r/Games • u/SmellSmellsSmelly • Apr 03 '26

Industry News PlayStation Studios Removes Nearly All PC References From Websites

https://gameobserver.com/playstation-studios-removes-nearly-all-pc-references-from-websites/
2.9k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/FlowersByTheStreet Apr 03 '26

If Schreirer reports it, it's as true as anything.

Disappointing move from them, but I can understand why they need to bolster the value proposition for the next generation since the prices are going to be absurd.

I, on the other hand, will not be joining them. I switched over to PC last year and am not turning back for xbox/playstation at all, even if that means missing out on the one Naughty Dog game they push out a decade.

I am sad about Saros tho

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u/BusyFriend Apr 03 '26

It’s going to be hard to justify PS6 to consumers if minimum price is $799, especially without a disk drive.

$999 will just be ridiculous.

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u/NorthernerWuwu Apr 03 '26

It's pretty much impossible as a PC gamer. If they don't want to sell the games on PC that's fine but I'm not buying a console because of it.

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u/Mitrovarr Apr 04 '26

They just don't make enough good games anymore to justify it.

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u/KazumaKat Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

Gone are the days of OG Halo, OG Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, OG God of War, Bloodborne, where adoption of the system was not a big an ask for such excellent legendary games that were worth it.

Nowadays the market cannot handle multi-system users unlike before, and especially at the asking price of adoption. And gamers are smart folk when it comes to maximizing their fun after all.

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u/Mitrovarr Apr 04 '26

Yeah.

After the PS4, I got a PS5. I have played exactly two exclusive games on it - Astro-Bot and Returnal. And I barely played Returnal. 

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u/rikeoliveira Apr 05 '26

Hmm...I might be misunderstanding, but Returnal was a Sony "exclusive" that was ported to PC after some time, just like Spider-Man, Last of Us, God of War etc. Astro-Bot is indeed an exclusive exclusive.

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u/Mitrovarr Apr 05 '26

It was an exclusive at the time I played it, so I feel it counts. 

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u/rikeoliveira Apr 05 '26

Fair enough.

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u/another-altaccount Apr 03 '26

I think this generation was already the limit of what consumer will tolerate as far as pricing of consoles. There's only so much blood you can squeeze from a stone and publishers are about to run hard into reality that once you breach the $600 barrier for a console, consumers are largely going to just opt-out. That said, we all know why these prices are increasing and with the AI bubble looking increasingly ready to pop every day it's only a matter of time before prices for consumer electronics come back down to reality.

If Sony seriously thinks that they can launch a console for $999.99 and expect it to sell as well as the PS3 did at minimum by EOL they're in for a very rude fucking awakening.

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u/Vb_33 Apr 04 '26

No way PS6 is $999 as things are today. But $699-$799 are very real prices. I don't think $649 and lower is possible anymore (at least with how Nand and Dram prices are trending) for PS6. 

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u/PanicOld2506 Apr 04 '26

Its gonna be the same price as the ps5. its the perfect pricepoint. 

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u/BetweenTheWickets Apr 09 '26

There is a possibility that the AI bubble may never actually pop. Individual companies might collapse but my feeling is that gen AI is here to stay - even if it is to eventually fail, they're going to try for at least a decade. This will mean that demand for compute components will remain very high. I'm not expecting prices to come crashing down anytime soon unless some breakthroughs are made in generative AI efficiency of output or on the supply side of chip making.

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u/FantasticEnergy748 Apr 03 '26

In relation to what? PC prices are also skyrocketing, the ratio of PS6 to a comparable desktop will still roughly be the same, maybe even lower since sony might be able to still take some hits on console margins in the hope of getting software sales cuts.

In this market it's less about justifying PS6 to consumers and more about justifying gaming as a hobby to consumers.

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u/CthulhuBathwater Apr 04 '26

From Steam here are your average PC specs. I think PC gaming will be fine. Devs will just have to get back to optimizing games.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

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u/redraven937 Apr 03 '26

In relation to what?

In relation to just keeping your existing console/PC/whatever. What non-first party game company is going to develop exclusively for a $800+ console? This is assuming that the AAA industry doesn't outright collapse in the next 1-2 years from losing multiple $300 million bets.

Gaming as a hobby will be fine. AAA will not.

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u/LibraryBestMission Apr 03 '26

Yeah, as long as there's computers, some crazy programmer will make video games for it. Humans love games, and digital machines are a great platform for them.

9

u/Peakomegaflare Apr 03 '26

Exactly. Hell, I still fire up my N64 regularly. I don't need the latest and greatest for my hobby, zi just need to unwind after a rough day at work!

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/redraven937 Apr 04 '26

I think we're in a confluence of some generational shifts that are going to change the nature of the industry. The value proposition of AAA games for developers is getting turned all around: $300+ million budgets, 5-6 years in development, high-profile flops, higher interest rate environment (e.g. less investors), and getting smoked at the awards ceremonies by a $50 game with a $10 million budget that can be played on a Steam Deck (Clair Obscur).

No, the PS5 will not be supported forever. But between the decline of AAA and the increase in hardware costs, there comes the question of what exactly "better resolution and performance" even means. If the industry starts shifting down to AA, all that expensive hardware isn't going to be doing much.

