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[TrebleShot]

they will give it a go, but they will need to have super competitive pricing and they will need to have third party games on there.

But ultimately it will fail compared to Steam, they are about a decade too late.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

I don't understand why Sony on PC would mean frontal competition with Steam. The way I see it Sony can just have a PC store to allow Playstation users to have their games in both console and PC. They loose people who buy the game twice but gain those who don't want to wait for a port. IF, AND I SAID IF, xbox is doomed to a dreamcast future then Sony can launch a PC store, use a few years to get good, then cut Steam when the PS6 get exclusives. Of course they will probably go too fast and fail like the others. But it could work if they do it in a smart way. Portal and this device successor, the rumored handleld device would use the store too. I love Steam, but why not be happy for some "competition"?

 

[Raonak]

"Getting aggressive on PC" means exactly this. It's not about competing with steam, they will never stop stream. it's about giving "PlayStation" a presence on PC where people can have cross platform purchases, trophies, PS+ games and maybe even cross saves?

Being timed exclusive to the PS5/6 + PS PC Store with a steam release later on would be their best bet to extract the maximum amount of money from their games.

It's not like steam gets day 1 releases for singleplayer PS games in the first place, so it doesn't even change the status quo for steamophiles.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

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.

I can breakdown why Sony, Publishers, and Consumers might all want this

Sony

• Increased revenue on their PC releases
• Increased revenue from 3rd party PC releases

Publishers

• Competition with Steam likely results in lower royalties, which means increased profitability

Consumers

• Competition with Steam could result in cheaper games and more free games
• If PS+ comes to PC that could mean monthly free games on PS+ similar to EGS and Steam
• If Sony adds Crunchyroll to PS+ Premium which I've speculated that they will eventually do, it would make sense to have PS+ whether you have a PS5 or not
• Trophy support and cross-game save
• If Sony comes out with their own handheld this makes even more sense
• More VR games and more AAA VR games
• Could eventually result in significantly more Mac support

People continue to conflate Sony with individual publishers while ignoring the fact that they own their own ecosystem and that much of their costs are already baked into that ecosystem. That the hurdles for other companies don't necessarily apply to Sony and most importantly is that Sony doesn't have to BEAT Steam in order to have a PC Storefront massively improve their margins.

 

[Killer8]

I don't understand this storefront argument. There is nothing uniquely competitive about the PlayStation Store. The storefront's 'dominance' is purely a consequence of the system itself being dominant in the console space. More people buying PlayStation will naturally result in more people using its Store. The fact that they have so many third parties supporting it is just logical and not any indication of a special status or relationship with them. Those companies want to sell their games on PlayStation, so they'll put them on the PlayStation Store. Just like if they want to sell their games on PC, they'll put the games on the biggest storefront on PC - Steam.

 

[XXL]

I would prefer they just make PSVR 2 usable on Steam.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Pains me to say it but I think the smartest thing to do would be what Rockstar does if they’re going the day 1 PC route. Launch game on PS and their own bare bones PC launcher day 1 —> 3-6 months later drop them on Steam.

The one thing I hope they don’t do is Ubisoft and EA style making you run their shitty launcher in the background to run a game on Steam. Valve should tell them to stop that shit or beat it.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

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

I see no chance of there being cross-buy. Similar with an eventual handheld. At best I could see the option of buying access to multiple versions and having cross-cloud saves.

But who knows the Vita did have crossbuy.

 

[Jigsaah]

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 $$$).

Is there like a ballpark dollar figure I can relate to here? Just saying it costs a lot doesn't really help me to understand fully. Like 600 petabytes of data...what's it cost to run that? I mean that also just one game. Also we're talking one of the biggest multiplayer games out there at the time. Does the numbers change for single player games? I mean that's mostly what Sony brings over...but I guess another question would be...could Sony afford to host servers without charging it's PC users a subscription for PS+?

 

[JimboJones]

I don't understand this storefront argument. There is nothing uniquely competitive about the PlayStation Store. The storefront's 'dominance' is purely a consequence of the system itself being dominant in the console space. More people buying PlayStation will naturally result in more people using its Store. The fact that they have so many third parties supporting it is just logical and not any indication of a special status or relationship with them. Those companies want to sell their games on PlayStation, so they'll put them on the PlayStation Store. Just like if they want to sell their games on PC, they'll put the games on the biggest storefront on PC - Steam.

