More PlayStation games are headed to PC (God of War next, Jan 2022)

[Venocide]

A quote from the article:

 

Quote

What about PlayStation games on PC? A whole slate of them is on the way starting with Days Gone this spring.

 

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/playstation-vr-jim-ryan-interview-2021

Edited October 20, 2021 by Asuka Takemi

[ooeeiu]

i think it's fine even though i wish they stuck on PS.

 

everyone deserves to play the best of the PS exclusives and moving to PC is good imo, plus most of the exclusives moving to PC are older ones so better graphic and framerates for them is nice plus!

 

win-win situation for all gamers and devs!

[TJ_Solo]

Quote

A quote from the article

 

But not a quote from the person they interviewed.

News outlets are quite odd nowadays.

[DaivRules]

I found this pretty interesting:
 

Quote

Fair enough. So releasing PlayStation games on PC was something that Sony PlayStation held back on for a long time. Now it sounds like you’re very much on that bandwagon. What changed?

I think a few things changed. We find ourselves now in early 2021 with our development studios and the games that they make in better shape than they’ve ever been before. Particularly from the latter half of the PS4 cycle our studios made some wonderful, great games. There’s an opportunity to expose those great games to a wider audience and recognise the economics of game development, which are not always straightforward. The cost of making games goes up with each cycle, as the calibre of the IP has improved. Also, our ease of making it available to non-console owners has grown. So it’s a fairly straightforward decision for us to make.

 

This is following on from your publishing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC in August last year. How did that go?

We assessed the exercise in two ways. Firstly, in terms of the straightforward success of the activity of publishing the game on PC, people liked it and they bought it. We also looked at it through the lens of what the PlayStation community thought about it. There was no massive adverse reaction to it. So we will continue to take mission steps in this direction.

 

The code base is now incredibly close to PC hardware so for a small amount of work, they can really expand sales and make more titles available to more players. This is going to give a lot more people access to some pretty nice first party titles.

 

I also found this quote really interesting:
 

Quote

You may have read that we sold 4.5 million PS5s at the end of December – that’s more than we did PS4s in 2013 and that was the high watermark for the PlayStation generation. So, with everything in the world throughout last year, we feel like that was fairly decent. One in four of those who have bought a PlayStation 5 do not have a PS4 and those around about half are new to the PlayStation Network. So it’s really nice that we’re able to bring in people from outside.

 

If that trend continues, that'll be adding a LOT of new Playstation players as more PS5s are sold to gamers.

[Venocide]

4 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

But not a quote from the person they interviewed.

News outlets are quite odd nowadays.

 

It's been confirmed though that Days Gone will make it's way to PC this Spring,

 

 

It's inevitable that more PlayStation make their way to PC and I can't wait. 

[TJ_Solo]

1 minute ago, Venocide said:

 

It's been confirmed though that Days Gone will make it's way to PC this Spring,

 

 

It's inevitable that more PlayStation make their way to PC and I can't wait. 

 

If you say so.

I was merely commenting on the article itself and how the interview didn't supply the answers that you are calling attention to. 
Unless Georgie is another name for Jim Ryan then I am hella confused on why that information wasn't given by Ryan himself

[yowzagabowza]

I'm so tired of the line "more people get to play these great games". Since when did it become Sony's job to make sure everyone gets to play these games? Isn't the entire point of first party exclusives to get people to buy the damn system you play it on? 

I don't really care if they go to PC, the ecosystems are so different it doesnt really matter, but how bout just say "we'll make more money and it doesn't cost a lot to do"?

 

One thing that DOES affect PlayStation users, the people responsible for these games' success, is the porting and subsequent bug fixing absolutely does take away from the devs working on new games for us. 

[DaivRules]

11 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

Since when did it become Sony's job to make sure everyone gets to play these games? Isn't the entire point of first party exclusives to get people to buy the damn system you play it on? 

 

No. They're a business that sells hardware, software, and services. It's always been their job to make the most sales by selling the most hardware, software, and services. These games will be exclusives for months likely, if you need that street cred of being first. You can still play all these games on the "damn system you play it on", nothing is taken away from you.

 

11 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

One thing that DOES affect PlayStation users, the people responsible for these games' success, is the porting and subsequent bug fixing absolutely does take away from the devs working on new games for us. 

 

That's largely a fallacy. The teams that stick around for bug fixing on first party titles, the thing going to pc, aren't the same teams that pick up work on new IPs.

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by DaivRules

[ooeeiu]

7 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

One thing that DOES affect PlayStation users, the people responsible for these games' success, is the porting and subsequent bug fixing absolutely does take away from the devs working on new games for us. 

most game developers are big enough to add support for PC without it hindering their ability to develop newer games. they usually have different teams working on different stuff.

 

take multi platform games for instance.

[marekUltimate]

I don't see anything wrong with the release of some* games on the PC in 3 years after the release on the console. On the PC, you can well collect money on the "exhausted" game from the console, which is distributed for free on the plus side, and on the PC you can still collect a couple of million dollars.

Edited February 23, 2021 by marekUltimate

[TJ_Solo]

41 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

I'm so tired of the line "more people get to play these great games". Since when did it become Sony's job to make sure everyone gets to play these games? Isn't the entire point of first party exclusives to get people to buy the damn system you play it on? 

