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UK Monthly Charts February 2023: PS5 #1, Switch #2 and Xbox Series #3, Helldivers 2 Digital+Physical(Sold 57% on PS5)

Pelta88

Member
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yazenov

Member
Maybe i've not been following that closeley and missed it.

But chris hasn't give splits from GSD between ps and xbox in ages.

The last one was RE4 that i can remember.

So why all of a sudden give out splits for ps5/pc?

He doesn't even give out the physical splits anymore if at all, whilst nintendo life still does proving that info is still available.

Damage controlling xbox sales for whatever reason.

I applaud Christ for not disclosing the splits between PS5 and XBS for ethical reasons.

Remember all the hurt feelings whenever he disclosed the splits 2 years ago when the 2 consoles were difficult to purchase (maybe not for Xbox :messenger_tears_of_joy:) due to "stock" and "shortages" issues? Imagine the splits now that the PS5 lapsed the Xbox by 2x or 3X.

Kodos for him for not intentionally killing some people by mass suicide.
 
eIrb5mj.gif

OK...

I know I've seen the pictures before.

But this gif.

Oh this gif.....

ROFL

Holy shit. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I never knew it was that bad with hardcore Xbox fans till I saw this.
 
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Woopah

Member
I applaud Christ for not disclosing the splits between PS5 and XBS for ethical reasons.

Remember all the hurt feelings whenever he disclosed the splits 2 years ago when the 2 consoles were difficult to purchase (maybe not for Xbox :messenger_tears_of_joy:) due to "stock" and "shortages" issues? Imagine the splits now that the PS5 lapsed the Xbox by 2x or 3X.

Kodos for him for not intentionally killing some people by mass suicide.
It would be great if the UK and Europe charts were like the Japan ones, where we consistently got the same amount of hardware and software by SKU every week, rather than relying on whatever stats Chris puts in his article that particular week.
 
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“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2—and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation—I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox.”

- Phil Spencer

I still cant believe he actually said that when Microsoft are the worst in that aspect, buying out entire publishers and canceling PS5 versions of games. Pure hypocrisy from this dickhead gaming politician.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism

yazenov

Member
It would be great if the UK and Europe chsrts were like the Japan ones, where we consistently got the same amount of hardware and software by SKU every week, rather than relying on whatever stats Chris puts in his article that particular week.

Yeah, I hope he does not stop giving us splits between PS5 and PC.

Going forward, I wish he'd be consistent and give us splits for console and PC games for multiplatform releases. It's strange that he just gave us this comparison only between PS5 and PC for Helldivers 2.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Goes completely against some of the silly system wars people were trying to push with this game.

100% against what the Xbox bros and PC Master Race were trying to push. And we told them that, but they didn't listen.

Estimates from Installbase

So PS5 at 73% vs. Xbox Series 27%. Almost a 3-1 margin.

When you announce you are ending the gen early, this is to be expected. Series will probably do only 5 million worldwide for the whole year. Possibly less.

I think Xbox's ceiling is 6 million units worldwide in 2024.
 

Woopah

Member
Yeah, I hope he does not stop giving us splits between PS5 and PC.

Going forward, I wish he'd be consistent and give us splits for console and PC games for multiplatform releases. It's strange that he just gave us this comparison only between PS5 and PC for Helldivers 2.
I would imagine the trackers don't want too much data being given out for free, so he's only allowed to share certain titbits he finds interesting.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
It's not over, though. Nintendo is still around and Switch 2 could definitely compete with PS5 for market share if it's a solid enough follow-up to the original. And I'd say nowadays it's more a "core gaming war" because once-isolated platforms like PC now share significantly more with console libraries (aside Nintendo's) than they ever have in the past, so there's a lot more demographic crossover, more competition for the same customer type and all that.

Xbox being weakened doesn't make things any easier for PlayStation. Nintendo are very formidable in their own right and PC (mainly Steam) has been the sleeping giant finally waking up. No time to rest on laurels.

Sony and Nintendo haven't been in direct competition in the console space since 2006. We're going on nearly 20 years.