If the EU gets their way maybe we'll be asking the question is a Steam store front coming to PlayStation eventually .

 

[hemo memo]

They can’t compete with Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble, G2A. Not with the 70$ mentality and for sure not how they are running the PSstors currently. It’ll be dead on arrival.

 

[Tomeru]

Unless the can compete with steam, it wont happen. Until threre is a sure fire profit from it, they have no reason to bleed money.

Yeah its not coming.

 

[Gamezone]

Sure, but they won't be removed from Steam. It will be like all the publishers with their own launcher who didn't leave Steam or came back. Launcher exclusivity have never been less popular on PC. Seriously, is anyone still doing it? Ubisoft? But even they are timed on Uplay and EGS.

 

[MikeM]

Trophy hunting on PC? Sign me up!

 

[Three]

The only way it would work is if they brought your PS library with it. It makes no sense otherwise. I'm not sure how that would work with third parties.

 

[Jigsaah]

They can’t compete with Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble, G2A. Not with the 70$ mentality and for sure not how they are running the PSstors currently. It’ll be dead on arrival.

Might actually have a point here. They can't come over to PC and start gouging prices. They would be shooting themselves in the foot. Epic already has discounts and coupons and buys exclusivity to games. Then you got Sony who is deeply invested in Epic. How does that play out if they become a competitior? Does this matter?

 

[Raonak]

I don't understand this storefront argument. There is nothing uniquely competitive about the PlayStation Store. The storefront's 'dominance' is purely a consequence of the system itself being dominant in the console space. More people buying PlayStation will naturally result in more people using its Store. The fact that they have so many third parties supporting it is just logical and not any indication of a special status or relationship with them. Those companies want to sell their games on PlayStation, so they'll put them on the PlayStation Store. Just like if they want to sell their games on PC, they'll put the games on the biggest storefront on PC - Steam.

If they are serious about PC, then they should have a PS Store to have a presence on PC that goes beyond just being a third party publisher.

And there's nothing stopping them from releasing on steam later.... Aka what they currently do.

 

[Topher]

I can breakdown why Sony, Publishers, and Consumers might all want this

Sony

• Increased revenue on their PC releases
• Increased revenue from 3rd party PC releases

Publishers

• Competition with Steam likely results in lower royalties, which means increased profitability

Consumers

• Competition with Steam could result in cheaper games and more free games
• If PS+ comes to PC that could mean monthly free games on PS+ similar to EGS and Steam
• If Sony adds Crunchyroll to PS+ Premium which I've speculated that they will eventually do, it would make sense to have PS+ whether you have a PS5 or not
• Trophy support and cross-game save
• If Sony comes out with their own handheld this makes even more sense
• More VR games and more AAA VR games
• Could eventually result in significantly more Mac support

People continue to conflate Sony with individual publishers while ignoring the fact that they own their own ecosystem and that much of their costs are already baked into that ecosystem. That the hurdles for other companies don't necessarily apply to Sony and most importantly is that Sony doesn't have to BEAT Steam in order to have a PC Storefront massively improve their margins.

All that makes sense, but I think in the end folks will just buy on Steam as they always have. I do think Sony has eyes on a launcher though. We shall see how it pans out.

The only way it would work is if they brought your PS library with it. It makes no sense otherwise. I'm not sure how that would work with third parties.

That would be fantastic for those of us who game on both PS and PC. I would definitely be more inclined to buy on PS and play on PC if it brings over trophy support, etc. But, as you say, third parties are a big question mark.

 

[Jesb]

Couldn’t be worse than ubi’s.

 

[Porticus]

OP should work at Xbox, it would fit the higher up pretty good and feel at home i.e. how to ruin a business

 

[T4keD0wN]

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.

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

I dont think this even needs a comment.

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

Ok, it makes perfect sense for them to make a store where they will get 100% from their own games, but Valve has 2 decades of headstart and tens of thousands of games, they still pull more money from steam than from their own stores. Nobody will fully migrate away from steam just for a few dozen games and many games arent even maintained or actively published, so theres close to zero chance they will ever be added to another platform, even if they did customers will not abandon their already existing libraries and rebuy stuff elsewhere (brand new users might). They might buy a few games there, but unlikely they will make it their primary plaform which is what would be necessary for the scale you propose.

