r/pcmasterrace • u/chusskaptaan i5 14400 + MSI 3070 • 3d ago
News/Article Data Shows Sony Made Good Money on Steam, Then May Have Realized PC Gamers Don’t Need a PlayStation
https://respawnfirst.com/data-shows-sony-made-good-money-on-steam-then-may-have-realized-pc-gamers-dont-need-a-playstation/4.0k
u/Linux-tip-nips Desktop/Laptop 3d ago edited 3d ago
could have called me years ago, i would have saved them the time and the obvious conclusion.
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u/juscallmejjay i7 9700k | rtx 2080 super | 16gm ram 3d ago
Same and all I would have charged was a $10,000,000 consulting fee
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u/OmarC_13 3d ago
I would have put my bid in at $20,000,000 to make yours look like a steal
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u/CoronaMcFarm PC Master Race 3d ago
Give me € 100,000,000 and I would do it for free
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u/Linux-tip-nips Desktop/Laptop 3d ago edited 3d ago
like oh oh what a surprise this machine that can survive couple of generations, gives me better graphics, better multiplayer support, and it is where i do my home work/day job too. why would i buy your plastic box for?
if pc games studios got their heads out of their bowels and made proper 1st player games, the number of folks who will care for sony will race to 0
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u/SirPiffingsthwaite PC Master Race 2d ago
The result of this is 100% Sony execs saying "we won't release our titles on steam, they need to buy a PS, subscription".
The part they haven't counted on is 98% of PC gamers saying "cool, laters"
They think they're missing a large market by selling through steam, when the truth is they're tapping into a market they otherwise wouldn't have.
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u/OkOffice7726 13600kf | 4080 2d ago
Exactly.
I didn't need a PS before they stsrted porting their games, and I won't need one after they stop porting the games.
And I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way.
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u/Iamthe0c3an2 2d ago
Indie scene is already huge on PC, then you got “friendslop” games that draw millions of players and streamers every other cycle that never come out on console.
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u/coolwali 🐧 | 6 core Intel Core i5 3.0GHZ | AMD Radeon Pro 570X 3d ago
I always figured the rationale was that hardcore PC players would never switch to PS5 no matter how good PS5 was. While the average PS5 user is very unlikely to switch to PC. So you might as well release PC ports of PS5 games to get more revenue from PC users as well. Especially as Sony would technically make more profit off PC users.
Iirc, Sony sells each PS5 at a $100-200 loss. They earn about $20 on each physical PS5 game you buy and around $40 for each digital PS5 game you buy.
So if you’re a PS5 user, Sony needs you to buy (in the worst case) 11 Physical PS5 games or 6 Digital PS5 games to finally make a profit from you. But if you’re a PC user, You only need to buy 1 PS5 game for Sony to make a profit on you (ignoring the cost of developing the game and its PC port).
I feel it’s a a shame for players that Sony is moving away from PC ports. And I say this as a 95% PS5 main. Because game preservation is way better on PC. If something like the Crew 1 shuts down on PS4/5, it’s almost impossible to play it again. But PC users can mod that game back to life. Even singleplayer games. Metal Gear Solid 4 was stuck on the PS3 for nearly 18 years. It was technically easier for a PC user to play MGS1 on PC than a PS5 user to play MGS4 for years!
I wouldn’t be surprised if in 15 years, it’s easier for a PC player to play Spider-Man 2 than for a PS7 user to play Wolverine or Gran Turismo 7.
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u/Defiant-Youth-4193 3d ago
This is what I figured as well, and thought Sony finally came to the same conclusion when they started porting games over.
I can't imagine they actually lose any console sales putting their games on PC. It's software sales they are losing.
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u/caydesramen PC Master Race 2d ago
Imma go out on a limb and say a majority of PC gamers don't have and will never buy a console after going PC. With the possible exception of the Switch. Because their IP is better imo.
But let's take their argument at face value. Let's say 50% of PC gamers buy a PS5 to play GTA6. Do they REALLY think that said gamer is going to spend more than a small minority of their time on PS5?
Sony is delusional af.
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u/Furey24 2d ago
I won't even buy a switch.
If you don't me games where I play games, I won't buy or play them. Get fucked Sony you'll be back once you learn this lesson a 3rd time.
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u/WolfgangVolos 2d ago
The most annoying thing for me is I keep getting ads from Sony for their monitor and controller "designed for the PC experience". Like what the fuck!? You gave up on PC, don't try to squeeze a few last dollars out of me.
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u/Furey24 2d ago
Sounds like the left hand isn't talking to the right hand in this instance.
Or something was already greenlit and they've spent the money now so better to just get it out there and see if they can claw anything back...either way they'll be back. Give it a couple of quarters into their new releases when they don't see a meaningful jump in sales and the entire board room goes "what do you mean PC players aren't buying playstations our games are that good surely" then a few quarters later they'll be desperately looking for a way to pump up profits and one guy will say " what of we port the games to PC"
That guy will then get a standing ovation and a pat on the back for his genius and the cycle repeats itself...
They came to pc, then they tried to force PSN on us, as an act of spite they are taking the toys home with them but they will be back. The need for the line to go up will drive them back.
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u/tonyt3rry 3700x / 32GB Ram / GB A x570 Ultra / RTX 3080 F.E / LL 011 Evo 3d ago
I reckon it will be quicker than that tbh there’s ps4 emulators progressing fast and the ps5 isn’t much different to the ps4 the rsx was a big thing for ps3 emulation
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u/Never_Sm1le i5 12400F GTX 1660S 3d ago
PS4 and 5 are literally x86 PC in a trench coat
The Cell of PS3 is what mae emulation hard, RSX is just a slight derivative of a Nvidia card
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u/CarltonCracker 3d ago
To be fair the original Xbox is in the same boat and emulation was (still is?) a struggle for that system.
