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[Det]

Huh? And why do Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, HULU, Disney+ all invest in exclusive content?

Is being the "Netflix of games" with massive investment in exclusive content a thing of the past?

When MS was investing in Game Pass, the "Netflix of games" was the future.

Now it's not anymore?

All of this is astroturfing by MS to try to convince Sony to end exclusives and the PlayStation "walled garden."

Gaslighting for their own business model.

I'm sure that's it, in the streaming market no one says that exclusive content is a "model of the past"

 

[mayham2199]

While I agree with this from Sony's perspective, as they need a reason for people to join their ecosystem, exclusives are bad for gamers. If Sony went fully multiplatform, it would instantly be beneficial to their studios. Sales revenue would be substantially more, which would allow for bigger budgets and potentially more innovation. But Sony and Nintendo need to sell their consoles or they are screwed. They depend on their stores to generate the vast majority of their revenue

I do agree sales revenue from their games would sky rocket. The problem is how would it affect their consoles sales? 50% of their revenue isn't from their own games it's from like @ 10 GAAS games and getting the 30% cut. IMO they shouldn't even be worrying about putting their games everywhere the focus should clearly be on getting as many people as possible on PS since people using their store is where the bulk of their money comes from.

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

He is emphasising multiplayer/GaaS alot, so from that point of view I get it. More players=more engagement/mtx $. And from a cost perspective, titles that the platform itself aren't willing to eat to entice players to their ecosystem are going to need an increasing amount of customers.

The future he envisiones would be nice, in that you can play any game on any platform. And analysts have been saying for ages that consoles are dying. But I don't see it happening for quite some time yet.

I think that we'll get a clearer picture over the next few years after we see what Valve whips up and how serious MS are with this upcoming push towards a gaming centric OS.

And let's not forget (as much as we'd like to) the Mobile gaming market. They make a shit-ton of money and many of the younger generations of gamer grew up with it. Saw a report that since the hardware on that side is getting better and better game development costs are rising there aswell.

So I wouldn't be extremly suprised if we end up seeing an industry wide push towards an platform-agnostic future. The big question, in my mind, is what is Sony going to do?
Release on more platforms earns them more $$$ but it dilutes their attractiveness/value for potential new adopters. Xbox is hoping their foothold in the PC market and GP will be enough to lure folks over. But in this "future" what will Sony do? If the rumors about Sony and Valve are true, then we might get some more insight soon. But I personally have some doubts.

But, yeah. Ninty does what Ninty wants, when and how it feels like it.

I have a PS5 Pro and enjoy a lot of PS first party games but they've certainly painted themselves into a difficult corner regarding their generational platforms being based on an ever increasing level of visual fidelity meaning their internal development costs are astronomically rising along with a possible future where fewer people will feel the need to buy their consoles or games.

I really don't know what they do in the future. It feels like their cut of the GaaS boom is papering over their financials for now but who knows what the future holds when a whole generation gets bored of Fortine and service games.

 

[Robb]

If you want to only be a publisher maybe. If you also want to sell hardware it doesn't seem to be working great. Xbox is basically a walking corpse these days.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Sony fans are just gonna have to come to terms with it. Only way to do business in the massive Chinese market is with PC ports and mobile. It's been 5 years and has not affected their console business, so it's really just boomers lamenting the loss of list wars.

Nintendo is different because their IPs are way more popular and people buy their hardware as a secondary device only for exclusives. Sony is making record profits and revenue collecting 30% of popular GaaS games on PlayStation. The market has shifted dramatically. Schedule 1 and REPO outsold DS2 and Astro Bot by a lot.

 

[owandeseis]

???
Persona already became a giant as a PS4 exclusive. The multiplatform metaphor is failing to keep up. And BB sold as well or better than the prior Dark Souls games. SE already went multiplatform with FFXIII. They have yet to break any new sales ground from when they used to be PS exclusive. Actually given how much the gaming market has grown since then they have actually been losing ground in real terms despite being on PC and Xbox. Games can and do sell very well as exclusives, and going multiplatform doesn't always increase franchise sales to the extent that is often hyped, if at all.

