The backlash is just noise among the core fanboys, we had the exact same discussions in 2016 when PC ports of Xbox games were unveiled, in the end most accepted it and even thought it was a good thing.
In the end the PC market is a different market. Mainstream gamers complaining about 599 US Dollars ain’t going to buy a gaming PC anytime soon.
I don't think this is true anymore. Mainstream gamers don't need an uber-powerful PC for gaming, for starters. They could get by with something much cheaper, and even less performant than a console for gaming purposes. So they may easily be in the market for a $500 or $400 PC if it's "good enough" and can play the latest games.
Another thing too: when PC and consoles share almost every 3P release these days, and PC actually has quite a lot of (indie) exclusives and some GAAS titles completely missing from console (Valve's own modern games, VALORANT, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Phasmagoria, etc.), or gets first access to a lot of anticipated games (No Rest For The Wicked, Hades II, Baldur's Gate 3 etc.), how is that a different market from consoles? The content is basically 90% the same if just looking at PlayStation & Xbox games that are also on PC (namely Steam).
That percentage only changes when looking at the PC exclusives missing on console, meaning if anything PC has the advantage there.
Yes, it already seems like PlayStation’s lost interest in their own console.
Quickly eroding PlayStation’s strongest USP since PS3 — its exclusive first party games
Porting more PS4/PS5 games to PC than PS1-PS4 games to PS5
Minimal new game announcements and releases
Many of the first party games announced are GaaS which are cancer
PS+ required for online play on PS4 and PS5, not PC, PS Vita and PS3
You can’t even quick-copy PS5 saves to USB like PS4 saves, forcing PS+ for the basic convenience
Until Dawn remake (who even asked for an engine swap remake?) primarily single-player game already announced for PC
PSVR 2 launched with one game, no more in sight (couldn’t even be bothered to port Astro Bot Rescue Mission)
Shutting down proven, much-needed first party game studios (Team Gravity, London Studio – who could’ve been making a PSVR 2 game)
Purchasing/cancelling multiplatform GaaS developers, some unproven, some on shaky ground, in favour of the shut down developers
What’s the betting that PS5 Pro doesn’t even get updates to some PS5 games that have been ported to PC like Sackboy. No fucks are given.
No lies detected. And at one point I was defending the cloud save and save-copy stuff, but in reality it probably wouldn't cost Sony much at all to offer that type of thing as a free part of the console experience.
About the Until Dawn remake tho...personally I don't have that much a problem with it being on PC or even Day 1 there. Yes it's a single-player game, but the original version also came out almost 10 years ago. It's been a LONG time, plus I don't think it would qualify as a AAA type game. Really, the problem now is how that impacts the situation they already have going with ports to PC. It's just yet another 1P game that's on a platform not PlayStation, making it easier to not buy a PlayStation to play that game (and many others).
I also kinda don't have an issue with London Studio getting closed because they haven't done much of note game-wise since The Getaway. That's like 3 generations ago.
Everything else tho? Yeah, chunky Ls on SIE's part. PSVR2 is probably the biggest of them all; just one year after release and it's effectively stillborn in the market. And instead of trying to bring more value to it for console owners, SIE are prioritizing PC compatibility for the thing instead. I wouldn't be surprised if that's because of an eventual GT7 port to PC/Steam.
Ease of use is a wash between both nowadays, imo. You can take like, 2 minutes, and turn your PC into a glorified giant console, and have a proper bedroom or couch experience. I have mine set up in my bedroom, and it’s honestly not too much different from if I had a console in there. The only thing I don’t have is a disk drive.
OT: If Sony were to release their new games Day 1 to PC, then I personally wouldn’t have a need nor desire for their console anymore. Why would I when I can just play their games on a more capable machine, and have much more in the way of choice and options for how I want to play them?
Yeah PC gaming isn't that difficult. Though it does come with some added security risks not present on console; the Vanguard anti-cheat stuff with Riot Games being a prime example. A company would NEVER be allowed to release an anti-cheat on PlayStation that could potentially brick the console. They know they'd basically get sued out of existence and it'd be both a legal & PR nightmare.
PC though? Well they can claim no problems on their configs, or blame it on the affected user having other apps installed and running that create a conflict, etc. They have so many excuses to use as an "out" on PC that just don't exist on console. That's the downside of all that "freedom".
Like the next Xbox….?
Sony needs to be careful, MS could be playing 4D chess
Makes the people saying Xbox is dead look dumb. You should never count a console/platform holder out until they give an official statement to the press & business outlets (and their shareholders).
Microsoft have yet to do any of that when it comes to Xbox as hardware.
Gut feeling and current trends.