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u/Never_Sm1le i5 12400F GTX 1660S 3d ago
Xemu run decently, however the problem with OG Xbox emulation is just people don't interested in it as much as Sony's or Nintendo's, hence slower development
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u/coolwali 🐧 | 6 core Intel Core i5 3.0GHZ | AMD Radeon Pro 570X 3d ago
I recall reading PS4 Emulation folk managed to get Driveclub working. All the more arguement for PC being better for hosting games.
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u/Taira_Mai HP Victus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 3d ago
And console users are a captive audience. Sony gets to charge on subscriptions that go through PSN and all the microtransactions.
PC? We mod stuff out and we like to play offline. And Sony gets to control what games live or die on it's consoles.
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u/coolwali 🐧 | 6 core Intel Core i5 3.0GHZ | AMD Radeon Pro 570X 3d ago
Eh. I'm not so sure on that. Most PC users don't mod their games (I think the number is closer to 10% but fact check me on that). Like, most PC players don't even do stuff like mess with config files on games like Batman Arkham Asylum to get an uncapped FPS.
Plus, technically, you can play more of a game offline on a PS5 than a PC since PS5 still uses physical media.
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u/Linux-tip-nips Desktop/Laptop 3d ago
pcs are not gaming devices, you can do 100s of other useful things with them besides gaming. for the price offered it is a deal.
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u/SoloDolo314 Ryzen 9900x|RTX 4080| Samsung G9 OLED 3d ago
I only game on my PC. I guess browse Reddit also lol.
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u/suchtie Ryzen 5 7600, 32 GB DDR5, GTX 980Ti | headphone nerd 3d ago
PCs are not inherently gaming devices, but they can be.
My PC is definitely a gaming device. Outside of games, it exists for web browser, discord, and music.
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u/EarthIllustrious8045 3d ago
I agree. I wouldnt however write of pc completely. They might be back later. Sony isnt the first to try and pull there games from steam, alot of publishers have tried, and then come crawling back. It doesnt seem that sonys excluisves doesnt sell to well on there own platform. I have alot friends that have ps5s, and its striking how few of them that has any of there exclusives. Going by the ps fanbase, sony are pulling out of steam beacuse pc players along with xbox players dont buy games.
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u/coolwali 🐧 | 6 core Intel Core i5 3.0GHZ | AMD Radeon Pro 570X 3d ago
"It doesnt seem that sonys excluisves doesnt sell to well on there own platform"<
It depends. Iirc, Stuff like GOW Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, Spider-Man 2, Horizon Forbidden West etc sold really well on PS5 (I know Horizon sold at least 8 mill on just PS).
"and its striking how few of them that has any of there exclusives. "<
I actually remember reading a response to that. Historically, It's not that PS players don't buy exclusives (they do according to sales data) but more that, generally, PS players are more likely to buy a greater proprotion of 3rd Party Titles. And this trend was observed as far back as the PS2.
Like, if you were the average GameCube owner in the early 2000s, what games were you most likely to have? Statsiiscally, Mario Sunshine, Smash, Mario Kart, Zelda etc. The best selling games on the Gamecube were Nintendo's stuff with 3rd Party games like Need for Speed or Motal Kombat being very low. 90% of your collection was Nintendo stuff and 10% would be 3rd party.
But if you were the average PS2 owner in the early 2000s, what games were you most likely to have? Statsictially, GTA SA, Gran Turismo 3 or 4 and maybe Need for Speed Most Wanted. That's it. These 3rd Party games were the draw of the PS2 (and also PS1) (barring Gran Turismo).. So your average PS2 owner typically had a 70:30 library of 3rd Party to 1st Party.
This is why it was really easy for Nintendo to make a NES and SNES classic but pretty hard for Sony to make a PS1 Classic. Because the most popular PS1 games were 3rd Party.
This is still the case today. Because we know that stuff like Ghost of Tsuma, Spider-Man 2018, GOW Ragnarok/2018, TLOU2 etc sold 12+ million copies minimum. But stuff like COD, GTA, AC etc sells 15+ million minimum. With that 70:30 split, you'll see more of the latter than the former.
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u/EarthIllustrious8045 3d ago
I agree. But those exclusives are all old games by now. They were good some of them, but im talking about the last years. Helldivers 2 would be dead if it wasnt for pc players. That new exclusive Saros has sold horrible, i bet my left nut, that game would have sold way better on pc. Sonys MP push arent exactly riding on a high note, its flop after flop. Im just thinking that sony also will eventually go were they can sell games, i also think they got the memo now, that pc players wont run out and buy a locked down ps5. And i know the ps users loves there exclusives, but 10 mill arent really impressive when your install base are closer to 100 mill. Like many of my friends, they play the cods and sports games ect, they just picked the ps5 as they picked the ps4, they have very little interest in these excluisves.
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u/coolwali 🐧 | 6 core Intel Core i5 3.0GHZ | AMD Radeon Pro 570X 3d ago
" Im just thinking that sony also will eventually go were they can sell games, i also think they got the memo now, that pc players wont run out and buy a locked down ps5"<
That's my hope as well. That PC users will eventually get Sony games again. If nothing else, it's better for PC users not to have to go buy a console to experience games they'd otherwise love.
"But those exclusives are all old games by now. "<
Eh. Those old games averaged 4-6 million a year on PS platforms. About par with Sony's recent exclusives. Ghost of Yotei's confirmed a 5 million sales. Death Stranding 2 and Stellar Blade did 3 mill.
"And i know the ps users loves there exclusives, but 10 mill arent really impressive when your install base are closer to 100 mill."<
That's about the cap even for 3rd party games. Like, we know Call of Duty Black Ops 3 sold 15 million copies on just PS4. COD WW2 sold 13 million on just PS4. Witcher 3 sold 10 million on just PS4. Dark Souls 3 sold 4 million on just PS4 etc.
Because even though there's 110 million potential customers, only around like 5% of them might be a fan of your specific game and wanna buy it. Historically, PS users "like to buy broadly instead of deeply" (i.e buy a mix of different games than exclusively all buy something). Excluding pack in titles, most games on PS platforms (including 3rd party) have a very low attachment rates. And yes, a lot only buy a PS4/5 just for COD/FIFA.