So yeah, the "console wars" are over for now.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2—and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation—I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox.”

- Phil Spencer

Phil is clueless. TOTALLY clueless! You can't be the head of Xbox and port beg like this. It's beneath him.

Sony and Nintendo haven't been in direct competition in the console space since 2006. We're going on nearly 20 years.

So yeah, the "console wars" are over for now.

With Xbox dying, I think that old war is coming back. Unless you think it'll be a new war? PS vs. PC?
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
With Xbox dying, I think that old war is coming back. Unless you think it'll be a new war? PS vs. PC?

I think it'll be a platform war.

I think next steps for Sony are a PC Storefront and a handheld system.

I think once Nintendo loses significant market share on handheld/hybrid, they'll look to PC as well.

Eventually, gaming is going to be platform agnostic and PC will largely be the first venue for that, but we're going to see gaming on TVs, mobile, PC e.t.c. basically anything that has a screen.

If you look at Netflix, Netflix doesn't care what hardware it is on. When a company publishes a movie, they don't care what hardware you watch it on. When someone creates a song they don't care what hardware you're on either.

The companies that digitize their offerings in the most ubiquitous ways will be the market leaders in gaming in the future. It's why I've argued that Sony should prioritize an acquisition of Take2 if they really want to stay in the gaming business long-term.

We're going to see significant consolidation in the market and we're going to see a few different platforms for gaming likely run by the largest publishers, who will look to escape paying royalties in order to increase their profit margins.
 

Helldivers has sold way more than 5 million according to insider Shinobi.

When I looked at the Steam stats a couple weeks ago safe estimates put it at ~3.96 million. Assuming the 57:43 split holds true WW (not likely, but just as an experiment), then HD2 sales could be as much as ~ 9.2 million. 57/43 = 1.325 > 3.96 * 2.325 = 9.207 million * .57 = 5.248 million PS5, 3.96 million Steam.

So not quite 10 million but about 800K just shy of it, assuming the split holds up globally and the middle-of-the-road Steam sales estimates (as of ~ 2 weeks ago) are accurate. Though it's definitely sold more copies on Steam since then, so more on PS5 as well and if the ratio holds up and the realistic Steam estimates are true, then the game could have very well crossed 10 million by now or be very, very close.

I think Xbox's ceiling is 6 million units worldwide in 2024.

If nothing improves, 6 million is very likely...actually, you might be TOO generous.

OG Xbox did 6.2 million in its third calendar year. Xbox Series did ~ 7.2 million in its third calendar year. That's a 16% improvement.

OG Xbox did 4.1 million in its fourth calendar year. If Xbox Series continues tracking below XBO and only has a general improvement of 16% over OG Xbox's fourth calendar year, then it could realistically sell...4.756 million units this calendar year. That'd be a YOY drop of ~ 51%!

The guidance Amy Hood gave at that last fiscal call was not great...did they give an estimate of what YOY drop they expected? The 4.756 million would be a worst-case scenario, but considering MS don't have any big games this year aside Indiana Jones (near the end, and it could get delayed), plus the fact they could be scaling back production..it is possible.

OTOH, they have ABK games now for Game Pass, Starfield's getting a content update, and they'll have marketing rights to COD this year IIRC. IF they're lucky, all of that could help hardware units get between 5.5 million - 6 million for the entire calendar year.

Sony and Nintendo haven't been in direct competition in the console space since 2006. We're going on nearly 20 years.

So yeah, the "console wars" are over for now.

Sony & Nintendo aren't in direct competition, but they still compete somewhat for limited gaming time and dollars. Even so, I'd agree in the sense that Nintendo's much less of a direct competitor for Sony than Steam is, which has a massive amount of content crossover with PS consoles and quite a lot of its own exclusives, while (so far) Sony's been keen on bringing as many of their games as possible to Steam in short (and perhaps shortening) intervals.

