It's absolutely happening.

It's the only way day and date PC release for non gaas would ever happen imo.

PS5 + PC PS Store exclusive then come to stream some time later.

 

[Senua]

It's absolutely happening.

It's the only way day and date PC release would ever happen imo.

If so, watch those games fail to make the impact they could've if they released on steam.

 

[Sanepar]

If they bring one and doesn't release on Steam it will be goodbye for me.

 

[Raonak]

If so, watch those games fail to make the impact they could've if they released on steam.

And Sony won't care. Selling games is a low margin affair regardless of how many platforms you're in.

PlayStation are not in the business of being a game publisher first. They are in the business of being a platform first.

They already continuously make PS5 exclusives, so to them, it's no different.
Their games already leave tons of impact as it is. Plus they would release it on steam eventually, giving it a second wind with double dippers.

 

[Celcius]

Gran Turismo isn't coming to PC lol
They're so worried about hackers that your saves are online only. No way they open the game up to PC...

Also, Sony please don't make us use another launcher...

 

[Jigsaah]

Many people say they doubt this not because they don't think it'll happen, but because they don't want it to happen.

Most of the arguments are why it would fail i.e. where others have failed, ignoring largely that those reasons don't apply to Sony and this belief that someone who has significant market share in an industry can't be challenged as if that's never happened before.

As for why they didn't do this yesterday, they didn't really have the first party titles ready yet and they were mostly focused on competition with Xbox.

The money Sony was spending on exclusivity from Xbox is now going to be targeted at exclusivity on their pc storefront, and I get why that might make some steam users angry, especially if they like to have all their games in one launcher.

I don't think anyone can argue that Sony doesn't have bigger games than Microsoft and that unlike Microsoft they have their own VR infrastructure, but most important is that they have the biggest console storefront in the industry.

Sure. that's reasonable. I also don't like my games on different launchers. I'm just thinking from a business sense...it just makes sense for Sony to at least try their own store. I don't know the ins and outs of running a store on PC. but I figure it's gotta be better than handing Steam 30% of every sale.

As far as people who don't want Sony launching a PC store because they enjoy jerking off in the corner of their walled garden...get over it. It's either this or Sony finds other more predatory ways of making money...or a blanket reduction in production value of their games. You can't have it both ways anymore it seems. The leaks have shown it, "OkiDoki" Totoki is preaching it.

Somebody come hug me on Helldivers 2. We are bros now baby.

 

[near]

Most of the arguments are why it would fail i.e. where others have failed, ignoring largely that those reasons don't apply to Sony and this belief that someone who has significant market share in an industry can't be challenged as if that's never happened before.

What are the arguments, and why don't they apply to Sony? Genuinely curious.

 

[Juza]

It will come to PC eventually, but that doesn't mean their games will be exclusive to their store.

 

[Senua]

And Sony won't care.

They are not in the business of being a game publisher first. They are in the business of being a platform first.

They already continuously make PS5 exclusives, so to them, it's no different. Their single player releases leave tons of impact as it is. Plus they would release it on steam eventually.

I think Sony is going in a direction you won't enjoy.

 

[Slimboy Fat]

Not sure their 1st party is actually popular enough to make enough people migrate that sustaining their own store remains more profitable than simply remaining on Steam.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

It's absolutely happening.

It's the only way day and date PC release for non gaas would ever happen imo.

PS5 + PC PS Store exclusive then come to stream some time later.

People don't realize that all they have to do is promise lower royalties on select games on PS5 and they can probably get 3-6 months exclusivity out of just that.

Their games + exclusive 3rd party games + VR games.... yeah this doesn't need to takedown steam in order to massively profitable.

 

[Jen_yakzua]

I'm hoping they have the foresight to see that people don't want another launcher and are crazy loyal to Steam as it is. They have the numbers

That loyalty is only in the USA and certain places in EU not China and Japan or India

 

[GHG]

GHG Believe you said in another thread that this would be a bad idea. Curious to know your thoughts as to why.

Unless they can launch something that can go toe to toe with Steam in terms of feature-set it will be destined to fail. There's a reason why every attempt to "compete" with Steam has failed, it can't be beat on featureset and you will struggle to find a PC gamer who doesn't value and use at least one of those features (even if they don't know it - example the controller API that allows you to use the dualsense on PC seemlessly).

I don't think Sony would be so stupid as to waste their time developing their own client, but stranger things have happened. If history is anything to go by with them though, it will be shit. Every single piece of software they've ever released on Windows has been awful.

 

[Raonak]

I think Sony is going in a direction you won't enjoy.

I know Sony is going in a direction YOU won't enjoy

 

[StreetsofBeige]

And Sony won't care. Selling games is a low margin affair regardless of how many platforms you're in.

PlayStation are not in the business of being a game publisher first. They are in the business of being a platform first.

They already continuously make PS5 exclusives, so to them, it's no different.
Their games already leave tons of impact as it is. Plus they would release it on steam eventually, giving it a second wind with double dippers.

Selling games is low margin?

 

[Senua]

I know Sony is going in a direction YOU won't enjoy

 

[Raonak]

People don't realize that all they have to do is promise lower royalties on select games on PS5 and they can probably get 3-6 months exclusivity out of just that.

Their games + exclusive 3rd party games + VR games.... yeah this doesn't need to takedown steam in order to massively profitable.

The big sellers are gonna be stuff like cross platform purchases, trophy synchronisation and PS stars program.

It doesn't even need to take steam down or anything. Sony absolutely want to make PlayStation a player on PC.

They literally already have one of the most popular storefronts in gaming. There's a lot cross pollinating available for them if they're actually serious about being aggressive.