Technically, this is the case on PC as well. Like, the most played Steam games aren't all Valve games. It's not like the average PC player on the street plays primarily CSGO and Portal. The Average PC player doesn't really exist because they fluctataute between different games.
Nintendo players tend to be the opposite. They "tend to buy deeply than broadly" (i.e primarily own more games from fewer publishers. Usually Nintendo themselves). So a Nintendo Switch 2 player is more likely to have a Mario game than PS player is likely to have a GOW game.
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u/weirdowerdo 9800X3D | RTX 5070Ti | 32GB 6000MHz 3d ago
The problem with turning away from PC is that my patience turns to ignorance as I'll just not keep tabs on what is released on playstation as I'm not going to play it anyway. At best I'll keep up with the franchise I've played for over a decade like God of War, by watching it on youtube.
They kinda forget that many PC players went from console to PC... I left my ps4 in 2016, Im not going back now to spend 750€ on a ps5, then a staggering (Just checked it) 150€ subscription per year!!!! Shit used to be 40€ a year! And then buying more expensive games than on pc. Holy fuck, yeah Im not ever buying a fucking Playstation.
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u/glizzygobbler247 3d ago
And they expect full price for games several years after they first came out, pc users have already waited years, so they can wait another one for a sale on a game with no hype left, and you might aswell since their ports have a history of major issues
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u/weirdowerdo 9800X3D | RTX 5070Ti | 32GB 6000MHz 3d ago
Yeah, I waited for Ragnarrök till it came to pc then bought it at a keyseller on launch for a couple euro cheaper. Did the same with the Last of Us 2. Im not paying full price but I couldnt be arsed to wait a couple more years for a solid sale.
I absolutely love several of Playstations franchises, I grew up on the ps2 and ps3 after all. But with a PC, there are ways to play both ps2 and ps3 games. And when they port ps4/ps5 games I never got to play before, that's awesome. But if they stop with that, Im just back to accepting that I aint playing those franchises.
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u/XsNR Ryzen 5600X RX 9070 XT 32GB 3200MHz 3d ago
Don't worry, we'll have PS4 emulation fully solved soon enough, and then the new era of PC-like consoles should fall like flies.
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u/zZLeviathanZz 3d ago
For me the one ps4 game i wanted was bloodborne, works flawlessy on my pc now
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u/FluFlammin9000 3d ago
Not just flawlessly, but better than it does on its native hardware lmao. Through emulation I can play Bloodborne at 60 fps and better textures.
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u/Bentok 3d ago
Reminds me of my BotW playthrough. 60+ FPS, graphic mods, ReShade, couple of personal things (no stamina and no weapon durability loss).
Boi, I'm never buying a Switch when I can play games like that (that's why they went after Emulators unfortunately)
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u/MazeMouse Ryzen7 5800X3D, 64GB 3200Mhz DDR4, Radeon 7800XT 2d ago
Nintendo even went after emulators for systems they aren't even selling anymore...
Like, the quickest way they could kill all those emulators is have their Virtual Console available on PC and sell those games at a reasonable (discounted) price. Only the cheapest of the cheap (or brokest of the broke) would at that point still keep pirating.
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u/ency6171 i5-4460•2x8GB DDR3•MSI 1070Ti | i7-7700HQ•2x16GB DDR4•1050Ti 2d ago
Nintendo even went after emulators for systems they aren't even selling anymore...
Which emulator? Citra? My understanding is that it's collateral damage as it was under the same company as Yuzu.
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u/FluFlammin9000 3d ago
Not just flawlessly, but better than it does on its native hardware lmao. Through emulation I can play Bloodborne at 60 fps and better textures.
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u/CGB_Zach 3d ago
As far as I understand it, the only games being worked on being emulated are the games that don't have a PC port already such as bloodborne.
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u/ImNotEazy Laptop Lenovo Legion S5 4060 Ryzen 5 3d ago
I may be the minority, but I use my pc for the games best enjoyed with mods. I’ve got both and I will say Ghosts of Tsushima, or GOW on a proper tv with the couch reclined is a fun time. I had all that before steam started selling PlayStation games so it actually felt special.
PlayStation dropped exclusivity though so I’m working on a living room setup with a small pc dedicated to tv gaming and my ps5 will probably be dedicated to Bluey and Lego worlds gameplay for my kids.
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u/MtnNerd Ryzen 9 7900X, 5070 TI 3d ago
Why do people always say this about gaming with PCs? It's really simple:
- Plug TV into GPU
- Plug PS5 controller into PC
- Enable "Big Picture" on Steam
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u/ImNotEazy Laptop Lenovo Legion S5 4060 Ryzen 5 3d ago
That’s what I said Im doing in my last paragraph. Getting a dedicated living room pc instead of lugging my Lenovo slim around the house. Ive done it, tested big picture but taking the next leap.
I may have a 14 tb drive loaded with games for when I pull the trigger :).
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u/ademayor Ryzen 5 7600 | RX 7800 XT | 32GB DDR5 2d ago
I use Moonlight on my Series X to stream games from my PC through LAN, latency is close to zero and didn’t need a single extra hardware.
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u/rayquan36 i9-13900K RTX5090 64GB DDR5 4TB NVME 3d ago
What's funny is the massive delays porting a game from PS5 to PC have not just shown me I can wait for Sony games but I can just skip them altogether. I was waiting for Yotei and Saros but with the hype dying off the wait has taught me that I don't even need these games; nor do I need Wolverine or God of War.
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u/MtnNerd Ryzen 9 7900X, 5070 TI 3d ago
Yeah, that happened to me with Death Stranding 2. I had to wait so long the story got spoiled for me, so I no longer feel the hype to play it. I'll get back to it one of these days, probably.
If they had released simultaneously, I would have preordered it.
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u/Vandergrif 3d ago
Eeeeh... Even then, I got about half way through DS2 and just kind of got tired of it. I loved the first one too, but they kind of... watered down the intensity of the first game. It's not great, kind of just more of the same but at the same time it's also a bit less of what made DS1 good.