Even if Steam isn't as direct a competitor as Xbox, it's probably better to say it's not as "blatant" a competitor, because the degree of difference from Xbox and Steam in that sense is significantly less than between Steam and Nintendo, in terms of direct competition with PlayStation. Hence why I'd agree with you that it is more a "platform war", but since that platform war encompasses more gaming devices (not just traditional consoles anymore like PlayStation vs. Xbox), thinking Sony's "won" anything on that front is actually potentially quite dangerous in inviting complacency on their part.

At least, that's how I feel about it.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
It's not over, though. Nintendo is still around and Switch 2 could definitely compete with PS5 for market share if it's a solid enough follow-up to the original. And I'd say nowadays it's more a "core gaming war" because once-isolated platforms like PC now share significantly more with console libraries (aside Nintendo's) than they ever have in the past, so there's a lot more demographic crossover, more competition for the same customer type and all that.

Xbox being weakened doesn't make things any easier for PlayStation. Nintendo are very formidable in their own right and PC (mainly Steam) has been the sleeping giant finally waking up. No time to rest on laurels.
Console wars are mostly over unless Xbox cange there mind. It’s kinda over as soon as they announce another port, especially if its something like Halo, HellBlade, Starfield etc.

Nintendo isnt even releasing a pure home console anymore, and they stopped trying to release current gen tech since Wii. But I can see how Switch 2 can threaten PS if they make something that can play current gen games. PC also isn’t a console.

Maybe soon we can rest my fellow warriors lol
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Rebirth did better then ff16 in the UK.

Down from remake though. But that makes sense it launched during covid where gaming was booming due to peoplem staying at home and ps4 had a much bigger installbase.


So it sold less than FFXVI in Japan at launch...and more than FFXVI in the UK. What will the results be for the US? Stay tuned....

The war raging over the sales performance of FFXVI and now Rebirth is a sight to behold.
 
I still cant believe he actually said that when Microsoft are the worst in that aspect, buying out entire publishers and canceling PS5 versions of games. Pure hypocrisy from this dickhead gaming politician.
The worst part is nobody pushed back on that response.... The person asking the question could've easily "Doesn't that apply to Starfield too?"
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I think it'll be a platform war.

I think next steps for Sony are a PC Storefront and a handheld system.

I think once Nintendo loses significant market share on handheld/hybrid, they'll look to PC as well.

Eventually, gaming is going to be platform agnostic and PC will largely be the first venue for that, but we're going to see gaming on TVs, mobile, PC e.t.c. basically anything that has a screen.

If you look at Netflix, Netflix doesn't care what hardware it is on. When a company publishes a movie, they don't care what hardware you watch it on. When someone creates a song they don't care what hardware you're on either.

The companies that digitize their offerings in the most ubiquitous ways will be the market leaders in gaming in the future. It's why I've argued that Sony should prioritize an acquisition of Take2 if they really want to stay in the gaming business long-term.

We're going to see significant consolidation in the market and we're going to see a few different platforms for gaming likely run by the largest publishers, who will look to escape paying royalties in order to increase their profit margins.

How will gaming work from tvs? That won't be possible for another 20+ years.

How long will it take to get 50 TFs, 32GB of RAM and 2 TB SSD inside of a TV?
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
When I looked at the Steam stats a couple weeks ago safe estimates put it at ~3.96 million. Assuming the 57:43 split holds true WW (not likely, but just as an experiment), then HD2 sales could be as much as ~ 9.2 million. 57/43 = 1.325 > 3.96 * 2.325 = 9.207 million * .57 = 5.248 million PS5, 3.96 million Steam.

So not quite 10 million but about 800K just shy of it, assuming the split holds up globally and the middle-of-the-road Steam sales estimates (as of ~ 2 weeks ago) are accurate. Though it's definitely sold more copies on Steam since then, so more on PS5 as well and if the ratio holds up and the realistic Steam estimates are true, then the game could have very well crossed 10 million by now or be very, very close.



If nothing improves, 6 million is very likely...actually, you might be TOO generous.

OG Xbox did 6.2 million in its third calendar year. Xbox Series did ~ 7.2 million in its third calendar year. That's a 16% improvement.