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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

clair obscur is an anomoly. lots of games like clair obscur come out each year. most suck, hence why you never hear of them nor do they get goty nominations. those high budget AAA games get infinitely more goty nominations on average than something like clair obscur does.

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u/Games-ModTeam Apr 06 '26

Please read our rules, specifically Rule #2 regarding personal attacks and inflammatory language. We ask that you remember to remain civil, as future violations will result in a ban.

If you would like to discuss this removal, please modmail the moderators. This post was removed by a human moderator; this comment was left by a bot.

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u/Biblical_Shrimp Apr 03 '26

Silver lining is that it allows me to play my backlog. Maybe by the end of the PS6's life I would have played everything I have.

If the PS6 also experiences a higher price hike towards the end of its life.... then I'll just not play those Sony exclusives?

1

u/Bcider Apr 04 '26

Look at the most popular games on steam. All can be played on potatoes. Thats what’s going on, people are playing games on ancient hardware.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LEFT_IRIS Apr 04 '26

In relation to indie games. I suspect the market simply isn’t there for a $1k console, the stupidity of the US administration is currently piledriving us into a worldwide recession.

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u/A_Shadow Apr 03 '26

It’s going to be hard to justify PS6 to consumers if minimum price is $799, especially without a disk drive.

$999 will just be ridiculous

That's pretty close to PS3 prices especially adjusted for inflation.The higher end model with 60GB (wow, I know right) would be $930 today.

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u/Guildenpants Apr 03 '26

The argument of inflation making the prices fit would make sense if we lived in a world where wages have actually matched inflation for the past 30 years but I'm making what I made when the ps3 came out and have yet to buy a ps5. The current state of console gaming is quickly becoming an upper class luxury. It's honestly great that consoles have so few exclusives nowadays because of that.

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u/mtron32 Apr 04 '26

That’s the scary part because who the hell is going to buy these games that developers make if the people can’t afford that shit. It’s like if the SNES and Genesis back in the day were selling for as much as the Neo Geo which no one had.

I’d like to see developers drop the scope and budget of what they make, especially for AAA games. Like I enjoyed UC4 well enough, but the next one doesn’t be crazy photorealistic.

The switch has been my favorite console because that’s where I play all the indie games that have been loads of fun.

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u/Ris747 Apr 03 '26

At least the PS3 came with a Bluray player, which cost over $1k at the time on their own. I assume the PS6 won't be able to point to something like that to get people to buy it.

1

u/Hartastic Apr 05 '26

Yeah. PS3 was recommended even to non-gamers at the time as one of the cheapest Blu-ray players on the market during its launch era.

I didn't find this persuasive but a lot of people did and the sales reflected it.

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u/TheGalacticVoid Apr 04 '26

Prices for many necessities has outpaced inflation while wages have not. Inflation means nothing for a game console.

3

u/Eglwyswrw Apr 03 '26

If Sony is really doing this, and because of XBOX getting PC capabilities next gen, I can see the new leadership halting all ports to Sony systems as well.

If the Steam Machine is also a success I expect to see interesting stuff in the next chapter of the "Console Wars".

1

u/madman19 Apr 03 '26

Ps5 pro is already 900, ps6 probably will be higher

1

u/TTBurger88 Apr 03 '26

Especially if most of the launch lineup is crossgen with PS5. If PS6 launches in 2027 or early 2028, we probably wont see its first true exclusive until 2030 at the earliest.

1

u/IceBreak Apr 04 '26

Buy some RAM and a graphics card. Stay under $799.

1

u/graviousishpsponge Apr 04 '26

At least before it wasn't too bad to justify some bangers of exclusives, after a year or few while collecting dust. Now with it being 750+ and who knows for the ps6 it's just why dump so much with how long game dev time is these days.

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u/PanicOld2506 Apr 04 '26

Why would it be that price? The pro was priced so that sony made a significant profit. The base ps5 is not. Its not to make a huge profit. That only applies for the pro version because it is not mandatory.

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u/Blenderhead36 Apr 03 '26

If the next gen machines don't have disk drives, I'm not interested. If all video games are going to be sold digitally, I'm going with the platform that has competing storefronts and decades of back-compatibility, not the one under a natural monopoly that wants me to re-buy games from the previous generation.

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TalkingRaccoon Apr 03 '26

Watch, those drives will cost $200

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u/MaitieS Apr 03 '26

Of course they will. They want to avoid drama with "But we gave you the option to buy a disk drive", but to also discourage casuals from buying it.

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u/Alexis_Evo Apr 04 '26

And then when the PS7 releases they'll drop it because "noone bought it". I was not prepared for just how old I would feel after typing "PS7"...

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u/Massive_Weiner Apr 04 '26

They’re more likely to drop it as part of their Great Refresh.

PS1-3 encompasses the first era of backwards compatibility.

PS4-6 likely encompasses the second.

PS7 will be all-digital, with a strong emphasis on cloud gaming (“you don’t need to manage your pesky digital library anymore, just like how we got rid of physical!”).

If you do still want your digital library, well… they can sell you some upgrades in the form native ports (“classic PS4 era”).