Whoever tries next will have even less products to offer, not to mention they would start behind epic, gog, EA, ubisoft and others, would anyone greenlight a project that was tried by many others and failed? The risk is too high, industry is too volatile, competition is too ahead and entrenched in the culture, it could take decades for returns to manifest, a lot of workforce is necessary, they have very little experience on PC, the operating investment is too high, the starting investment is even higher.

A small storefront for the purpose of maximizing profits makes sense, competing head on against valve is a lost battle even though sony is well equiped. Pretty sure they are aware of epics forecast for their store breaking even and starting to be profitable (spoiler: its a long time)

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.

Exactly, their goal will have to be maximizing the margins from a few users.

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

Not enough people care and you listed competition

• Extremely popular 1st party titles - Nintendo

True, but a few games (they dont really have that many each gen as shown they have no intention of porting their entire old catalogue) dont matter as evidenced by the failiure of ubisoft, EA, Epic and others, its about all games in total on this scale. Theyve all tried exclusivity and look at how it worked out, 70% of many sales is better than 100% of few sales, but whats even better is 70% of many a sales with a possibility of getting the full 100%

• An industry-dominant storefront and the ability to leverage royalties across multiple storefronts - Nobody
  • Primarily as a result, their relationship with 3rd parties

Wait... thats just a description of Steam

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.

Even microsoft has failed and they have some big advantages over steam since most people use windows or is microsoft also too small?

My prediction is that sony will make their own store where they will sell their exclusive titles and they will be successful at selling those while still selling stuff on steam, if they put 3rd party stuff there it will sell extremely poorly. Making a major investment in a windows store helps microsoft and is likely not a part of their business strategy, best way for them is to focus on Playstation and not waste money on overly ambitious and risky ventures. I do want more competition for steam, but people have been rejecting every attempt for decades, i do not expect that to change unless cloud gaming somehow becomes mainstream.

 

[Killer8]

If the EU gets their way maybe we'll be asking the question is a Steam store front coming to PlayStation eventually .

Multiple store fronts on the one platform would indeed be the only way to truly judge how competitive one actually is over the others.

Bigging up the PS Store 'dominance', when it's the only one people can actually use on a PS5, kind of feels like saying that Astro's Playroom has been the most popular platforming game this generation just because it came pre-installed on 55 million PS5s.

 

[willothedog]

They'd have to scrap their 'you downloaded it you cannot refund it' nonsense and go with the 2 week or 2 hours playtime system.

 

[Raonak]

It won't even stop there in regards to Sony's ambitions on PC. Do you really think they're just gonna be content with only being a game publisher?

I wouldn't be surprised if by 2030 Sony will release their first PlayStation branded PC hardware through AMD partnership.

 

[Trab-Pu-Kcip]

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

and cross save also

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

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

Because they’d save millions and PC owners can click a button to buy Sony games. It’s not that difficult

This is the only scenario where day and date PC makes sense for Sony

 

[Fabieter]

They can’t compete with Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble, G2A. Not with the 70$ mentality and for sure not how they are running the PSstors currently. It’ll be dead on arrival.

The 70$ mentality would also mean never do day and date

 

[daninthemix]

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.

Because creating and running a storefront is a load of work. Porting games and making buck isn't.

 

[Jigsaah]

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.

From a PC consumer's perspective I would download a Sony Storefront if it meant unique perks and some translation back to the console. Even though I don't have a PS5 right this moment...being able to reap rewards that I could use in other ways would be tempting. It's kinda like how Xbox gives points for playing games on Gamepass...I can then use those points in the rewards store. I've been able to cash in months of gamepass or sweepstakes. Sony could do something along those lines and that would be enough for me to download and use the store.

Obviously PC trophies are a must as well, but seems like a no brainer.

 

[March Climber]

It will 'fail' in the same way people here think that GoG and EGS fail, which is not really fail at all as it's just another launcher on an open platform.

 

[Porticus]

Everyone is converging to Steam because is the de facto PC storefront and a platform itself and here people are dreaming about Sony wasting precious money on a DOA effort.

 

[Fabieter]

Because creating and running a storefront is a load of work. Porting games and making buck isn't.

I think pc trophies alone would make them alot of pc software sales over steam. Its the most satisfying system if you are into this stuff.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I dont think this even needs a comment.

Ok, it makes perfect sense for them to make a store where they will get 100% from their own games, but Valve has 2 decades of headstart and tens of thousands of games, they still pull more money from steam than from their own stores. Nobody will fully migrate away from steam just for a few dozen games and many games arent even maintained or actively published, so theres close to zero chance they will ever be added to another platform, even if they did customers will not abandon their already existing libraries and rebuy stuff elsewhere (brand new users might). They might buy a few games there, but unlikely they will make it their primary plaform which is what would be necessary for the scale you propose.