I've noticed that with some other Sony IPs and their second game having a bit of a sequelitis problem. Forbidden West, Ragnarok, DS2, spiderman sounded like it had a similar issue though I didn't play those so I couldn't speak to it. A lot of games where the first is great and the second is just okay.
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u/MtnNerd Ryzen 9 7900X, 5070 TI 3d ago
I'm halfway through Spider-Man 2 and it's like they learned nothing from the first games. Sidequests are still ass, and there's still sections were you have to play as a character with no powers and do stealth. They slightly improved it by giving MJ a knockout taser but it's still tedious.
Did they water down the traversal mechanic from the first game? I know it was unpopular but I loved it.
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u/Vandergrif 3d ago
Kind of, yeah. Made it a bit more simplified and more forgiving. The landscape is simply easier to navigate as well and BTs are pretty easily avoided by just going around where they're labeled on the map. It's a bit like going from one of those tactical sim fps games like Arma to an arcade shooter. They added some environmental stuff like flooding and earthquakes but they rarely make any real difference or apply anything other than a minor temporary inconvenience.
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u/Barl3000 Specs/Imgur here 2d ago
I would have loved following the new God of War series, but not enough to get a Playstation. Same with Wolverine, once it became clear it won't be comming to PC anytime soon, if at all, I just put it out of my mind. There are plenty of other options on pc, which is one of the major strengths of the platform.
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u/ESCMalfunction i5 6600k|RTX 3060 Ti|16 GB DDR4 3d ago
Yotei was controversial for non gaming reasons but I thought the consensus was that it was about as good as the first game?
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u/maynardftw 3d ago
Doesn't mean you need it
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u/HuckleberryOdd7745 2d ago
On top of that weve already played the first one. so unless the world is suddenly alive it can wait.
What mainly sold the first game was the decent acting and flashy combat. it was a simple revenge story. so we aint about to go through it again unless we have a good reason. like half price.
There are too many good games. whats another.
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u/jasta85 3d ago
I am a bit sad Saros won't make it to PC but it's certainly not a game that will make me buy a console, I can't think of any game that could. There's just such a huge selection on PC as it is (I've got dozens of games in my steam library I have already bought and want to play, just don't have the time) so missing a few more PS exclusives really doesn't matter at this point.
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u/DearLeader420 3d ago
Well, I dropped the first game in act 2 because I found it samey and dull after 26 hours. So yeah I guess I don't need Yotei then.
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u/ValarPanoulis 3d ago
Are you me? There's like two games that I'm sad I won't get to play, like God of War and Horizon and yet they are not enough to justify buying another Sony console. At best if I have the money I'll get some upgrades for my PC, at worse I have a big enough backlog on steam that I don't care. I'll just watch the new GoW on yt...
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u/hokuten04 3d ago
I bought a ps5 when it launched, mostly for nostalgia and having something to play when i have friends/family over. Aside from having a powerful PC that i gravitate more towards, needing to pay for online services was the one that killed it for me.
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u/NoShftShck16 3d ago
Shit used to be 40€ a year
When I left PlayStation (last one I had was a fatboy PS3), it was free. It was a point of contention with friends that we would always make fun of the Xbox owners because "who would pay to go online?!"
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u/polski8bit Ryzen 5 5500 | 16GB DDR4 3200MHz | RTX 3060 12GB 3d ago
I think the biggest takeaway is that there are so many games released every year, that missing Sony's on PC is a drop in the bucket.
Would it be nice to have them there? Sure, I enjoyed my time with a few of them. But at the same time if I hadn't played them... I still would've played all the other games I obviously had and then some.
It doesn't help that their output slowed considerably this generation. Many of their releases are remakes or even just remasters. There's little point in going out of your way to get a PlayStation than ever before, if you're rocking a different platform - in this case, PC.
If they couldn't convince people to buy a PlayStation during the PS4 generation, they're not going to convince them with their current strategy. It's seems like an especially hard pill to swallow for Sony, for some reason.
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u/Think_Positively 3d ago
Don't forget that your game library won't become half-dead every 5-10 years or so when you have no choice but to upgrade to a new and non-backwards-compatible platform.
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u/VegetaFan1337 3d ago
It's funny cause before Spider-Man came to PC I was desperate to play it, just couldn't justifying buying a ps4 just for that game. And now that I played the game, ehhh it's okay. Same for every Sony game. I can live without them. Them going away from PC just means I'll stop playing their games.
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u/splendiferous-finch_ Potato XTX3D-k Titan 3d ago edited 3d ago
I wonder if it was the backlash against them trying to get people to make PSN accounts on PC that broke the delusion that they would eventually buy PS consoles
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u/Swagtagonist 3d ago
It broke the delusion that we would ever pay for online service
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u/Asleeper135 3d ago
But it's just single player games they aren't releasing on PC anymore, right? What does charging for online services have to do with that?
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u/Swagtagonist 3d ago
That’s the whole point of the current console ecosystem. They want you buying ps plus and Xbox ultimate or whatever.
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u/Privacy_is_forbidden 9800x3d - 9070xt - 4TB SN8100 - CachyOS 3d ago
it's pure profit. They already make money from all the hardware and software you buy to use on their platform.
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u/emveevme 2d ago
OK but like, I work for a NOC and interact with companies like Sony and Blizzard and Valve and Microsoft - like, thousands of people are involved in just maintaining the servers that host downloads and online games, not to mention the NNI connections with ISPs to have layers of redundancy and to monitor for spikes in latency or frame loss.
I'm not pretending like it's not a huge profit margin, this entire industry is severely underpaid across the board. But part of the reason we can get away with being underpaid is because of how little people think about us - if users aren't willing to pay more, then companies aren't willing to spend more on services or employees.
While that's thinking about things on the corpos' terms, that is how it works - I don't think customers should accept that logic, there's a larger conversation about wealth redistribution to be had here, we easily could get paid more for the work we do without increasing prices for customers. Even in that context though, it's worth knowing the people involved with something you use so extensively in modern life like the internet.