OG Xbox did 4.1 million in its fourth calendar year. If Xbox Series continues tracking below XBO and only has a general improvement of 16% over OG Xbox's fourth calendar year, then it could realistically sell...4.756 million units this calendar year. That'd be a YOY drop of ~ 51%!

The guidance Amy Hood gave at that last fiscal call was not great...did they give an estimate of what YOY drop they expected? The 4.756 million would be a worst-case scenario, but considering MS don't have any big games this year aside Indiana Jones (near the end, and it could get delayed), plus the fact they could be scaling back production..it is possible.

OTOH, they have ABK games now for Game Pass, Starfield's getting a content update, and they'll have marketing rights to COD this year IIRC. IF they're lucky, all of that could help hardware units get between 5.5 million - 6 million for the entire calendar year.

- that leaker that got 2 straight things right said HD2 is closing in on 10 million sold. So your math checks out. Which would also mean HD2 is selling 55-60% on PS5 worldwide. Not the 30% some idiots said last week.



- I find it impossible for Xbox Series to be down 51% for 2024. Just no way. I cane see it being down - 30% at the most. Like worse case scenario.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
How will gaming work from tvs? That won't be possible for another 20+ years.

How long will it take to get 50 TFs, 32GB of RAM and 2 TB SSD inside of a TV?

Streaming. I tried Geforce Now on my LG OLED and it worked brilliantly last year. Where streaming will be in the next 5-10 years will help determine the future of gaming.

The reality is that consoles as we know it are not going to survive another 15-20 years. They might still exist, but we're reaching a point where they won't make sense for manufacturers and they won't make sense for gamers.

It's why I think Sony is crazy not to go after Take2, because you're going to need a much larger 1st party offering in the near future. Their sports games alone are going to make them key.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
- I find it impossible for Xbox Series to be down 51% for 2024. Just no way. I cane see it being down - 30% at the most. Like worse case scenario.

I could definitely see Xbox Series down 50% in 2024. Is it likely? Probably not, but so much depends just on availability. If retail rebukes the Xbox Series, the sales will dry out dramatically. I think it's going to be a very dry summer for Microsoft.
 
- I find it impossible for Xbox Series to be down 51% for 2024. Just no way. I cane see it being down - 30% at the most. Like worse case scenario.
If someone isn't invested in a Playstation considers the Xbox, they would have heard the rumor that it is going the way of the Dreamcast. This is like finding out someone you might consider dating, had a terminal cancer diagnosis. You might still be friends with them but you are not going to make long term commitments.
 
I'm not certain but a yoy drop across all hardware/software/accessories right in the heart of the console cycle doesn't sound good. I thought years 4 and 5 were always the big growth years in past cycles.
 

jm89

Member
“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2—and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation—I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox.”

- Phil Spencer
That will go down as one of the worst phil spencer quotes.

Gives off some really saltiness vibes and it may not just be due to the success of helldivers 2, but also that phil most likely will have to release their biggest games on playstation soon against his own will.

So he want's to drag playstation down with him.
 
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Alan Wake

Member
Not sure what can be done about the Xbox at this point. There are also credible rumors it’s going to port AAA games to PlayStation. Phil may not admit that it’s dead but it effectively is.
They're in a tricky spot. Consoles are not selling, games are not selling (because of Game Pass) and at the same time the growth of GP is stagnant. Their old business model is dead and their new with GPS subscriptions didn't work.

What's left at this point is to use their huge catalog of IP on more successful platforms, a change of strategy that has just started.
 

Alan Wake

Member
That will go down as one of the worst phil spencer quotes.

Gives off some really saltiness vibes and it may not just be due to the success of helldivers 2, but also that phil most likely will have to release their biggest games on playstation soon against his own will.

So he want's to drag playstation down with him.
It's also naive (or stupid). We know how the split between Xbox and PlayStation usually is like for third party titles. So yes, they could sell a few more copies by releasing in Xbox as well but is it worth the extra work? Not necessarily.
 