 

[Celcius]

Just imagine the sony refund policy on their storefront vs Steam
I hope they don't try this...

 

[64bitmodels]

• Extremely popular 1st party titles - Nintendo
• An industry-dominant storefront and the ability to leverage royalties across multiple storefronts - Nobody

1. Diablo, overwatch, call of duty, world of Warcraft, fortnite, rocket league. All are extremely popular first party properties (for storefronts anyways) and yet their stores closed and they all came running back to steam, except for epic who is only really relevant because of fortnite and rocket league.

2. Epic had been doing exclusivity on pc for years now and it has not helped them overtake steam. They kept moneyhatting well known games like FF7 rebirth, kingdom hearts, Alan Wake 2, the likes. And that still didn't stop them from losing to steam

 

[spons]

Sure. that's reasonable. I also don't like my games on different launchers. I'm just thinking from a business sense...it just makes sense for Sony to at least try their own store. I don't know the ins and outs of running a store on PC. but I figure it's gotta be better than handing Steam 30% of every sale.

As far as people who don't want Sony launching a PC store because they enjoy jerking off in the corner of their walled garden...get over it. It's either this or Sony finds other more predatory ways of making money...or a blanket reduction in production value of their games. You can't have it both ways anymore it seems. The leaks have shown it, "OkiDoki" Totoki is preaching it.

Somebody come hug me on Helldivers 2. We are bros now baby.

The problem is that it's expensive as shit to do, with minimal benefit. There's a reason why PS+ costs money, it's mostly because of servers, maintenance and bandwidth costs. COD MW2 "cost" about 600 petabytes of data in slightly over a week. across the multiple platforms it was released on. The fact that their services didn't implode when that game hit the internet is actually astonishing, especially because Sony doesn't own their own infrastructure (which does mean such games cost them $$$).

 

[Hudo]

It will come because Sony are stupid enough to try it. But when Microsoft on their hometurf (Windows) can't compete with Steam and Epic with all the Chinese Yuan can't compete with Steam, then Sony sure as fuck won't be able to compete as well.

 

[GHG]

Also Topher it will undo a lot of the good work they've done in terms of building a presence on PC over the last couple of years.

Ubisoft and EA have not really recovered since they ditched steam and have since returned. People don't trust them and they also don't want to have to use their 3rd party clients to access their games.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

1. Diablo, overwatch, call of duty, world of Warcraft, fortnite, rocket league. All are extremely popular first party properties (for storefronts anyways) and yet their stores closed and they all came running back to steam, except for epic who is only really relevant because of fortnite and rocket league.

2. Epic had been doing exclusivity on pc for years now and it has not helped them overtake steam. They kept moneyhatting well known games like FF7 rebirth, kingdom hearts, Alan Wake 2, the likes. And that still didn't stop them from losing to steam

Did ABK's storefront have games from Namco, Capcom, Square, Sony, EA, T2? I swear, people ignore your argument to make the same argument.

As popular as those games are, they're still a small portion of the overall gaming community and games industry.

I've actually suggested that Sony should probably enter into a joint venture to take over EGS and rebrand and retool it. EGS has to moneyhat exclusives, all Sony needs to do is lower their royalties on PS5 games. Sony also has way more money for exclusives than Epic. You'll notice that all the games you mentioned were single player offline games.

Epic is bleeding money for exclusivity, Sony doesn't have to.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I'm still wating to see price differences on all the current PC stores.
I recently signed up for a GoG account, should have done it sooner.
Multiple stores are only a problem when I have to cross refrence if I already own a game, if it's free somewhere, or if it's included in a service like Gamepass or PS+.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Gran Turismo isn't coming to PC lol
They're so worried about hackers that your saves are online only. No way they open the game up to PC...

Also, Sony please don't make us use another launcher...

Gran Turismo chief says devs are ‘looking into’ a PC port

 

[Topher]

Unless they can launch something that can go toe to toe with Steam in terms of feature-set it will be destined to fail. There's a reason why every attempt to "compete" with Steam has failed, it can't be beat on featureset and you will struggle to find a PC gamer who doesn't value and use at least one of those features (even if they don't know it - example the controller API that allows you to use the dualsense on PC seemlessly).

I don't think Sony would be so stupid as to waste their time developing their own client, but stranger things have happened. If history is anything to go by with them though, it will be shit. Every single piece of software they've ever released on Windows has been awful.

Also Topher it will undo a lot of the good work they've done in terms of building a presence on PC over the last couple of years.

Ubisoft and EA have not really recovered since they ditched steam and have since returned. People don't trust them and they also don't want to have to use their 3rd party clients to access their games.

Pretty much agree with everything you've said. Personally, I would like a tighter integration between PS and PC for Sony games, but don't think their own storefront is the best way to go. Not even sure what it will offer. As IFireflyl said, going the Epic route would be a disaster. Hard to come up with a legit, compelling reason for the vast majority of gamers to even bother downloading the thing.

 

[poppabk]

Can I vote both. Yes it is coming and that it will fail to compete with steam.

 

[Portugeezer]

It may come, but they'll still release games on Steam.

 

[Larxia]

Wtf is ABK

 

[Topher]

Wtf is ABK

Activision Blizzard King

 

[Kerotan]

They probably will the question is will it be cross buy.

 

[Draugoth]

At this point in time it's unlikely because there's too many launchers already

 

[JimboJones]

Don't see it happening, mandatory PSN login at game boot, yeah I could see that but not a storefront.

 

[Fabieter]

They will do a store control third party keys that way and if people want steam they have to buy their steam prices. That what I would do at least.