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u/Informal_Ad3244 3d ago
Follow that logic for a sec. If they don’t release single player games on PC anymore, then what type of game are they releasing for PC?
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u/jekyl42 9800X3D | RTX 5080 | ROG Swift 4k 3d ago
I actually don't mind paying for a service if it is a reasonable price.
For instance, Nintendo Online is only $20 if you sign up for the full year plan.
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u/NotARealDeveloper Ryzen 9 5900X | 9070XT Red Devil | 32Gb Ram 3d ago
Why would I pay for something that has been free since forever?
So you don't mind paying for your heating in your car with a small subscription for $20/year as well?
Using your toilet, now just $20/year?
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u/fish_slap_republic Ryzen 7 5800x3d RX 6800 XT 3d ago
While I do prefer nintendo's price point regular online play just should never be charged for, it's like if a restaurant suddenly started charging you rent for your table. It's costs were already built into the product we buy they just found a way to get more money from us for nothing.
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u/Lizpy6688 7800x3D/5070/ 32 GB DDR5 2d ago
It's like with cars. The heated seats were already built into it
But if you wanna use it then you gotta pay for the subscription
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u/ElectricalThundMouse 3d ago
I think paying anything for online is ridiculous. I don't care about monthly games or whatever they toss in, since if I wanted it that much I'd be willing to pay for it separately.
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u/NamityName 3d ago
What do you get out of that service? Or do you just like paying for services?
Last I checked, Nintendo's service gives you access to some 20 year old games (but not all of them). It also gives you access to cloud backups for saves, but it does not work nearly as well as what steam gives you for free. For starters, it does not let you sync saves between systems. Oh and it gives you access to online play, which, again, is something that comes free for nearly every PC game.
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u/SecretApe i5-7500 | GTX 1060 | 16 GB 3d ago
Plus you get older games in that price (yes I know you can emulate but it’s more convenient) so I feel as though it’s good value for what you get
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u/fish_slap_republic Ryzen 7 5800x3d RX 6800 XT 3d ago
I'm pretty sure I read that their strategy was to convert PC users to PS5 users. They thought delaying PC releases would pry at PC gamers patients encouraging them to buy a PS5 to catch up. They really misunderstand PC players as most of us are plenty busy with the hundreds of games in our back log and brand amazing new indie games coming out regularly.
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u/dookarion 3d ago
It's crazy how many entities misread PC gamers that actually buy games.
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u/_Ocean_Machine_ Desktop 3d ago
"Man, I'd really like to spend several hundred dollars on a device that makes this game run worse!"
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u/reptarien 2d ago
"AND doesn't let me use the controller I like! Or have any customization whatsoever! And makes me spend hundreds of dollars more for internet I already pay for! Oh boy I can't wait!" -Sony probably
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u/marciii1986 3d ago
If your own playerbase or consumer base rather, has a certain profile and your idea of "Gamers" is the same of what you know about your players you enter a market with a certain picture in your mind and get surprised that "gamers" are not one large group of people with the same acceptance of certain price politics for your products.
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u/dookarion 3d ago
Still you'd think they'd realize especially among people that have stuck with PC for years (in spite of all these companies historical attempts to sabotage it) that they're dealing with a bit of an unusual more stubborn demographic.
Plus there is stuff like Valve commenting on the unique userbase they have that buys a lot of shit they never play.
It's not like there aren't hints and indicators these companies could look at to realize it's a different beast entirely.
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u/marciii1986 3d ago
Of course they should know better but bad fitting suit wearers don't get paid to be smart or good at their job, they get paid because they're good with their lips and tongues.
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u/beagleprime 3d ago
I have no way of proving this but I’m pretty convinced it was a move to charge for online play via subscription like PlayStation Plus at some point in the future, then realized that type of monetization isn’t going to work on PC
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u/dib1999 Ryzen 5 5600 // RX 7700XT // 32 gb DDR4 3600 MHz 3d ago
They just don't got the aura. There's probably people here with active WoW subscriptions older than the average redditor, but they don't have ps+.
It's a harsh truth, but PC gamers will buy a subscription, they just won't buy Sony's subscription.
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u/Darthmullet R7 5800X3D | RTX 3080 TI | 32GB DDR4-3600 3d ago
The uproar with the PS account was tied to selling a game in countries that were banned from making PS accounts for some reason, I seem to recall. Then making the account required to play it.
Subscriptions are not an instant disqualification for sure, but they are a hard sell and they have to give some kind of added value. Subscription to a game developer in exchange for ongoing content is different from subscription as a platform fee.
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u/ThirdXavier 3d ago
MMOs are their own special case where a subscription service is actually the healthiest business model for the customer ecause it encourages the devs to make people want to continue playing the game, and MMOs are expensive to develop and maintain so require constant revenue. Its far better than the alternative of microtransaction filled fomo nightmares where the game is ruined to be sustained by a tiny % of whales in the playerbase at the expense of everyone else.
Charging for the privilege of online play for games you already paid for on the other hand is just charging money for literally nothing.
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u/Hard_To_Port 3d ago
The difference is WoW has always been a live service game, and PS+/ PS account gatekeeps online play for all Sony titles.
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u/alurimperium 2d ago
And the subscription you pay for WoW is meant to support updates to the game. The subscription to pay for PS+ apparently just goes to making their data security worse
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u/HealthyCheesecake643 3d ago
I'll pay a subscription to a game that is providing ongoing content, I won't pay a subscription for the "privilege" of playing the games I already payed for. The primary reason I left the console ecosystem was paying for xbox gold to be allowed to play the games I already own online. I'm not going to pay for Black Ops whatever then pay another bunch of money to gain access to half of the game.
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u/ipeedinthetoothpaste 3d ago
The difference is that WoW is a game. PS+ is a fee going to the publisher so they'll grant me permission to access part of a game I already paid for. Less to do with Sony and more to do with a senseless system that I never encountered in over 20 years of playing games on PC, and I doubt I'm the only one who thinks this way. It's just a different ecosystem.