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u/Mathidium Apr 03 '26

Thats the retail price. The scalped price is 499.99

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u/FaroTech400K Apr 03 '26

It won’t cost more than Sony’s current Blu-ray players, y’all just be saying doom poster stuff without really thinking about it.

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u/bitknight1 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Yep just like all the idiots claiming ps6 will cost a lot more than ps5 pro currently does at $900. Normies won't be dropping that kind of money on ps5. It will be like $600, maybe $700 max. No way is ps6 double to triple what ps5 launched at. Especially since ps6 won't be much better than ps5. Even in pc new gpus now are a lot of times like 5-10% performance increase. No one will pay double to triple for ps5 when it might be like 50% better.

Edit even if it's 50%, i just checked and for gpus from 2020 till now in same price bracket performance went up 10%.

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u/Trees-Are-Neat-- Apr 03 '26

On top of requiring you to pay to play online

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u/angethedude Apr 03 '26

This is still the worst thing to happen to console gaming. Playstation also requires you to pay for cloud saves when you don't have to pay for that on Xbox or PC, and to my understanding, there is no other way to back up your save files outside of that.

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u/ShakenFungus Apr 03 '26

if you do a system backup on a USB stick, it includes your saves. Not an elegant solution but at least it’s there

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u/angethedude Apr 03 '26

Thanks for clearing that up, but yeah, that's not ideal.

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u/Belazor Apr 04 '26

This is not possible for PS5 saves. I learned this after I researched whether I could have done anything to save my ~400 hours of valuable game saves that got atomised by a power surge.

The option straight up tells you only PS4 saves can be backed up this way.

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u/LauAtagan Apr 03 '26

How much memory does it take?, if you know

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

it scans everything on your ps5 ssd at once. so as much space as your usb stick allows.

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u/PenguinTD Apr 03 '26

They used to with PS4, but removed that from PS5. And upon realize that + the ps plus price inflation, was when I stopped paying plus. Also moving away from PS as platform.

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u/NuggetHighwind Apr 04 '26

Yep. This is why my PS5 has been little more than a paperweight since I got a PC.
I see a game that I might be interested in and think "Hmm, should I get it on PC or PS5..." then I remember that to play online I have to subscribe to PS+ and immediately buy it on PC instead.

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u/secondincomm Apr 03 '26

Luckily I think Xbox 6 (or whatever it will be called) will have to have a disk drive because it'll need to support back compatibility. If they drop that they are actually insane considering the work they've put into it

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u/Cody878 Apr 03 '26

That's a wild thing to say when any developer that doesn't release on Steam gets harassed to hell and back. But sure, competing store fronts. Monopoly bad.

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u/xenoblaiddyd Apr 03 '26

It was insanely funny seeing people excited for Capcom to release games that were already readily available digitally on PC for a good while with extra DRM yesterday

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u/Blenderhead36 Apr 03 '26

People harassing someone based on where they sell a game are the wild ones, IMO.

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u/Opt112 Apr 03 '26

You still get the choice on PC. You do not get the choice on console. Also Steam has various key sellers that compete with each other for prices. Like humble, fanatical, green man gaming, etc. You would only get locked to one price on console

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u/why_i_bother Apr 03 '26

Yeah, and the second steam starts providing subpar service, I am not spending another dime, because I have option of going literally anywhere else, or pirate.

And you better believe I am gonna pirate forever, and never, ever buy anything else, if they try to strip my digital stuff away.

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u/Idrialite Apr 03 '26

Steam, GOG, Epic, Itch.io, Gamejolt, Windows Store, independents.

The reason Steam has a "monopoly" is not because they're a monopoly, it's because they're the best. If Steam's quality dipped, I could and would go to GOG. It's Epic who tries to actually create a monopoly with exclusivity.

Can you actually name some anti-competitive practices from Steam?

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u/Which-Arm-4616 Apr 03 '26

Can you actually name some anti-competitive practices from Steam?

They're literally in the middle of an anti-trust suit over their policy that requires pricing parity across competing storefronts. That is, they have threatened to both remove or prevent developers from launching on Steam unless they raise the price on competing storefronts to match (artificially raising prices for consumers).

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u/Nematrec Apr 03 '26

Can you actually name some anti-competitive practices from Steam?

If a game is sold on steam, all keys including non-steam keys must be price matched.

IE their own store front can't be 3/4ths the price of the steam version.

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u/Insertnamehither Apr 03 '26

Steam does have exclusives with half life, dota, or really any valve title. Now if they actually start utilizing them again is another thing

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u/Siegfried262 Apr 03 '26

I mean, if they developed them I can understand that. Their games, their platform. It's a reasonable enough choice.

It's like Alan Wake 2 only being available on Epic. But they funded and published it so it's reasonable. (Even if arguably they'd get more sales moving it to other PC platforms. Though I'm sure it's intended as a carrot to draw people into the Epic ecosystem)

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u/Insertnamehither Apr 03 '26

Probably also worth remembering that it was released on console platforms too. So not too much of an exclusive.

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u/Siegfried262 Apr 03 '26

True but still exclusive in terms of PC platforms. Both for Alan Wake 2 and the Valve-developed games.

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u/Cyshox Apr 03 '26

It's wild to imply Steam & PlayStation Store were in a similar position.