Regardless the above is all irrelevant since those are third party game developers, not platform holders. The platform business should always supersede the game production side since it is an order of magnitude more lucrative.

3 Million sales in 3 years for P4 is fine but hardly a giant, the Persona saga sold half of it's total sales in the last 3 years while being multiplatform, and it's an almost 30 year old saga, and Persona 5 is also selling much faster last 3 years than during it's first 6 years.

Metaphor has sold 2M in 7-8 months, i wouldn't say it's failing to keep up with Persona 4 sales, anyways it's a new IP vs the fourth entry of a saga so it's a weird comparison.

Bloodborne sold 1M in it's first month and 2M after 6 months, Dark Souls 3 already did much better and that was on an era where PC was almost niche (DS2 didn't even release day 1 on PC), and these are rookie numbers compared to what ER and From games do now, numbers that would be impossible on a single platform by the way.

On Square's case we'll have to see if FF7 Reunion and FF17 can beat FF16 and Rebirth's numbers on their first month/year, not hard at all even if it's another disappointing game they release.

A game can do great numbers being exclusive, but that game will sell from a bit more to much more by being multiplatform, i wonder what was Sega's sale predictions for P6 on it's first year back in 2021 and what they are now for example.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

I have a PS5 Pro and enjoy a lot of PS first party games but they've certainly painted themselves into a difficult corner regarding their generational platforms being based on an ever increasing level of visual fidelity meaning their internal development costs are astronomically rising along with a possible future where fewer people will feel the need to buy their consoles or games.

I really don't know what they do in the future. It feels like their cut of the GaaS boom is papering over their financials for now but who knows what the future holds when a whole generation gets bored of Fortine and service games.

Yeah, who really knows what the future holds. It' is all theoretical at this point. They do get their share of GaaS money but it's no doubt they were banking on one of their in-house GaaS efforts bearing fruit to sustain them a bit better. Will be interesting seeing their strategy going foreward.

I use my PS5 mainly for 3rd party couch games that I pick up on sale as their 1st party offerings haven't interested my much these last years. For me to bother investing in a PS6 they're going to need to diversify their exclusives, and find a way to release more titles. How? Who knows.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Microsoft should double down on the openess to different platforms and donate a couple billion to Valve to make SteamOS even better. Maybe contribute a bit to the Proton github repo.

 

[Woopah]

Would you like to sell 150 million Switch 2 units, or would you like to sell 100 million each of your franchises?

Not saying it will be easy or guaranteed to happen, but thats the sort of ceiling they can be looking at.

I think they have maxed out Switch, Mario Kart World will not outsell MK8.

150 million Switch 2

Firstly, because hardly any franchises will get close to 100 million even with multiplatform.

But more importantly, lowering Switch 2 sales not only reduces your hardware revenue, but also your royalty, subscription and accessories revenue.

Oy, it comes bundled with the hardware at like 80%+ share. If the Switch 2 sells 100m, MKW will outsell it.

The bundle is limited though, it won't be available by the end of this year.

Is this really what constitutes as sales?

Game should be in the wild, gamers drawn to it naturally, thats what a successful title should be.

People are paying $50 for MKW in the bundle, that absolutely counts as a sale.

 

[GigaBowser]

Sony fans are just gonna have to come to terms with it. Only way to do business in the massive Chinese market is with PC ports and mobile. It's been 5 years and has not affected their console business, so it's really just boomers lamenting the loss of list wars.

Nintendo is different because their IPs are way more popular and people buy their hardware as a secondary device only for exclusives. Sony is making record profits and revenue collecting 30% of popular GaaS games on PlayStation. The market has shifted dramatically. Schedule 1 and REPO outsold DS2 and Astro Bot by a lot.

goord for sony bankers crud for gamers

 

[ByWatterson]

Sega is crushing ASS

 

[Banjo64]

Forza Horizon breaking down walls.

 

[tr1p1ex]

Would you like to sell 150 million Switch 2 units, or would you like to sell 100 million each of your franchises?

Not saying it will be easy or guaranteed to happen, but thats the sort of ceiling they can be looking at.

I think they have maxed out Switch, Mario Kart World will not outsell MK8.

What multiplatform games outsold MK8? ....GTAV iirc and what else? Probably nothing.