Whoever tries next will have even less products to offer, not to mention they would start behind epic, gog, EA, ubisoft and others, would anyone greenlight a project that was tried by many others and failed? The risk is too high, industry is too volatile, competition is too ahead and entrenched in the culture, it could take decades for returns to manifest, a lot of workforce is necessary, they have very little experience on PC, the operating investment is too high, the starting investment is even higher.

A small storefront for the purpose of maximizing profits makes sense, competing head on against valve is a lost battle even though sony is well equiped. Pretty sure they are aware of epics forecast for their store breaking even and starting to be profitable (spoiler: its a long time)

Exactly, their goal will have to be maximizing the margins from a few users.

Not enough people care and you listed competition

True, but a few games (they dont really have that many each gen as shown they have no intention of porting their entire old catalogue) dont matter as evidenced by the failiure of ubisoft, EA, Epic and others, its about all games in total on this scale. Theyve all tried exclusivity and look at how it worked out, 70% of many sales is better than 100% of few sales, but whats even better is 70% of many a sales with a possibility of getting the full 100%

Wait... thats just a description of Steam

Even microsoft has failed and they have some big advantages over steam since most people use windows or is microsoft also too small?

My prediction is that sony will make their own store where they will sell their exclusive titles and they will be successful at selling those while still selling stuff on steam, if they put 3rd party stuff there it will sell extremely poorly. Making a major investment in a windows store helps microsoft and is likely not a part of their business strategy, best way for them is to focus on Playstation and not waste money on overly ambitious and risky ventures. I do want more competition for steam, but people have been rejecting every attempt for decades, i do not expect that to change unless cloud gaming somehow becomes mainstream.

What percent of gamers do you think are buying 10 year old PC games? Is it a key feature for steam in terms of their number of registered users over the years? Sure, but I don't think it is the selling point you think it is. The vast majority of money comes from modern game releases.

What do you think it costs Sony to host and sell 3rd party games? If you think they can sell their own games, what about selling 3rd party games do you think is an inherent cost to them. They're selling the games, not necessarily buying them. Could they pay for some exclusivity? Sure and that'll cost, but there are also a lot of ways to manage that.

I bet they could get 3 months of exclusivity from T2 on GTA6 simply by lowering the PS5 royalty 5 percent.

Why would anyone greenlight a project when others have failed? LOL... most of business for all of history...

How many handhelds failed before the PSP? Why was the PSP successful? What was so unique about Sony that they were able to make it successful when a multitude of competitors failed?

 

[BennyBlanco]

It will 'fail' in the same way people here think that GoG and EGS fail, which is not really fail at all as it's just another launcher on an open platform.

EGS is tossing money in an incinerator

Tim Sweeney’s Epic Games Store Is Still Losing Money After Five Years

That’s straight from Epic Games Store head Steve Allison on the witness stand who admitted the storefront is still losing money.

www.forbes.com

A Sony store would probably do even worse since they are not gonna give away free games and they don’t have Fortnite to force millions of people to open their launcher

 

[Raonak]

Because creating and running a storefront is a load of work. Porting games and making buck isn't.

They already are running one of the most popular storefronts. They already have the entire backend infastructure, and technical know-how. All it would require is a front end client.

Sony would be losing money not making this, if they are actually serious about PC.

Once again, it's not about competing with steam. It's about expanding the PlayStation brand.

 

[March Climber]

EGS is tossing money in an incinerator

Tim Sweeney’s Epic Games Store Is Still Losing Money After Five Years

That’s straight from Epic Games Store head Steve Allison on the witness stand who admitted the storefront is still losing money.

www.forbes.com

Does this have anything to do with them offering up to 3 free games every month along with purchasing timed exclusivity on multiple AAA titles?

 

[Holammer]

They are welcome to try. I said they should started one back in early PS4 days. Sell their own games and third party ones on consoles & PC, but that ship has sailed. Valve is too stronk. Now when it's dawning on Sony fans that PC is here to stay, the possibility of a Playstation PC Store is the new cope. A new front in the console wars.

On a personal note, I'm not installing it. I routinely ignore anything requiring Uplay and EGS installed. If Nintendo made a PC Store, I might reconsider the policy.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

If Nintendo made a PC Store, I might reconsider the policy.