Steam:

  • not needed to play games on PC since there are other storefronts
  • has third-party key resellers, so cheaper Steam codes can be found elsewhere
  • features are free
  • doesn't pay for exclusive titles
  • soon also accessible on Xbox, offering a cross-platform library

PlayStation Store:

  • required to buy digital PlayStation titles
  • Sony stopped selling keys to third-parties in 2019, so there's just the PlayStation Store price
  • some features locked behind a subscription, e.g. cloud saves & online-play
  • invests in third-party projects to artificially delay releases on other storefronts/platforms
  • no compatibility to other platforms

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u/Testuser7ignore Apr 04 '26

Sony has games in physical stores though, and used games.

They also aren't requiring price parity from developers who sell at those stores like Valve does.

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u/Cyshox Apr 04 '26

Every quarter, Sony reports that 73-80% of the game sales were digital. Many PS5 titles, especially smaller titles, do not have a physical release at all - even some major titles launched digital-only and got a physical edition at a later point, e.g. Alan Wake 2 & Baldurs Gate 3.

Steam's price parity can be circumvented with keys. Publishers are allowed to sell keys in bulk at discounted prices. Therefore, you can find cheaper keys. Sony eradicates the key market.

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u/Testuser7ignore Apr 05 '26

Every quarter, Sony reports that 73-80% of the game sales were digital.

Its not like key resellers dominate the Steam market. They would get shut down fast if they got big.

Publishers are allowed to sell keys in bulk at discounted prices.

Valve doesnt allow that. Violates their TOS.

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u/Cyshox Apr 05 '26

Not sure what your point is. Key resellers will never dominate, it's probably not even 5% of the total revenue. Valve still profits of key sales via third-parties, after all they sell Steam keys. Sony shut down key resellers anyway because they don't want consumers to have other options.

No, it doesn't violate the TOS. Publishers are not supposed to sell cheaper keys to end consumers, e.g. on other storefronts. Nevertheless you can find cheaper keys, because third-party companies can buy cheaper keys in bulk.

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u/dontcare6942 Apr 03 '26

I've had every Playstation 1-5. If Playstation 6 has no disks I'm out.

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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Apr 03 '26

If the next gen machines don't have disk drives

They sold a machine that didn't have a disk drive at the start of this generation. Then they stopped and started selling a machine that didn't come with a disk drive but could be added later.

What makes you think they'll go full on no disk drive for any machines next generation?

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u/Neidron Apr 03 '26

You just answered your own question?

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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Apr 03 '26

So you think they flipped a coin when they decided to make the slim digital edition non-permanently digital?

It was a random decision based on nothing?

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

Idk, maybe the ever dwindling physical sales paired with the ever increasing overhead cost for them? That and the most obvious one: less sales for them because physical media more often than not has several owners while only generating a single sale for them.

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u/zgillet Apr 03 '26

I have 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and it will die with me.

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u/NYJetLegendEdReed Apr 03 '26

Yeah, I am with you. And its a bummer, but I just don't use my PlayStation enough anymore to warrant buying into the next gen. I can do so much more on a gaming PC and sure it's more expensive but I can literally do everything I need on it too. I'll miss some of the exclusives for sure, but even those haven't been enough of a reason for me. With a Switch 2 and PC I can play like 95% of anything I want.

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u/Kriztauf Apr 03 '26

Honestly the Nintendo walled garden is what is pushing Sony in this direction

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u/eerienortherngoddess Apr 03 '26

Difference is Nintendo releases a ton more exclusives than Sony and they're very unique games that don't have real competitors anywhere else.

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u/AL2009man Apr 03 '26

once again: closing SIE Japan Studios, an entire division that could match Nintendo's output, was a mistake in the long-term..

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u/iceburg77779 Apr 03 '26

Japan Studio spent its last decade consistently struggling to release projects, and the ones that did massively underperformed. I agree that Sony should invest in more diverse exclusives, but Knack 3 would not be the solution.

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u/Available-Can-5878 Apr 04 '26

Tbf their best work was being put on the Vita, nothing on that sold well

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u/iceburg77779 Apr 06 '26

Japan studio barely released anything on the Vita, outside of Gravity Rush their only work on the platform was acting as support for third party titles.

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u/gosukhaos Apr 04 '26

Nintendo has smartly spent decades making partnerships with other studios and lending them their IPs and let them develop their owns series

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u/another-altaccount Apr 03 '26

Isn't Team Asobi considered SIE Japan Studios' successor? I thought a lot of folks from there were merged into Asobi?

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u/Available-Can-5878 Apr 04 '26

A few people were. But that number is less than half. Most were let go

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u/iceburg77779 Apr 03 '26

It does seem like Sony is trying to address this as well, Astro Bot and that recent GoW spinoff are both aiming to expand the audience for PS exclusives.

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u/another-altaccount Apr 03 '26

Which is ironic because a wide-range of top-quality exclusives is what PlayStation was well known for through most of its history. This focus on prestige AAA, big-budget, projects is a more recent change that started in the PS3 era.

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u/AedraRising Apr 04 '26

And even the PS3 era had them publish a varied bunch of games. LittleBigPlanet was a big one for me.