And do you think MK8 or GTA V made more money for their publishers after paying royalties and retailers and distribution? (Ignoring budget and additional DLC.)

 

[Mr Moose]

What multiplatform games outsold MK8? ....GTAV iirc and what else? Probably nothing.

And do you think MK8 or GTA V made more money for their publishers after paying royalties and retailers and distribution? (Ignoring budget and additional DLC.)

MineCraft. Maybe Red Dead 2 soon.
The list is small.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

What multiplatform games outsold MK8? ....GTAV iirc and what else? Probably nothing.

And do you think MK8 or GTA V made more money for their publishers after paying royalties and retailers and distribution? (Ignoring budget and additional DLC.)

MineCraft. Maybe Red Dead 2 soon.
The list is small.

This is as per wikipedia

But it also has weird stuff like this. Not sure if trustworthy.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

This is the new marching order from Redmond just before they announce Halo coming to PS5 in the next few weeks.


This is not how you win, this is pure cope.


This is what Xbox has been reduced to. Putting their biggest game and platform identifying franchise on their competition's platfrom to keep the lights on.

 

[Mr Moose]

This is as per wikipedia

But it also has weird stuff like this. Not sure if trustworthy.

I don't believe that Ark number. There's no way it sold that many, it runs like dog shit.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I don't believe that Ark number. There's no way it sold that many, it runs like dog shit.

I knew it was popular.

But if it sold that much, would have heard about it, especially from its Dev/publisher.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Huh? And why do Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, HULU, Disney+ all invest in exclusive content?

Is being the "Netflix of games" with massive investment in exclusive content a thing of the past?

When MS was investing in Game Pass, the "Netflix of games" was the future.

Now it's not anymore?

All of this is astroturfing by MS to try to convince Sony to end exclusives and the PlayStation "walled garden."



I'm sure that's it, in the streaming market no one says that exclusive content is a "model of the past"

It's painfully transparent, yeah.

Ever shifting narratives to never admit to their failures.

As for "Circana," it benefits them since there are more avenues to track, equaling more spend tiers for their "partners."

But as others have mentioned. Their tail gets tucked between their legs when it comes to Nintendo. Again, painfully transparent.

 

[Mr Moose]

I knew it was popular.

But if it sold that much, would have heard about it, especially from its Dev/publisher.

Half that number according to the devs:

ABOUT STUDIO WILDCARD
Founded in 2014 by industry veterans Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, Studio Wildcard's mission is to bring AAA quality to ambitious indie titles designed for core gamers. The studio's hit title ARK: Survival Evolved has sold more than 35 million copies across all platforms.

 

[tr1p1ex]

This is as per wikipedia



But it also has weird stuff like this. Not sure if trustworthy.

aka GTAV and nothing else. The rest are asterisks.

Point being... the 2nd best selling game in the past 10 years is an exclusive.

And the other point is the exclusive made a lot more $$$$ per copy sold compared to the multi-platform title after you take out the retailer's cut and the royalties.

In other words, an exclusive that sells 75mn in sales equates to (roughly give or take) a 3rd party game selling 150mn+ copies. Everything else being equal.

 

[EN250]

Sure bros, keep telling yourselves that, meanwhile at Nintendo, while reading this

 

[Aenima]

Yup. MS multiplatform strategy and neglet to sell hardware was such a winning move that lead to massive layoffs and some devs putting them on the back of the waiting list when it comes to ports. So much winning.

 

[Bond007]

Are you comparing luxury cars with videogames?

I am comparing the concept. What item it is doesn't truly matter- but sure, i did.

 

[Physiognomonics]

How are exclusives bad for gamers? Exclusives have typically made full use of the hardware they are being developed on and fully showcase the hardware.

Exactly this. The 2 best PS5 games are the only games that are exclusives to that console. Astro-bot (fully using DualSense) and Demon's Souls fully using GPU features (raster, not RT) and still the most beautifully dense game while been a launch game. Bonus, both of those games are fully using fast I/O with <2 sec loadings.