They're in a tricky spot. Consoles are not selling, games are not selling (because of Game Pass) and at the same time the growth of GP is stagnant. Their old business model is dead and their new with GPS subscriptions didn't work.

What's left at this point is to use their huge catalog of IP on more successful platforms, a change of strategy that has just started.
They went all-in on Gamepass. It was a similar kind of bet as Nintendo merging their console with their handheld, a major shakeup that was do-or-die.

Nintendo rolled the dice and it worked out for them.

Xbox came up Snake Eyes.
We are now seeing the consequences of the wrong strategy playing out. The only thing left to do is to salvage what makes money and cut what doesn't make money. And the biggest money burner is the design and manufacture of the console hardware.
 

Alan Wake

Member
They went all-in on Gamepass. It was a similar kind of bet as Nintendo merging their console with their handheld, a major shakeup that was do-or-die.

Nintendo rolled the dice and it worked out for them.

Xbox came up Snake Eyes.
We are now seeing the consequences of the wrong strategy playing out. The only thing left to do is to salvage what makes money and cut what doesn't make money. And the biggest money burner is the design and manufacture of the console hardware.

They didn't count on how Game Pass would devalue games. Xbox gamers have basically stopped buying games because, why would they? And maybe they also didn't think too much about the differences between movies and games. Game Pass is overwhelming to a lot of people. Where to even begin?

To be fair, Sony were apparently scared when Game Pass started to grow so nothing was written in stone from the start. But now it seems obvious they would never reach 100 million subs.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Streaming. I tried Geforce Now on my LG OLED and it worked brilliantly last year. Where streaming will be in the next 5-10 years will help determine the future of gaming.
So I've just tried Geforce Now for a month myself.
On plus side - I absolutely find it compelling on price*, features(4k and up to 120fps streams are hard to argue with) and overall experience (how is it that NVidia can have massively better controller support on a streaming app with 3rd party stores integrated than Microsoft does on their native app running inside their OWN OS even when using their OWN controllers).
*20$/month for a 1000$+ GPU instance (you're literally getting only that - there's no game library included in the sub) is decent value - the price of GPU would be 5 years of sub, in which time the hw would get meaningfully upgraded at least twice, and service will likely offer those upgrades as part of the sub, to make it even better value.

However - the fundamental issues of streaming persist.
It's useable for games that are latency tolerant (eg. narrative adventures, strategies, even occasional racing game) but it's still a fairly miserable experience in action games. Nothing turns off a game faster than aiming delays that constantly feel like fighting the controls, or pressing actions that come way too late for what's happening on screen. Not helped by uneven frame pacing that creeps in on occasion either.
Above was all based off of a 1GB/s connection setup where measured server latency by GFNow is 2ms and I've had 0 packet/latency fluctuations over a course of 1hr session. So basically as ideal of a case as you're going to get with data-center proximity, bandwidth etc.

Which goes to say - the only advantage streaming has over local setup here is up-front price. All the nonsense about accessibility, mobility etc. doesn't apply - as those result in far less favourable experience, limitations of access etc. - so basically they are competing directly for/against high-end local compute market, a fairly tiny niche, not the larger mainstream. This is especially true of GFN which comes with the baggage of a lot of - very unfriendly - UX caveats, making it extra niche as an offering. (though to NVidia's credit, most of these aren't really in their power to fix, but that doesn't matter to the user).
 
Console wars are mostly over unless Xbox cange there mind. It’s kinda over as soon as they announce another port, especially if its something like Halo, HellBlade, Starfield etc.

Nintendo isnt even releasing a pure home console anymore, and they stopped trying to release current gen tech since Wii. But I can see how Switch 2 can threaten PS if they make something that can play current gen games. PC also isn’t a console.

Maybe soon we can rest my fellow warriors lol

PC isn't a console but it competes with consoles more now than any point in the past. Competent gaming PCs have never been more affordable compared to consoles, vs. previous generations (where the price gap was larger). 3P releases between both console & PC is higher now than it ever has been in the past.