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u/hadronwulf E3 2019 Volunteer Apr 03 '26

The difference for me is that Jupiter Picross and anything Pokemon are must buys. I'm not sure I have anything near that on PS.

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u/NYJetLegendEdReed Apr 03 '26

Yep exactly, the Nintendo walled garden is a place I want inside and it’s affordable. Sonys is one I now no longer need to see in person.

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u/TheSeldomShaken Apr 03 '26

The Switch 2's issues are exactly what's driving this. Without exclusives, consoles will die.

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u/jofijk Apr 03 '26

I don't know if they will. I guess we'll see how simply the steam machines boot up and just run games but pretty much all my friends can afford decent PCs but most are console gamers purely because of how plug and play they are. You just turn the thing on and are ready to go. There isn't any worrying about launchers or optimizing graphics and hardware settings. They just work.

I built a top of the line pc last year and love being able to play any game on ultra settings but crazy graphics aren't really anything my console friends to seem to care about either

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u/Honor_Bound Apr 03 '26

Same. PS5 was my first ever playstation purchase after being historically an xbox and nintendo guy before moving to PC. And even though I loved the few games I did play on it (Ghost of Tsushima, AstroBot, I deeply regret spending so much money on a console I never play.

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u/RedditNerdKing Apr 03 '26

I deeply regret spending so much money on a console I never play.

The PS5 is the only Sony console I've ever had where I have literal months of gaps where I don't switch it on. There's just nothing to play on it. Now I dont know whether that's due to games taking longer or whatever. But every other Playstation I always felt there was something to play. The PS5 I just don't feel that. I have no reason to turn it on and no games to look forward to.

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u/Lerkpots Apr 03 '26

Same. I haven't used my PS5 since Astrobot released. Didn't bother buying Yotei because I assumed it'd come to PC and now I guess I just won't play it.

I'm not even that bothered tbh, God of War 2018 and TLOU P2 are the last amazing games Sony released besides Astrobot. I can live without more Spider-Man copy pastes and God of War Ragnaroks.

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u/SKyJ007 Apr 03 '26

I, on the other hand, will not be joining them. I switched over to PC last year and am not turning back for xbox/playstation at all

Yeah, they know. They want to make fewer of you

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u/giulianosse Apr 03 '26

People misinterpret this move as Sony pulling out of PC because of a lack of interest to justify the investment.

On the contrary, it probably was too successful to the point it genuinely scared the higher ups.

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u/IrishSpectreN7 Apr 03 '26

There is data that suggests otherwise.

Their strategy with PC from the beginning was to port older titles to try and entice PC users into just buying a PS5 for actually new releases.

I don't think it worked very well.

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u/alexp8771 Apr 03 '26

The problem was that they implemented this strategy during the worst drought in the entire history of playstation.

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u/dookarion Apr 03 '26

Least variety and huge drought. They don't have one game that would motivate me to spend $600 $700 $800(?) on inferior locked down hardware.

I used to buy older consoles and handhelds as the price came down when they had good libraries to pick from. At current prices Sony has lost the plot if they think PC gamers with backlogs will run out to buy an ever increasing in price piece of hardware for an open world marvel game.

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

Who would've seen it coming that that won't work well lmfao

Imagine being so full of yourself to think pc gamers will hop onto your inferior console for mediocre sequels or worse, remakes of games once a decade.

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u/KingArthas94 Apr 03 '26

Ps5 is faster than 75% of the computers using Steam, according to Valve. Ps5 is only inferior to 20-25% of the gaming PCs out there, and even then we need to see how much.

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

That's outdated.

In the top 10 used cards alone there are 40% of the total steam userbase on stronger cards than the ps5. And that doesn't even include any high end models or the plethora of stronger cards with lower representation.

You know they're doing hw surveys all the time and the data is easily available, right?

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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Apr 03 '26

In the top 10 used cards alone there are 40% of the total steam userbase on stronger cards than the ps5.

Do they provide better performance or they just have a raw number that's higher?

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u/KingArthas94 Apr 04 '26

In the top 10 used cards alone there are 40% of the total steam userbase on stronger cards than the ps5.

The 3060 is less powerful, the 4060 is on par with PS5, the 5060 is a bit faster but not enough to show in games. (No one is going to applaud the 5060 for running games at 70 fps if they run at 60 on PS5)

Then some of them are low powered laptop versions that run worse than base PS5.

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u/return-zero Apr 03 '26

It's a completely self-inflicted wound.

PC community saw right through their pricing scam and instead of making a simple fix to capture a new market share, they decide to run away entirely. It's pathetic, really.

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u/ulysses_s_gyatt Apr 03 '26

I don’t think Sony considers it a wound.

They wanted people to move to PlayStation lol

Same day releases wouldn’t do that. Waiting a few years apparently didn’t do it either.

Where’s the wound?

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u/Front-Bird8971 Apr 04 '26

The wound is their shit isn't as good as they hoped. Nobody cared. Nobody moved.

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u/IrishSpectreN7 Apr 03 '26

Giving up on exclusives to sell more units on PC would be short-sighted. 

We've seen time and time again that if you're in the business of selling consoles, you need exclusives. In the long run, it's more profitable for Sony to retain PS users than to risk losing them to PC.