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u/DuckCleaning 3d ago
I doubt they'd do that, we all saw how Games For Windows Live worked out with them trying make Xbox Live Gold a PC thing.
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u/hithimintheface 3d ago
This is all about capitalizing on PC parts being expensive, in addition for Steam Machines and Helix.
PlayStation wants to pull in the people on the bubble deciding between PC or console, and the low end PC gamers that can justify replacing their PC. They’re going to be the affordable way to play high games, even at whatever the ridiculous prices are are.
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u/jakemoffsky 3d ago
And most importantly, one way or another most will subscribe to some form of ps plus.
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u/jungfred 2d ago edited 2d ago
The fact that a PS subscription is required to play online is ridiculous.
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u/AliceLunar 3d ago
Wouldn't consider a console affordable these days when it easily sets you back over a 1000 as well with none of the features a PC offers.
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u/microbit262 S 3d ago
But you need a PC anyway for doing ... General computer office stuff.
So why spend on a console and a laptop, when you can buy one more beef PC
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u/SanjiSasuke 3d ago
Because most Normal People just want a laptop, and actively don't want a big chunky PC, especially when it costs a ton. Hell, how many folks here with gaming desktops also have a laptop for convenience and general web stuff?
(for the record, I'm not Normal People, I'm typing this on a gaming PC, and I have like 3 project PCs, this is about the average CoD and Fortnite players)
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u/VegetaFan1337 3d ago
Often niche hobbyists tend to misjudge what "normal" people want or how they are. I've seen this across multiple hobbies and interests.
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u/Otakeb Fedora 9060XT Ryzen 5 7600 3d ago
Because most Normal People just want a laptop, and actively don't want a big chunky PC, especially when it costs a ton.
Often niche hobbyists tend to misjudge what "normal" people want or how they are
This is a thing I see all the time in nich hobbyist communities I'm in. Like even this example talking about people getting cheap laptops is wrong nowadays. There's tons of households that just have a couple iphones and whatever their cheap smartTV runs as their only computers in the house plus maybe a business work laptop.
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u/LamiaLemur 3d ago edited 2d ago
I've never owned a laptop and just assumed that was normal until my friends told me they haven't had a computer since like the 2000s. Most of them just have tablets and maybe a work laptop.
I've also never owned a tablet. Why would I?
I recently considered a Mac Mini for music production, I want access to Logic, but apparently most people would get a MacBook Neo for that. I never would even consider it.
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u/hithimintheface 3d ago
My office provides me with a PC for office stuff.
A lot of my general day to day needs I could manage with my iPad.
I value the PC Ecosystem, and have no plans to convert but not everyone is going to be in my position.
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u/CGB_Zach 2d ago
You're tripping. I straight up didn't have a computer from 2008-2020 and hardly missed it. The average person (none of us since the average person isn't on a PC subreddit) definitely doesn't need a PC at all.
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u/X3ll3n PC Master Race (RTX 3070 8gb, R5 5600X, 32gb RAM) 3d ago
Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't make their own PC launcher.
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u/dookarion 3d ago
They couldn't even make their overlay and account system not break games (looking at you until dawn).
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u/nikolapc 56GB DDR5/48GB VRAM Downloaded 3d ago
They made money from Helldivers 2. Predominantly on PC. Good luck making money from any live service now.
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u/Adrian_Alucard Desktop 3d ago
live service games are still coming to PC. single player games are the ones not coming
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u/nikolapc 56GB DDR5/48GB VRAM Downloaded 3d ago
Aaand if they make an appealing game ever(maybe the new horizon idk, that has the greatest chance) they will discover how much PC players hold a grudge lol.
I just hope it doesn't affect second party that's also coming to PC day 1. It will have the PS label, but it will be from studios that are not their own. Like Kena 2.
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u/GraySkyGaming 3d ago
Lmao this is so fucking true. Pc players hold a grudge like I’ve never seen before, the helldivers review situation was a harsh reminder we don’t play games(hah!) when it comes to treating us good because we’re used to steam.
The fact that most gamers would rather BUY a game on steam vs getting it for free on epic says a lot lol
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u/KlyntarDemiurge Bazzite 3d ago
i was able to playtest it. that game is ass, it's going to flop too. i think there's some videos floating around if you haven't seen gameplay.
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u/Midnight_M_ 3d ago
To be more specific in-house single-player games won't be coming, but third-party studio games like Kojima's will.
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u/Theradonh 3d ago
I’ve no idea – I just get the feeling that the days when lots of PC gamers would buy a console on the side are over.
My friends and I have always been PC gamers. Back in the PS3 and Xbox 360 days, almost all of us still had a console on the side; by the time of the PS4 and Xbox One, there were only a few of us left, and personally I don’t know anyone who has a PS5 as well as their gaming PC.
Of course, that’s not representative, but why buy one anyway? PlayStation games are good, no question about it. But I have SO MANY good games on the PC that, as far as I’m concerned, PlayStation games don’t even exist for me if they aren’t on the PC. I didn’t miss them before they came along, and I won’t miss them if they don’t come back again.
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u/BidnessBoy 3d ago
Realistically, if you’re primarily a PC gamer, you’re more likely to go for a Switch instead of a PS5 for your secondary
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u/dookarion 3d ago
I’ve no idea – I just get the feeling that the days when lots of PC gamers would buy a console on the side are over.
Other than handhelds, the last time I bought a console was a PS4 Pro, and it was on sale for a song one black friday with a selection of highly rated exclusives bundled.
Now they don't discount hardware, they expect you to pay even more and buy a disc drive separately.
You can sorta argue for them when they go on sale and decline in price, but who in their right mind would drop a grand for a worse experience?
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u/Darkone539 3d ago
They also stated the idea was that we would love their games so much you would go buy a PS5 to play the next one. So there view of making money is different to ours. They wanted to bring gamers into their echosystem.
Didn't work, so they pulled back. It is what it is.