 

[Woopah]

I think that in the next 20 to 30 years Nintendo ll start do became less relevant, when their hardcore fanbase 80/90s kids start to drop dead, for now nostalgia ll continue to push Nintendo foward for sure, kids nowadays dont really care about Mário or Pokémon, and once they are 8yo their life is Roblox or online trash.

What % of Switch owners do you think are 80s / 90s kids?

 

[Ebrietas]

3 Million sales in 3 years for P4 is fine but hardly a giant, the Persona saga sold half of it's total sales in the last 3 years while being multiplatform, and it's an almost 30 year old saga, and Persona 5 is also selling much faster last 3 years than during it's first 6 years.

Metaphor has sold 2M in 7-8 months, i wouldn't say it's failing to keep up with Persona 4 sales, anyways it's a new IP vs the fourth entry of a saga so it's a weird comparison.

Bloodborne sold 1M in it's first month and 2M after 6 months, Dark Souls 3 already did much better and that was on an era where PC was almost niche (DS2 didn't even release day 1 on PC), and these are rookie numbers compared to what ER and From games do now, numbers that would be impossible on a single platform by the way.

On Square's case we'll have to see if FF7 Reunion and FF17 can beat FF16 and Rebirth's numbers on their first month/year, not hard at all even if it's another disappointing game they release.

A game can do great numbers being exclusive, but that game will sell from a bit more to much more by being multiplatform, i wonder what was Sega's sale predictions for P6 on it's first year back in 2021 and what they are now for example.

P5 sold more than 5 million on PS4 alone (coming off of P4 which barely sold a fraction of that on PS2/Vita), and that too was an outdated number. Switch, Xbox, and PC did not double its sales.

BB sold 7.5 million as of 2022, which was absolutely on par or better than the multiplatform DS1 or DS2 (which only released a month later on PC so not at all significant), despite being exclusive to a much smaller PS4 install base compared to PS3/360, and tracking well with Sekiro (which has since passed 10 million). DS3 sold more but also came out later than BB benefitting from the increasing popularity, word of mouth, and critical reception of the Souls games. A hypothetical exclusive ER would have absolutely sold gangbusters across PS4 and PS5. It is likely well beyond 15 million as is.

As for SE, FFVII OG sold more than 10 million just on PS1 (not including digital PS1 classic re-release). FFX sold similar numbers on PS2. FFXIII failed to expand the audience despite releasing on Xbox and later PC. Similar story with FFXV which at best matched the prior franchise ceilling. But as I said before it really should have sold significantly better given how much the overall market has expanded in the last 25 years. Several old franchises like FF are seeing much bigger numbers nowadays. SE's problem is that they don't know how to design FF games for the modern audience. That is not a problem they can fix simply by adding more platforms.

Then you can look at Nintendo. All of their franchises are exclusive and routinely sell 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 40 million and beyond. And you can't chalk it up to to IP strength: Mario Kart and Zelda were not putting up anywhere near these numbers in the past.

 

[Lokaum D+]

What % of Switch owners do you think are 80s / 90s kids?

At least 50%, the difference is that we old farts ll probably never move out this hobbies, but modern kids are already moving out of single player games, they are all about Roblox, Fortnite, Gatcha, Twitch and all this other media that most of us old ppl dont give a fuck, and Nintendo is most a single player dev.

What % of gamers here no Neogaf do you think are under age? And what % are 80/90s kids ?

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

I agree that multi-platform is the way to go when you don't have the content to drive demand for your system.
Microsoft has SO much content at this point it is in their best interest to get it into as many hands as it can.

Nintendo will still make product for their console "exclusive". They still have the ability to drive demand to their console via their software.
When Nintendo starts to loose that ability maybe they will shit to more platforms much like Sony is doing now. While Helldivers 2 is a poor example (they should release the game on a competing console that can move units like the Switch 2) it will be interesting to see the uptick it gets in users on Microsoft's console..

Will Sony have a more aggressive "multi-platform" strategy this time next year? Yes, I believe that they will...but time will tell.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

aka GTAV and nothing else. The rest are asterisks.

Point being... the 2nd best selling game in the past 10 years is an exclusive.

And the other point is the exclusive made a lot more $$$$ per copy sold compared to the multi-platform title after you take out the retailer's cut and the royalties.