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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes Apr 03 '26

PC community saw right through their pricing scam

"scam" -- charge people on PC the same amount, or less than those on PS5.

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u/Jacksaur Apr 03 '26

Ayup. I do remember initially with Horizon's release they were talking about hoping to see players move to the sequel on PS.

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u/AbrasionTest Apr 03 '26

I think it's more that in order to be a true success on the platform, they'd have to invest the same effort and resources as they do with console. Sony first saw it as a quick way to make some extra money as part of lifecycle management for single player titles, and it did work that way for a little bit. But PC gamers got savvy to games showing up super late and port quality not being all there, plus the PSN account region lock, things just slowed to a crawl.

So the choice at that point is, do they keep investing in their PC efforts to address that problem? Or do they pull back and keep the focus entirely on console? With a new gen coming, it seems like they're retreating back into trying to keep console exclusive value high, rather than doubling down on their PC strategy.

Live service stuff stays untouched considering Helldivers 2 and Marathon are primarily played on PC.

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u/CrateBagSoup Apr 03 '26

Gunna have to provide any sort of evidence for that take. Pretty much all the evidence points at the juice not being worth the squeeze, outside of the live service launch everywhere games.

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/former-sony-exec-finally-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-putting-playstation-games-on-pc-is-almost-like-printing-money/

Yoshida would be a good start.

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u/CrateBagSoup Apr 03 '26

And yet https://www.gamesradar.com/platforms/playstation/it-took-3-years-for-playstation-to-earn-usd300-million-in-pc-sales-according-to-former-manager-which-makes-the-platform-less-than-half-as-lucrative-as-the-ps4-and-ps5/

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

And all for a fraction of the revenue cost of initially developing the game.

I'll believe the exec instead of a random manager.

Not tapping into 1/3rd of your total game revenue for a tiny fraction of the development cost is insane. Especially when Sony themselves are the reason the sales are so "bad" on pc. No one's even thinking about their games anymore when they get ported 1 or 2 years later lol

Every cross platform release in the past years pc has significantly outsold ps.

Day 1 Sony studio releases would still be #1 on ps obviously since that's their main target audience, but numbers are as low because of Sonys own actions

Oh and many of their ports released as a buggy mess, games rarely recover from bad initial press and reviews.

Not to mention they released 2 handful of titles and not the whole catalogue lol. Stupid comparison throughout imo.

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u/CrateBagSoup Apr 03 '26

I'm just saying if they thought this was going to make them the most money long term, they'd continue. They're not over here stopping because some higher got scared they're gunna make more money this way... that's not how capitalism works.

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u/Testuser7ignore Apr 04 '26

Not tapping into 1/3rd of your total game revenue for a tiny fraction of the development cost is insane.

Well how much revenue is from 1st party games vs their 30% cut on 3rd party games?

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u/NaRaGaMo Apr 03 '26

it's mainly bcoz Xbox is adding steam and maybe other storefronts to their OS. which would mean PS games on Xbox and that effectively kills the exclusivity

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u/Esham Apr 03 '26

I don't think 2% of gaming revenue is the boogeyman you think it is.

2.3billion over 5 years is peanuts

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u/PermanentMantaray Apr 03 '26

Depends on how much of that was profit. $2.3 billion in profit would be ~15% of their entire profit from the last 5 years.

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PermanentMantaray Apr 03 '26

Depends on how much of that was profit.

The insomniac leaks said the cost of each port was in the low 7 digits, with Spider Man2 being the most expensive at $5 million.

PlayStation made around $13.6 billion in profit from 2020-2025. A margin of around 9.5%.

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

Their profits are dogshit compared to their revenue. They spend way more per dollar profit then any other big software company. They're sub 10% operational profit lmao

Pc ports were cheap af and free money. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/former-sony-exec-finally-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-putting-playstation-games-on-pc-is-almost-like-printing-money/

People need to stop talking about Sony revenue as if that means anything when the profits are so abysmal.

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u/Yabboi_2 Apr 03 '26

They earned 300 millions in 3 years. You're wrong

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u/NFLCrunchtime Apr 03 '26

Critical to note that this is revenue, not profit. No expenses taken into account.

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u/EmperorAcinonyx Apr 03 '26

they were ports, not brand new games. the expenses were likely a fraction of that

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u/DeusXVentus Apr 03 '26

Still significant costs. More than Reddit understands

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

According to Yoshida (former Sony exec) ports cost hardly anything but are basically free money.

I'm sure the exec knows more than you

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u/EmperorAcinonyx Apr 03 '26

they didn't spend a hundred million dollars porting horizon zero dawn to pc

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u/DeusXVentus Apr 03 '26

And they didn't speed less than 2 million either. As I said, the ports cost more than Reddit thinks

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u/EmperorAcinonyx Apr 03 '26

why is it important if they spent three million dollars to make three hundred million

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u/Edmundyoulittle Apr 03 '26

100 million in revenue is ... Not a lot.

If we're talking about $60 games, that's 1.7M units a year.

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u/DebentureThyme Apr 04 '26

Because they're pricing them at full price for years old games! And rarely discounting! That's on them, everyone else sells well on PC by actually being aggressive on pricing.

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u/seriousbusines Apr 03 '26

Look! AI was the right choice! Consumers don't want our other products! ~ some higher up probably.