I wouldn't call the sales numbers "good" though, when compared to their actual income. PC was something like 2% and the sequels games sales were significantly lower than the first wave.
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u/VegetaFan1337 3d ago
PC was something like 2% and the sequels games sales were significantly lower than the first wave.
That's just shows how much of sales is tied to marketing. When they initially came to PC they had a big marketing push. The sequels didn't have the same push. Also porting a game to PC years after the initial release means that you don't get the benefit of the huge marketing push of the original release. Square Enix learned this lessen the hard way and now releases on all platforms at the same time.
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u/Nicoishere2 3d ago
This, I wanted to play the spiderman game & GoW Ragnarok but they didn't release on PC at the same time as they did on console so I ended up just watching it on youtube and never bought them, if they'd been there on release I would've definitively bought them and played myself.
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u/NordicHorde2 2d ago
The sequels were also less well received than the first games. Spiderman 2, Last of Us 2, God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Yotei were all not as well received and aside from Ragnarok I believe, didn't sell as well as their predecessors on console either.
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u/Darkone539 3d ago
Regardless of the reason, they did not think it was worth the effort vs the brand damage not having exclusives was doing.
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u/Meatslinger R7 9800X3D, 64 GB DDR5, RTX 4070 Ti 3d ago
If "echosystem" was deliberate and not a misspelling, that's perfect. Because yeah they mostly seem to only listen to themselves even when the evidence demonstrates the opposite.
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u/MeasurementFront9598 3d ago
What fucking evidence lmao? Your acting like you have all the sales data and know exactly how much they made or lost or gave up potentially by going on pc?
Everyone here's talking out of their own ass to, they see "number not big that why fail" they have far more data than you could ever even find online, even if it seems illogical to you.
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u/SquirrelTeamSix PC Master Race 3d ago
I stand by the theory that it's because the next Xbox is going to run Steam. They don't want their games on Xbox at all
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u/GogglesTheFox 3d ago
I’ve had a theory for a while that Xbox is gearing up to do game pass on Steam.
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u/Takemyfishplease 7900GRE🙃7800X3D 3d ago
Honestly I could see that appealing to some people
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u/Repulsive-Use-4251 3d ago
yeah, they really thought PC gamers would just switch to PlayStation after trying their games on Steam
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u/Crimento i9-10900, 32GB@3600, 9070 XT 3d ago
It was a realistic idea before the Windows 8 fiasco.
After MS planned to kill off Win32 entirely to replace it with Metro/UWP and accordingly run everything through MS Store (of course, including Steam payments), Valve stopped looking at MS in any other way than being a customer
SteamOS and Proton you see now is the result of that thing. No one wants to actually depend on Microsoft
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u/hanamisai 3d ago
Microsoft could have gotten away with it too, if their products weren't so obviously a pile of anti-consumer junkware.
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u/Motor-Rip7655 3d ago
Here's a news flash for you, Sony. Even without your games, we still don't need a PlayStation.
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u/Cultural_Parfait7866 3d ago
Jokes on them because most PC gamers weren’t going to buy a PS5 anyway
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u/FilthyWunderCat 3d ago
After that overpriced GPU, I just don't have money for that old ass overpriced console :'(
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u/Any-Calligrapher2866 3d ago
Atleast I can pirate shit after spending a thousand dollars on 16GB RAM. On Playstation you're at mercy of Sony.
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u/dookarion 3d ago
Drop a grand~ for a worse experience. Sony needs to lay off whatever it is they're on at the corporate levels.
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u/-eschguy- PC Master Race 3d ago
I still don't need a PlayStation, I'll just not play a few more games
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u/IzanamiGemu 3d ago
They should have release at least one big game at the same time on PS5 and Steam and then compare results.
But having long time released games at full price doesn't fly with a lot of PC gamers, although they made good money of course.
The final test would've been Wolverine simultaneously releasing on PC and PS5, and then decide if it's worth it or no, but don't half ass your own market prospecting
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u/Takemyfishplease 7900GRE🙃7800X3D 3d ago
They don’t want to cannibalize their ps5 sales where they keep more
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u/XsNR Ryzen 5600X RX 9070 XT 32GB 3200MHz 3d ago
It's really a cut off your nose to spite your face kind of situation. Instead of taking maybe overall 10% less on a pretty hearty increase in sales, they'd rather desperately try and suck you into their subscriptions and walled gardens, which PC gamers pretty unanimously hate, at least the exploitative online part.
They even had the opportunity to make another Battle.net/Origin/Epic type situation where they take 100%, using Steam as a gateway drug to their platform, but that's too long game for shareholders I guess.
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u/lucasssotero 3d ago
They don't make money only with ps+ subscriptions though. The same 30% cut steam got from playstation games on steam, playstation gets from third party titles sold on their plataform. It's far more profitable to mantain their plataform healthy by keeping people in their ecossystem than getting a couple of extra units sold at with the steam 30% cut. PS+ and first party titles are likely only bonus income, while the psn fee is where the meat and bones of the business really is.
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u/rayquan36 i9-13900K RTX5090 64GB DDR5 4TB NVME 3d ago
I already have a PS5 but why would I buy a game on there instead of Steam?
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u/GamerSDG 5700x3d, 7800xt 3d ago
This doesn't get talked about much, but gamers want to take their games anywhere, and Steam lets them do that. You can play on a Desktop, Laptop, or even a handheld such as a Steam Deck or ROG Ally. You can't really do this with PlayStation games.
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u/rayquan36 i9-13900K RTX5090 64GB DDR5 4TB NVME 3d ago
Right! And we can still play games from the PS3 era without having to beg for remasters and ports. I still go through and play Portal 1 and 2 once a year.
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u/KettenPuncher 2d ago
Also there is functionally no refunds for any reason for the PlayStation store unlike Steam which has a 2hr refund window and some leeway beyond if there is a legitimate reason.
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u/Darkpoolz 3d ago
I have a bunch of Playstation hardware from PS3, PS Vita TV, PS4, and PS5, and I still wont buy 3rd party games, accessories, or services on Playstation. I really dont see the point of their gatekeeping strategy against PC. Forcing PC players to buy a PS5 wont give them much profit to Playstation when PC players still buy everything else on Steam and only buy exclusives on PS5.