So I'd say it's a less direct competitor in the blatant way, for sure. But new market realities might make it a more potent competitor than a direct competitor like Xbox has proven over the past 7-8 years.

- that leaker that got 2 straight things right said HD2 is closing in on 10 million sold. So your math checks out. Which would also mean HD2 is selling 55-60% on PS5 worldwide. Not the 30% some idiots said last week.



- I find it impossible for Xbox Series to be down 51% for 2024. Just no way. I cane see it being down - 30% at the most. Like worse case scenario.

Does anyone know the YOY drop Xbox had for 2023 vs 2022? Because whatever that is, I can see 2024 doubling it.

Sadly I did look at VGChartz, and it shows Xbox at barely little over 25 million lifetime as of early 2024, and a 20% YOY drop for 2023 vs. 2022. Considering the games MS released in 2023, and what they aren't releasing as equivalent this year (outside maybe Indiana Jones), yeah I can see the drop being 40% over 2023. If they did ~ 7.2 million for 2023, then a worst-case for 2024 could be 4.32 million.

But if Indiana Jones is a big hit, if Hellblade 2 is a hit, if COD marketing is strong enough as a tie-in and the ABK stuff for Game Pass is good enough, I guess maybe they can cut that drop to just 30% or even 20%, so a best-case is they can sell ~ 5.76 million for the year.

Either way you look at it, that's a really bad number for a mass-market traditional console. But it'd still be better than 4.32 million. But facing that type of momentum, they'd barely break 30 million lifetime by EOY in a best-case (given what we know for now), and I think even without the multiplat stuff happening, the best-case wouldn't go up much because...all of their games are Day 1 on PC (including Steam) anyway. All the less reason to buy an Xbox console.

Streaming. I tried Geforce Now on my LG OLED and it worked brilliantly last year. Where streaming will be in the next 5-10 years will help determine the future of gaming.

The reality is that consoles as we know it are not going to survive another 15-20 years. They might still exist, but we're reaching a point where they won't make sense for manufacturers and they won't make sense for gamers.

It's why I think Sony is crazy not to go after Take2, because you're going to need a much larger 1st party offering in the near future. Their sports games alone are going to make them key.

Something very interesting about cloud gaming's role in this I never considered, but I saw someone else bring it up somewhere else. Basically, I don't think streaming is going to be this godsend for gaming growth. Not only because of infrastructure issues in places like the U.S but, and this is what I didn't consider before: capacity issues.

If streaming really is the future, and let's say every person with a console suddenly switched to streaming...you're going to need a server for every single one of those users. At all times. So it's not like the platform holder is saving on hardware production costs in that sense; those costs are just shifted to the server with maybe some small amount of savings over time, but nothing significant.

If every PS5 owner were using a cloud streaming stick as a client, you'd still need 55 million PS5-level server racks, that'd have to be operated at all times, incurring regular operational costs, and for GAAS titles you'd still additional servers for the multiplayer. Maybe Sony saves costs in the console shell design, packaging, and shipping/distribution, but that's about it. And those costs would probably be shifted towards beefing up the backend, which would need more hardware. So the savings are not only negated, but wouldn't be enough to cover the additional costs!

And, again, you need streaming client sticks at the very least for those would-be cloud gamers. Those will cost money to produce. If for example Sony were able to suddenly reach 10x as many people that way vs. traditional console boxes, the total production costs would probably be the same when all's said and done. But total hardware production costs would bloat significantly since they'd need console-level servers for every single client, they'd need more hardware to manage the backend for all of those servers, and they'd have to manage operational costs for all that cloud compute. The only thing Sony actually saves on in theory are shipping and endpoint logistics with distributors and retailers, and (very cheap) shell casing for console hardware. They are likely actually spending more money in that future vs. what they currently have.