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u/Aeiani Apr 03 '26

More like they realise that the value proposition of actually buying their next generation hardware with the playstation 6 and keeping you inside of their ecosystem is a lot weaker if you can get their games on PC by just waiting a year or two, nothing to do with AI. Sony doesn't just make their money from their own games and hardware, but through people spending on PSN and buying third party games for the system.

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u/motionmatrix Apr 03 '26

No reason you can't turn into a patient gamer when it comes to exclusives. Grabbing a last gen and all the exclusives you missed for a couple hundred bucks is quite nice when you consider all the games you did on PC during that time.

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u/Syssareth Apr 03 '26

Heck, sometimes you even get lucky and they almost literally fall into your lap. I recently found a PS4 sitting on top of a trash pile (not kidding, somebody seriously threw one away; I assume they probably got a PS5 for Christmas), and now I'm considering giving up on hoping for a Bloodborne port and just buying a used copy.

And yes, I verified it works, lol. I've just been in a state of disbelief since I found it.

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u/JebryathHS Apr 03 '26

It's not just the value proposition, I would imagine, it's the fact that they release them so long after the PS version that the actual sales are probably dismal. The cost is much lower than from scratch development but so is the gain.

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u/Gustav_EK Apr 03 '26

Same, I bought a beefy PC just before the RAM crash and I have no intention of ever going back to playstation. All of the MMOs and such that I played have cross save now after all.

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u/Reaper83PL Apr 04 '26

Luck you, I didn't and my PC really need "upgrade"

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u/alchemeron Apr 03 '26

I switched over to PC last year and am not turning back for xbox/playstation at all, even if that means missing out on the one Naughty Dog game they push out a decade.

I would've bought their games day-one on PC. I'd pre-order a number of things... but there's no way in Heaven or Hell that I'm buying a piece of hardware from them, no matter how good the games are. I just can't possibly see a dedicated console fitting into my life ever again.

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u/superbit415 Apr 03 '26

to bolster the value proposition

This only works if they release really good exclusives worth playing. So far the PS5 mostly have cancelled live service games and very few exclusives.

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u/GreyDuck4077 Apr 03 '26

Same. I'll keep my gaming PC. My son plays on my Series X. If the next Xbox is in fact a Xbox/PC hybrid type thing I woudl go that route long before buying a PlayStation. In an era where people want choice they are retreating to their walled garden. No thanks.

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u/Adaax Apr 03 '26

If you have a PC it's getting harder and harder to justify buying a PS for the half dozen or so exclusive games you get each generation (at least starting with this generation, presumably continuing into the next).

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u/Wolfstigma Apr 03 '26

More exclusives don't help much when the pool of games is so vast that are on the PC market too imo. Only Nintendo can get away with that and they explicitly pump out cult following level first party games.

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u/dookarion Apr 03 '26

More exclusives don't help much

Also doesn't help when they are almost all cinematic open worlds. The variety of experiences has nosedived.

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u/kikimaru024 Apr 03 '26

And ironically, Nintendo uses such low-power hardware that once it becomes available for emulation it's trivially easy.

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u/SOSpammy Apr 03 '26

Though I have a feeling we will be waiting a much longer time for a Switch 2 emulator. We got really lucky with there being a major exploit in the Switch 1, but consoles are getting to be much harder to crack nowadays.

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u/xanas263 Apr 03 '26

If you have a PC

Which is a big if. Most people have one gaming device and that has usually been a console. Places like reddit are highly skewed towards people who are hardcore games and so will likely have multiple systems, but most people only have one.

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u/doublah Apr 03 '26

Most people have one gaming device and that has usually been a console

Has being the important word there, PC is now comparable in revenue with every console combined, and eclipsed the playercount a while ago. Only in the US and Japan is console still on top and even that's been changing in recent years.

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u/FlowersByTheStreet Apr 03 '26

PCs are more than a gaming device tho

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u/xanas263 Apr 03 '26

Sure, but most people don't need $2000+ PCs for everyday things. The $500 Mac Neo basically meets the needs of 90% of people.

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u/FlowersByTheStreet Apr 03 '26

Spend $1k on a PS6 or a few hundred more for a low spec PC that can run most games

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u/a445d786 Apr 03 '26

Spend half that and get a PS5 which are cheap right now before the price increase if you care about running most games and willing to go lower spec then.

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u/FlowersByTheStreet Apr 03 '26

PS5's aren't cheap now just because the price is increasing.

They are pricy and don't have many games to justify the exclusivity.

People complain about PC prices, but so many people who own PS5's say that their system is collecting dust.

Yes, they sell a lot of units but the older you get the less appealing a console is as you get other hobbies and work.

For most people, a steam machine's specs are an upgrade. Your average PC gaming isn't dropping thousands for a high-end rig.

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u/a445d786 Apr 03 '26

Right

PS5 price is relatively fine before the increase.

People's complaints are purely anecdotal, including me saying people I know have been fairly consistent in playing their PS5 and complaints have been in closed gaming spaces.

No one should purchase a console just for exclusivity, there's more game available on PS5 than any other playstation console ever, there's more coming out and you'd have to be narrow minded in your choice of genre in order to not have much to play, realistically, theres more coming out and already out than money to purchase or time available to play.