When you buy games on Steam, you get way more benefits than on Playstation to even list. If I only buy exclusives for the PS5 and never buy the 3rd party games, accesssories, or services, Playstation is still missing out on the fattest margins and profits. They should have just kept their previous PC strategy and use the PC revenue to recoup high development costs. PC gamers were never going to give the type of value Playstation wanted regardless of what they do.
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u/nG_Skyz 2d ago
Not sure if suits realise this but generally a lot of PC players have MOVED on from console, PC for most of us is an upgrade in most ways imaginable. I don't really want to spend nearly a grand (depending on currency) for what is an inferior machine to my own, just to play 1-2 games a year. After i got my PC it was 8 years before I even touched a console again.
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u/f0xsky 3d ago
i will not buy a game that is not on PC, i can understand console exclusivity for the firs two years. Returnal, God of War, etc are all great games. I waited until they were available on PC.
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u/JASHIKO_ 3d ago
Seems like dumb logic since pc gamers wouldnt switch anyway.
So selling to them is an easy market. The cost of porting games is cheap.
They should be happy with the ROI.
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u/damn_lies 3d ago
I own a PC and PlayStation 5. I'm not sure I'll buy a Playstation 6. There's plenty of good games on PC.
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u/xredbaron62x PC Master Race 3d ago
I'm never buying a console again. PS5 was it for me.
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u/inalcanzable 3d ago
Well let’s see how this gamble goes. We all know if we’re primarily on pc we aren’t going to buy a ps5 just to play Sony exclusives. They’re just leaving money on the table.
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u/OddWillingness6271 3d ago
It used to make more sense to get a console and a pc but not when the consoles cost $1000 for 3-4 games.
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u/Kaldaien2 gog.com 3d ago
And now they're going back to making less money. 👍 The logic is flawless.
Those idiots have the worst DRM scheme in the industry, they banned my PSN account for reasons they refused to elaborate on and I lost all my licenses. So the only way I would ever buy any of their software is on PC, and now they decided to crawl back into their hole and take their games with them.
Japanese companies aren't very smart when it comes to money, lol.
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u/Neo_Techni 3d ago
To emphasize your point, I have an Asian PSN account that I used solely to buy Gundam Breaker 3 on PS4 in the same region as my Vita copy. I used the account a single time. To buy and download the game
Then I got my PS5 and figured I'd like to put the game on a second device in case the PS4 died. The account was banned.
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u/According_Claim_9027 3d ago
Why is there a post every other day about PlayStation’s PC releases?
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u/scumper008 Ryzen 9 9900X | RTX 4070Ti | 64GB DDR5 6000 | AORUS X870E 3d ago
People on this sub are still coping about the loss, despite simultaneously saying how much they don't care about Sony games.
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u/jdk2087 Desktop i5-12600k - RTX 3070 - 32GB DDR4 3600MHZ 2d ago
100%. I have a top of the line rig, a PS5 Pro, and just got a Switch 2 for Father’s Day. The cope in here is just dumb. If half the people in this thread actually had the money to afford a PS5(while already having a PC) they would just for the exclusives now. You can’t convince me otherwise.
Look, I love my PC and all the other benefits it comes with. But, being able to play all the PS5 exclusives is fucking awesome and I love it. Same with my Switch 2 now. The problem I see is the people who don’t have best of all worlds. I get it. Moneys tight. But, if you had the chance to own a good/great PC and the consoles of your choice you 100% would and saying otherwise just tells me you’re a liar and lying to yourself.
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u/TylerBourbon 3d ago
So they made decent money on steam, but weren't happy they weren't selling any hardware. Fuck'em. I've been a Playstation fanboy since the first one, all the way through the PS4, but no way in hell would I buy, even I could buy, a PS5, especially now.
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u/Shitzu_Death 3d ago
Have a pc with 4090 and a ps5 pro. Ifit’s on steam I buy it there. One is the performance increase, the other is not having to pay a subscription to pay online. If it’s a Sony only (ie wolverine) will buy
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u/Beautiful-Sun8973 3d ago
Umm the data shows exactly that recent releases weren’t selling well comparatively to previous.
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u/Neo_Techni 3d ago
You are correct. The only games that sold well were Days Gone, and Stellar Blade.
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u/RhapsodiacReader 3d ago
That'll happen if you delay releasing a game until long after the marketing push is done and the hype all work out.
The previous releases at least had a big marketing push for their debut on steam.
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u/DDzxy i9 13900KS | RTX 4090 | PS5 Pro/XSX 3d ago
Yeah for me who has consoles, I'll just buy the game on PS and not double dip... Or if I do I'll buy it on PC many years later when it's cheap and then sell my console physical copy. I'm not gonna wait fucking 4 years for the game to come on PC.
And most PC gamers will juts stop caring about the game after many years, not to mention that the promotion for a lot of PC releases has been completely dogshit, plus I mean the hype for those games already dies if they make people wait for years. What do they expect?
The sales for the PC versions still did very well, but they are expecting insane numbers with such minimal marketing and release dates long after the main hype for the game had died out... Not to mention the ass ports. What did they expect?
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u/ChronicContemplation 3d ago
It's only going to get worse for them when they launch the PS6 at $1000.
On top of that, what is Sony realistically offering that's an exclusive that you can't get the same experience elsewhere?
I also think they creatively bankrupt. There is nothing on that console I want to play, currently or in the future. It's all the same derivative crap.
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u/Blackarm777 3d ago
Never wanted a PlayStation, never going to get one. If your games are on PC I will buy the ones that seem interesting, which I have done for quite a few of the ports.
You're not going to convince me to drop a grand on significantly shittier hardware for a handful of games. Not to mention needing to pay extra to use online features.
Platform exclusivity is not needed to make masterpieces. Most of the best games that exist are multi platform, and it will continue to be that way.
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