In other words, an exclusive that sells 75mn in sales equates to (roughly give or take) a 3rd party game selling 150mn+ copies. Everything else being equal.

While this is true, overall as an influential game and a cultural phenomenon, its mostly stuff of legends. Kids talk about it, but actually play Roblox, Minecraft etc on their ipads.

 

[yogaflame]

Nintendo is laughing with this crap.

 

[Durin]

I mean exclusives CAN help sell a platform, but you need to reliably churn out good ones at solid cadence, and combine them with other unique features.

Literally only Nintendo has been able to still keep doing that this generation...while Microsoft has a waffling strategy with middling quality averages, and Sony first-party games have 5+ year dev cycles with lower genre variety than the PS2 glory days.

The boxes are also just more samey than ever, people do play where their friends are, and they mostly play third-party stuff available on multiple platforms.

 

[owandeseis]

P5 sold more than 5 million on PS4 alone (coming off of P4 which barely sold a fraction of that on PS2/Vita), and that too was an outdated number. Switch, Xbox, and PC did not double its sales.

BB sold 7.5 million as of 2022, which was absolutely on par or better than the multiplatform DS1 or DS2 (which only released a month later on PC so not at all significant), despite being exclusive to a much smaller PS4 install base compared to PS3/360, and tracking well with Sekiro (which has since passed 10 million). DS3 sold more but also came out later than BB benefitting from the increasing popularity, word of mouth, and critical reception of the Souls games. A hypothetical exclusive ER would have absolutely sold gangbusters across PS4 and PS5. It is likely well beyond 15 million as is.

As for SE, FFVII OG sold more than 10 million just on PS1 (not including digital PS1 classic re-release). FFX sold similar numbers on PS2. FFXIII failed to expand the audience despite releasing on Xbox and later PC. Similar story with FFXV which at best matched the prior franchise ceilling. But as I said before it really should have sold significantly better given how much the overall market has expanded in the last 25 years. Several old franchises like FF are seeing much bigger numbers nowadays. SE's problem is that they don't know how to design FF games for the modern audience. That is not a problem they can fix simply by adding more platforms.

Then you can look at Nintendo. All of their franchises are exclusive and routinely sell 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 40 million and beyond. And you can't chalk it up to to IP strength: Mario Kart and Zelda were not putting up anywhere near these numbers in the past.

Since the multiplatform release Persona 5 sold over 5M units, meaning the game sold as much on its first 6 years as it did on its next 2,5 years. Wouldn't be surprised if Persona 6 ends up becoming the best selling JRPG outside of pokemon, unthinkable just 4 years ago but here we are.

For BB, even after the crazy hype and word of mouth around it, 7 years after release it was still far from Elden Ring's number on its first 3 weeks. If ER was exclusive, From Software would have "lost" so much money

And yes, some Nintendo games like Zelda, or GTA are the exception, these games can sell over 10M on a single platform in just days, and end up selling 30-40 and more, but the rest just don't play on that league.

The future (and present) for any third party company is multiplatform, and as many platforms as they can, as for platform holders, well when Nintendo can sell 80M Mario Kart copies just on their console, why even bother, even tho i think these kind of games made around coop/MP experiences with friends could sell a lot on PC.

As for Sony they were smart by releasing GaaS games day 1 on PC, hence Helldivers is the fastest selling Sony game ever, but i dont think most of the PC audience is attracted by the single player games Sony is making nowadays, sure they'd do fine, but very far from the big hitters or what some Nintendo games could do there so their actual strategy seems the smartest for now.

 

[Pop]

Exclusives matter for any business

I don't like that Playstation brings their titles to PC years later but whatever. It's better than doing it day and date as the console release.

 

[Amin_Parker]

I think Sony should put their games on all platforms that way they'll make way more money.

Just because Nintendo make exclusive games for their own consoles and keep all games off of other platforms, Does not mean that Sony should do the same.

If Sony starts putting their major franchises on the NS2 and the Xbox and the PS5 day and date simultaneously, just imagine the amount of money they are going to be bringing in. They are going to be so rich that is going to blow everybody's mind. They will be more profitable than Nintendo and Microsoft combined.