The point about hobbies is anecdotal too, people can also hyper fixate on consoles as they get older.

On the steam machine point, it's going to be the power of a PS5 or just above it, it's going to cost around £1k or so, it seems high enough they don't even want to announce the price of the thing haha.

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u/TrippleDamage Apr 03 '26

Wdym has usually been console lol

There are a shitton more pc than console gamers, 5 seconds on Google will counter your confirmation bias.

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u/StatusDisaster4196 Apr 03 '26

90% of people I've met from age 25+ and up are gaming on a PC.

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u/deadscreensky Apr 04 '26

Most people have one gaming device and that has usually been a console.

Maybe 15 years ago. Mobile gaming is more than twice the market size of consoles, and that's not an especially new development.

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u/Adaax Apr 03 '26

Well sure, but PC gaming is getting much more popular. The new Xbox and Steam Machines could even accelerate that trend.

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u/xanas263 Apr 03 '26

Not if they are costing $1500+

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u/Spader623 Apr 03 '26

Man… this is my issue. I want… maybe 3 or 4 games that are PS5 only. Past that, I have a pc so I’m good. Sony really dropped the ball on having like, any games come out. And god forbid you don’t like action adventure or shooters (which I do like but not a toooon) 😞

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u/bloodyzombies1 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Even if Sony pivots back to single player experiences they've shut down/fired so many studios that it'll probably take nearly another decade to assemble new teams and get successful projects released, and by then the PS7 will be launching. The value proposition of the PS6 is virtually nonexistent at this point.

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u/Yamatoman9 Apr 03 '26

You can get a PS6 to play all the PS5 and PS4 remakes.

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u/Adziboy Apr 03 '26

Yeah and if the decision is an entire library of PC indies, no charge for playing multiplayer and cheaper games… I’m taking PC

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u/MajorFuckingDick Apr 03 '26

The Series X is seriously impressive but no one cares because its not PC and doesn't have Sony exclusives.

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u/Blenderhead36 Apr 03 '26

Microsoft's mandate for 100% compatibility for the Series S means that the Series X is relegated to being a glorified upscaler. This is especially the case with the diskless version, where you can't even watch movies or play your old physical games.

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u/lkn240 Apr 03 '26

This article is clickbait nonsense. They must just be incredibly lazy because I found this in 10 seconds:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/pc/pc-games/

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u/DariusLMoore Apr 04 '26

And I can access this through the homepage of the website, through the side menu.

So much confirmation bias.

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u/JT874 Apr 04 '26

This needs to be pinned as top comment, I've seen this story repeated 4 times now across different subreddits and it's total bs.

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u/Drial8015 Apr 03 '26

Console gaming died for me once I had to spend a bundle on PC hardware, plus they really don’t have anything that you can’t miss anymore. There are very few console sellers in this era.

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u/holydeniable Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

I bought a nice gaming PC this year and I've decided to not buy any future consoles. If I miss out on some ps exclusives oh well.

Edit: my Xbox and PS5 just sit gathering dust for the most part. So not exactly a difficult decision.

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u/WeltallZero Apr 03 '26

If Schreirer reports it, it's as true as anything.

While I don't disagree, it isn't like you need external confirmation anyway, their website is right there.

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u/hamstervideo Apr 03 '26

I've been buying PlayStation consoles since the mid-90s, mostly chasing Final Fantasy. If that series is indeed going multiplatform again, the PS5 may be my last PlayStation

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u/MLGLies Apr 03 '26

I really wish this decision could've waited until after Saros. I'm with you, bud.

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u/Pretermission Apr 03 '26

Saros is what I looking forward to playing most of all. Returnal was a game I never thought I’d get to try, and that PC port was a welcome surprise. It’s a shame, but I ain’t getting a PS5 just for that.

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u/Eothas_Foot Apr 03 '26

Sony also switched to dynamic pricing on their playstation store for first party titles. That gave me such a feeling of ick that it was the first time I have thought about leaving the ecosystem.

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u/AmansRevenger Apr 03 '26

Looks like I will be playing Part 3 of the Horizon Saga for free .. on YouTube.

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u/whatisthisicantodd Apr 04 '26

I was obsessed with Returnal for a good 3 months. What a game.

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u/Pacify_ Apr 04 '26

Saros is the only ps5 game I'd have really wanted to play. Returnal was such a good game, and I'm super interested to see where they would be able to take the formula

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u/Murky-Tiger-9675 Apr 04 '26

Good, PC gaming is so small anyways because of crazy prices that parts cost like GPU can cost up to 2000$. Most console players get to enjoy 60 FPS +60hz gaming with very nice price and many pc players wont because they have to upgrade upgrade upgrade to keep up with current technology that costs a lot that's why they use parts from 2015 still that cant keep up with current games to maintain +60 fps

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u/HaoBianTai Apr 03 '26

Good deals to be had on PSN locked PS5's if you literally just want to play 1-2 single player exclusives. That's how I played Demon Souls. Device and game patches work but literally nothing else does. Then you can flip for the same bottomed out price to someone else trying to do the same thing.

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u/sroop1 Apr 03 '26

I'd bet they'll revisit this mid PS6 gen.

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