And it's not just Sony either, they're just an easy example to use. The same is true for Microsoft, but in theory at least they have the capital to take on the burden of those costs. As for customers, well with cloud streaming being the future is also going to come high-priced subscription costs to access the cloud-distributed game content. If the costs for managing the cloud increases significantly, you can bet B2P sales are going to be either removed or heavily limited. The platform holders will want constant revenue with sizable profit margins to justify a cloud-only future and tying the content to a subscription is how they'd do it.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Something very interesting about cloud gaming's role in this I never considered, but I saw someone else bring it up somewhere else. Basically, I don't think streaming is going to be this godsend for gaming growth. Not only because of infrastructure issues in places like the U.S but, and this is what I didn't consider before: capacity issues.

If streaming really is the future, and let's say every person with a console suddenly switched to streaming...you're going to need a server for every single one of those users. At all times. So it's not like the platform holder is saving on hardware production costs in that sense; those costs are just shifted to the server with maybe some small amount of savings over time, but nothing significant.

If every PS5 owner were using a cloud streaming stick as a client, you'd still need 55 million PS5-level server racks, that'd have to be operated at all times, incurring regular operational costs, and for GAAS titles you'd still additional servers for the multiplayer. Maybe Sony saves costs in the console shell design, packaging, and shipping/distribution, but that's about it. And those costs would probably be shifted towards beefing up the backend, which would need more hardware. So the savings are not only negated, but wouldn't be enough to cover the additional costs!

This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of servers and users.

There is never a situation where you have 100% of registered users and 100% of active users.

This is why we discuss things in terms of concurrent users, daily active users, and monthly active users.

Let's look at Steam as an example. Steam's record is 34 million concurrent players.

There are 120 million registered steam users.

That means at its PEAK it's never even at 30% utilization.

You have to consider daily active users by region and time/zone to determine how many servers you actually need and where, but you certainly don't need 1 server for every gamer.

The reality is you can more easily ramp up servers because the ratio of players to servers is always going to be more favorable than the number of consoles to players. For the hardware production cost of 1 playstation you can probably serve 4 or more players. That means for less than 500 dollars they can replicate at least 4 consumers. There are other costs involved in cooling, maintaining, network, and electricity costs, but the attachment rate of 4:1 vs 1:1 is extremely favorable in a cost analysis. As you mentioned there are other savings involved here.

This was a really bad take.
 
This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of servers and users.

There is never a situation where you have 100% of registered users and 100% of active users.

This is why we discuss things in terms of concurrent users, daily active users, and monthly active users.

Let's look at Steam as an example. Steam's record is 34 million concurrent players.

There are 120 million registered steam users.

That means at its PEAK it's never even at 30% utilization.

You have to consider daily active users by region and time/zone to determine how many servers you actually need and where, but you certainly don't need 1 server for every gamer.

The reality is you can more easily ramp up servers because the ratio of players to servers is always going to be more favorable than the number of consoles to players. For the hardware production cost of 1 playstation you can probably serve 4 or more players. That means for less than 500 dollars they can replicate at least 4 consumers. There are other costs involved in cooling, maintaining, network, and electricity costs, but the attachment rate of 4:1 vs 1:1 is extremely favorable in a cost analysis. As you mentioned there are other savings involved here.

This was a really bad take.

I get what you're saying, but the fact is the platform holders should (or should be required to, by law) have the infrastructure to support a peak that is equivalent to their concurrent subscriber base, because you never want a situation where people aren't getting the service they are continually paying for. Mentioning Steam doesn't really satisfy the counterpoint you're making, because Steam isn't a subscription service. It's a storefront, and requires the user still have local hardware to run the games off of. The power of their own hardware locally determines the performance they can play those games at.

So, it doesn't matter if Steam, if it had to provide server capacity, would have total server capacity just a fraction of registered users, because it's not a cloud streaming service. It's not even a centralized online gaming service, so the only cloud servers Steam needs are for backend & network logistics, and data storage stuff. That's a much cheaper cost and one that doesn't need to grow at scale nearly as much. The only part of that stuff that probably grows somewhat at scale with number of registered users are the servers for facilitating uploads and downloads to/from users.