 

[Yekshemesh]

Just crunch the numbers, bro. I don't want to hear any stupid commentary from industry shills.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

It feels like this is self evidently true (except for Nintendo, who continue to defy all laws of nature)

They aren't defying nature - the claim simply isn't true and rather they are providing present evidence of that.

 

[chicnstu]

Nintendo is laughing with this crap.

Yeah. Just look at their sales and their overall value as a company. Clearly they are doing many things right.

It likely helps developers to publish on multiple platforms to reach a larger audience. But the platform holders (console/handheld or digital storefront) need exclusives to stand out.

 

[jm89]

Not it isn't.

That's how you devalue your platform.

And Sony is dumb as fuck for doing it, even if it's to a lesser extent then ms right now.

 

[Amin_Parker]

If Sony went fully multiplatform, it would instantly be beneficial to their studios. Sales revenue would be substantially more, which would allow for bigger budgets and potentially more innovation.

You're 100% right. PS is NOT the console for 3rd party games, all consoles are the home for third-party games. Sony 1st party games play best on the PC. Porting their games day and date to the true market leader (Switch 2) or a dying console (Xbox) will DEFINITELY help.

 

[PeteBull]

Does this guy look like a winner to any1 tho?

 

[LordCBH]

This is as per wikipedia

But it also has weird stuff like this. Not sure if trustworthy.

I shouldn't be surprised that Minecraft sold that much but holy shit.

 

[yogaflame]

Yeah. Just look at their sales and their overall value as a company. Clearly they are doing many things right.

It likely helps developers to publish on multiple platforms to reach a larger audience. But the platform holders (console/handheld or digital storefront) need exclusives to stand out.

Exclusives is very good for competition and produces excellent quality games due to focusing on development on one platform's technology, resources and strength. And it is a big selling point for a specific platform. For example gamers always love Nintendo for Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, DK, and Metroid. That is why I'm impress with Nintendo strategy and philosophy throughout the years about exclusives and very frustrated with Sony abandoning full exclusivity for there 1st and 2nd party games and even for there 3rd party exclusivity deals.

 

[TheMule1983]

Exactly this. The 2 best PS5 games are the only games that are exclusives to that console. Astro-bot (fully using DualSense) and Demon's Souls fully using GPU features (raster, not RT) and still the most beautifully dense game while been a launch game. Bonus, both of those games are fully using fast I/O with <2 sec loadings.

The only people that seem to be against exclusives are Xbox and PC fans. Makes sense coming from those fan bases.

 

[Loomy]

That only works if you don't have your own platform. Right now there are - essentially - 2 platform makers left.

 

[Danjin44]

No, good game does and good exclusives give great reason to buy system for….this why Nintendo are successful.

 

[Unfortunatecookie]

Huh? And why do Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, HULU, Disney+ all invest in exclusive content?

Is being the "Netflix of games" with massive investment in exclusive content a thing of the past?

When MS was investing in Game Pass, the "Netflix of games" was the future.

Now it's not anymore?

All of this is astroturfing by MS to try to convince Sony to end exclusives and the PlayStation "walled garden."



I'm sure that's it, in the streaming market no one says that exclusive content is a "model of the past"

Couldn't have said it any better.

These guys are pathetically predictable professional parrots. Xbox says the power of the cloud is the future, what do they do? "The power of the cloud is the future." Xbox says sales figures don't matter just bullets fired and miles driven matter, what do they do? "Sales figures don't matter just bullets fired and miles driven matter." Xbox says cross-platform play is necessary and anyone who doesn't do it is anti-consumer bro, what do they do? "Cross-platform play is necessary and anyone who doesn't do it is anti-consumer bro." Xbox says Game Pass is the future of gaming everyone should have a subscription, what do they do? "Game Pass is the future of gaming everyone should have a subscription." Xbox says exclusives don't matter and when everyone plays everyone wins, what do they do? "Exclusives don't matter and when everyone plays everyone wins."

I've never seen a weaker group of 'professionals' in my life. They're legitimately scared of thinking for themselves. To pretend that people don't buy things based on the unique properties of things is a fucking joke. Since when has this been a reality?