 

[onnextflix5]

It will be dead on arrival, no chance they even try, more likely they will close the PlayStation business then becoming a full time pc publisher, this is getting ridiculous, Sony just want a little bit a of extra cash with these ports, their main business will always be consoles.

 

[Porticus]

Does this have anything to do with them offering up to 3 free games every month along with purchasing timed exclusivity on multiple AAA titles?

And still no one cares.

 

[ByWatterson]

They'll do great as long as they don't make things exclusive to it. Take their time, build the ecosystem, put in the work. If they don't muscle their way in like Epic they'll be fine.

 

[near]

A PlayStation launcher on PC isn't unforeseeable. One that has cross-progression with PS5/4, cloud saves, trophies and aims to distribute first party content through it would do well imo. Wouldn't it be cool if your digital purchases on PS5 could be played on PC? Doubt that would ever happen. If it is designed as a storefront that also aims to distribute third party content, then it is by default in a competing space. It could still be successful, but it would depend on how you measure that success.

 

[StereoVsn]

Personally I have no interest in yet another PC store with inevitable issues and more proprietary shit.

Prices will also suck since there won’t be competition. And Sony in general is terrible with software design PC side.

 

[Elysium44]

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.

Because that's where PC gamers want to buy their games from. Keeping 100% of the revenue is moot when you sell far fewer copies than you would have on Steam. This is exactly why Microsoft threw the towel in and sold on Steam after initially trying to force people to use their store. Even if Sony could make a better app experience, it wouldn't cancel that out. Steam is supremely convenient, most people don't want multiple launchers and accounts.

Also we have an idea of Sony's app quality on PC because there is already a PlayStation Plus streaming app which isn't very well designed, ie. no better than the Xbox app. If that's the best they can do then it would never be very popular.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

EGS is tossing money in an incinerator

Tim Sweeney’s Epic Games Store Is Still Losing Money After Five Years

That’s straight from Epic Games Store head Steve Allison on the witness stand who admitted the storefront is still losing money.

www.forbes.com

A Sony store would probably do even worse since they are not gonna give away free games and they don’t have Fortnite to force millions of people to open their launcher

It is not exactly shocking to learn that the Epic Games Store is still not profitable when A) it spends millions on free games to give away, B) it spends millions on timed exclusives, C) it has its promised 88-12 dev-favored revenue split.

But most importantly gamers don’t want to use it because it’s just not a good storefront. It is feature-inferior to Steam in every single way, originally launching without basic functionality like a shopping cart or user reviews. The only way most PC players use the Epic Game Store now is to log in to get free games, then leave, or maybe to buy something that’s a timed exclusive. Though half the time they’ll wait for Steam. It’s not a good storefront either conceptually, offering nothing of real value as a valid alternative to Steam, while also being a technically inferior product in almost every way.

At least try and focus on the reasons why it is losing money and ask yourself if that applies to Sony.

Epic's problem is that they struggle to get 3rd party support without paying for it. Sony doesn't have to pay for 3rd party support, they can simply offer favorable royalties on games that exist on both PS5 and PC Storefront. That's not something that Epic can do.

Sony can offer free games, but as part of their subscription service which they already do for PS4 and PS5 users.

They also can always package Crunchyroll as part of PS+ which I think is their strongest potential move.

Most importantly is that they can build a mirror of PlayStation Store on PC which would probably go over better than EGS. The biggest problem EGS has is thinking that timed exclusivity for gamers who are super cheap and have access to a massive back catalog of games is the answer.

That might work with very select games, over time, but you have to be careful about doing it. FF7 remake isn't the game to pay for exclusivity for, at best you give them a favorable cross platform royalty and have it release first, but you don't pay for exclusivity.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Steam is supremely convenient, most people don't want multiple launchers and accounts.

 

[March Climber]

And still no one cares.

I wasn't using that point as a positive. They did this all without using a base level of their subscription to cover the costs.

 

[Guilty_AI]

They can certainly try. But if they bring their poor service structure from playstation with them, they're setting themselves up for failure.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

They can certainly try. But if they bring their poor service structure from playstation with them, they're setting themselves up for failure.

What is poor about their service structure?

 

[FrankWza]

This is exactly why Microsoft threw the towel in and sold on Steam after initially trying to force people to use their store.

Don't compare catalogs. Playstation has PC players waiting in line to play their game.