Personally, I will never get on board for a cloud-only gaming future because I don't want to be making recurring payments for a service I won't be guaranteed to access how and when I want, or the content therein. If I'm looking at is as a consumer-level investor, and considering my ROI, a cloud-based gaming service is easily the worst ROI I could be advocating for, point blank.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I get what you're saying, but the fact is the platform holders should (or should be required to, by law) have the infrastructure to support a peak that is equivalent to their concurrent subscriber base, because you never want a situation where people aren't getting the service they are continually paying for. Mentioning Steam doesn't really satisfy the counterpoint you're making, because Steam isn't a subscription service. It's a storefront, and requires the user still have local hardware to run the games off of. The power of their own hardware locally determines the performance they can play those games at.

So, it doesn't matter if Steam, if it had to provide server capacity, would have total server capacity just a fraction of registered users, because it's not a cloud streaming service. It's not even a centralized online gaming service, so the only cloud servers Steam needs are for backend & network logistics, and data storage stuff. That's a much cheaper cost and one that doesn't need to grow at scale nearly as much. The only part of that stuff that probably grows somewhat at scale with number of registered users are the servers for facilitating uploads and downloads to/from users.

Personally, I will never get on board for a cloud-only gaming future because I don't want to be making recurring payments for a service I won't be guaranteed to access how and when I want, or the content therein. If I'm looking at is as a consumer-level investor, and considering my ROI, a cloud-based gaming service is easily the worst ROI I could be advocating for, point blank.

Again, you're fundamentally misunderstanding how servers work. It doesn't need to be a subscription service or otherwise.

There is never a period in time in which you're going to see 100% utilization nor would there ever be a law requiring the capacity for 100% utilization when it'll never get anywhere near that. That capacity literally serves no one and in reality would simply be bad for business and bad for the environment. One of the silliest things I've ever heard.

No one is awake 24 hours a day. No one is gaming 24 hours a day.

You've made it alarmingly clear that you don't know what you're talking about here.

It's VERY easy to understand how much server space you need and to have a very good understanding of what spikes actually look like.

If utilization is normally 15 percent of all registered users, a spike is going to bring that to 20-25 percent. It's not bringing it to 80-100% The fact that you don't understand that is astonishing. I'm going to go ahead and assume you've never heard of load balancing before.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Streaming. I tried Geforce Now on my LG OLED and it worked brilliantly last year. Where streaming will be in the next 5-10 years will help determine the future of gaming.

The reality is that consoles as we know it are not going to survive another 15-20 years. They might still exist, but we're reaching a point where they won't make sense for manufacturers and they won't make sense for gamers.

It's why I think Sony is crazy not to go after Take2, because you're going to need a much larger 1st party offering in the near future. Their sports games alone are going to make them key.

I think many in the gaming world who are pro-streaming miss out on key points in these discussions. Streaming introduces a point of failure that many people won't like at all. I have a PS Portal. I love it. But I did have to tinker with my network to get things to work 90% great. Before that change, I'd put my likable feel of playing on the Portal at 70%. It's still not 100% due to Sony needing to push out a firmware update to include frame pacing. But even if they do that, it'll bump it up to 95% because there are rare bandwidth fluctuations with my 1 GB internet at times due to congestion at prime time (between 7pm-9pm). It doesn't last long. Maybe 2-3 minutes a few times a week.

But I never ever have any of those issues playing games locally. Why would gamers worldwide just give that up when most of them 10 years from now will NOT have 1 GB internet like I have today? And that doesn't include the fact that companies like WB will remove games from their "service" for "business purposes".

They went all-in on Gamepass. It was a similar kind of bet as Nintendo merging their console with their handheld, a major shakeup that was do-or-die.

Nintendo rolled the dice and it worked out for them.


Xbox came up Snake Eyes.
We are now seeing the consequences of the wrong strategy playing out. The only thing left to do is to salvage what makes money and cut what doesn't make money. And the biggest money burner is the design and manufacture of the console hardware.

I'd say Nintendo kinda made a better calculation though. Betting on the Switch made more sense coming from the WiiU\3DS era, than GamePass for MS ever has.
 
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