Xbox went multi-platform because both their console and software sales became abysmal. They made bad investments in software (e.g., Gears 4, Titanfall exclusivity, Scalebound, Halo 5, Crackdown 3, Ryse, Quantum Break etc.) and bad investments in hardware (e.g, Kinect 2) so their business had to pivot to a sustainable stream of revenue that would hopefully get them out of the ditch they were stuck in. Game Pass was their answer. They took a massive risk and hoped it would reverse their fortunes. It didn't. So they shifted their entire business towards a subscription model that did not work, leading to their current reality of having to lifeboat their software to keep their entire business from shuttering. No amount of "THE WARCHEST MONEY" will reverse Xbox's current reality. They killed their own business.

PlayStation, under the guide of a now-former CEO and current incompetent CEO, are going multi-platform for a revenue boost that makes their business look prettier and guarantees performance-based bonuses for their executive team. The consequence of this -- no matter how many geniuses claim otherwise -- will be a decrease in the value of PlayStation hardware and a decrease in the overall value of the PlayStation ecosystem. This does not happen overnight. But the more the mass market learns that they do not need PlayStation hardware to play PlayStation software, the less sales will be coming into PlayStation and the more PlayStation will have to jack up prices to make their business look pretty. It's like they're fucking themselves over and will have to fuck you over to reverse fucking themselves over.

The phrase "All money isn't good money" is applicable. Nintendo knows this. They've chosen to not follow the other two companies off a cliff, and they're currently outselling both companies -- in all major markets -- by a healthy margin. It's impressive how you have a real-time example of a company not going multi-platform, outselling everyone, and yet you still have 'professionals' that claim this isn't a winning strategy. It's like reality doesn't exist in their world.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Xbox went multi-platform because both their console and software sales became abysmal. They made bad investments in software (e.g., Gears 4, Titanfall exclusivity, Scalebound, Halo 5, Crackdown 3, Ryse, Quantum Break etc.) and bad investments in hardware (e.g, Kinect 2) so their business had to pivot to a sustainable stream of revenue that would hopefully get them out of the ditch they were stuck in. Game Pass was their answer. They took a massive risk and hoped it would reverse their fortunes. It didn't. So they shifted their entire business towards a subscription model that did not work, leading to their current reality of having to lifeboat their software to keep their entire business from shuttering. No amount of "THE WARCHEST MONEY" will reverse Xbox's current reality. They killed their own business.

PlayStation, under the guide of a now-former CEO and current incompetent CEO, are going multi-platform for a revenue boost that makes their business look prettier and guarantees performance-based bonuses for their executive team. The consequence of this -- no matter how many geniuses claim otherwise -- will be a decrease in the value of PlayStation hardware and a decrease in the overall value of the PlayStation ecosystem. This does not happen overnight. But the more the mass market learns that they do not need PlayStation hardware to play PlayStation software, the less sales will be coming into PlayStation and the more PlayStation will have to jack up prices to make their business look pretty. It's like they're fucking themselves over and will have to fuck you over to reverse fucking themselves over.

The phrase "All money isn't good money" is applicable. Nintendo knows this. They've chosen to not follow the other two companies off a cliff, and they're currently outselling both companies -- in all major markets -- by a healthy margin. It's impressive how you have a real-time example of a company not going multi-platform, outselling everyone, and yet you still have 'professionals' that claim this isn't a winning strategy. It's like reality doesn't exist in their world.

A perfect summary.

 

[Jimmy_liv]

And then there's Nintendo who makes it clear their games are exclusive to only one platform and they benefit from it.

As someone who owns a PC and PS5 alongside my Switch 2, Sony should be treating PC as their competition and consolidating everything back onto their own consoles.

Totally agree. Nintendo and historically Sony, have shown that first class games will sell systems - which in turn sells more games.

Shareholders pushing for more profit by putting games across multiple systems is such a short sighted strategy.

 

[Neofire]

"Bringing your games to other platforms is how you’re going to win" - Circana

The US charts firm talks multi-platform launches and Switch 2 sales, while we reveal the biggest Donkey Kong launches of all time

www.thegamebusiness.com

The games industry's multi-format future is working, says Circana

Meanwhile Microsoft has been doing that for almost a decade and still can't win lol the Xbox brand is literally about to belly up.