I don't really care if they go to PC, the ecosystems are so different it doesnt really matter, but how bout just say "we'll make more money and it doesn't cost a lot to do"?

 

One thing that DOES affect PlayStation users, the people responsible for these games' success, is the porting and subsequent bug fixing absolutely does take away from the devs working on new games for us. 

 

 

It is a strange way to run a storefront that hinges on services and sales.
They are losing a lot of games and if things keep proceeding this way then I can see myself leaving them just as I left Xbox after the 360.

I don't care about "more people getting  to play" anything. If a company doesn't have the unique products that attracted me then I move on to better ecosystems.
Sony maximizing profits and business speak doesn't really play a part in why I play video games.

Edited February 23, 2021 by TJ_Solo

[Baka_Marimo]

I'd be happy already if they brought Playstation games to Playstation, namely Persona 4 Golden. Atlus' reasoning behind releasing an enhanced version on Steam but not on PS4 was (and still is) a mystery to me. P4G is widely regarded the best Vita game of all time and withholding a modernized version from the very lineage of consoles that gave birth to the series seems bizarre to me.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Baka_Marimo

[DrBloodmoney]

39 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

One thing that DOES affect PlayStation users, the people responsible for these games' success, is the porting and subsequent bug fixing absolutely does take away from the devs working on new games for us. 

 

I don't think that's true. 

 

Devs are a business, and the more money coming in then the more money they can output via salaries and CapEx spending.

 

I'd suspect that - given that the base architecture of a PS4 / PS5 is similar enough to a PC - the dev work to port to PC, and the minimal OpEx expenditure that requires, is vastly outweighed by the sales on a PC platform. 

Remember - that is almost pure profit in a sense, as there is virtually no required marketing spend associated with PC ports, as the marketing has already been done via the release as a Playstation exclusive.

Releasing on PC after-the-fact is solely a gain - money for the Dev, as well as goodwill from a new community of players.

 

That resultant net gain can be funnelled, at least in part, into CapEx spending - i.e. new games.

 

Sure, some would then go towards safeguarding the companies future (which, lets face it, if that isn't your No.1 priority, it really doesn't matter what your No.2, No.3 & No.4 are!) but a portion will certainly go towards employing more personnel to complete said dev work, and to do exactly what you are afraid of them not doing - making more games that will appear on Playstation!

 

I for one am not really in favour of console exclusivity - I guess it seems good if it's on 'your side' but really, whether a game is PS exclusive or available on all platforms does not affect me positively in any way. 

On the flip side though, when a game I want to play is Xbox or PC exclusive, that doesn't make me consider getting the other console - it only irks me.

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Quink666]

I think this is great. Best thing would be if console exclusives didn’t exist at all. Hopefully we can get some of those juicy PC games to PS soon. 

[ShadeSplit]

1 hour ago, yowzagabowza said:

I'm so tired of the line "more people get to play these great games". Since when did it become Sony's job to make sure everyone gets to play these games? Isn't the entire point of first party exclusives to get people to buy the damn system you play it on? 

I don't really care if they go to PC, the ecosystems are so different it doesnt really matter, but how bout just say "we'll make more money and it doesn't cost a lot to do"?

 

That line always makes me laugh, especially since I almost never see it used when talking about PC or Nintendo exclusive games. The reality is that you already have the ability to play any game you want, because you aren't limited to the first system you buy. If you could afford a decent PC, there's no reason why you couldn't save up for another system. I don't go around talking about how Nintendo will not allow me to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. These people simply refuse to use any other hardware, and Sony knows this. And since PlayStation architecture has become so similar to PC architecture, it probably costs barely anything to port the games. And that is why it's a "straightforward decision" for them.

[ChiefMichigan]

It's inevitable. But I don't think we're going to be in an Xbox situation any time soon. I think Sony is going to keep Uncharted, God of War and some other IPs to consoles for the foreseeable future, but only time will tell.

[Sikutai]

7 hours ago, Quink666 said:

I think this is great. Best thing would be if console exclusives didn’t exist at all. Hopefully we can get some of those juicy PC games to PS soon. 

 

I think this will remain a one-way street and i am of the opinion that this decision by sony is wrong.

[scemopagliaccioh]

I care about pc users playing ps games as much as they care about me paying ps plus to pay online.

Sony needs to step up the treatment of their primary customers, I don't want to buy GT Sport, or whatever comes next  thinking that a pc user will have a better treatment and game than me, even though I bought their fucking console.

[Dangisuckatgamin]

I don't really care either way who has access to the games myself. I think it's great and gives developers more profits coming in. 

Good for everyone around I say...

7 hours ago, ShadeSplit said:

 

That line always makes me laugh, especially since I almost never see it used when talking about PC or Nintendo exclusive games. The reality is that you already have the ability to play any game you want, because you aren't limited to the first system you buy. If you could afford a decent PC, there's no reason why you couldn't save up for another system. I don't go around talking about how Nintendo will not allow me to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. These people simply refuse to use any other hardware, and Sony knows this. And since PlayStation architecture has become so similar to PC architecture, it probably costs barely anything to port the games. And that is why it's a "straightforward decision" for them.

This folks. This.

[Darling Baphomet]

14 hours ago, ShadeSplit said:

That line always makes me laugh, especially since I almost never see it used when talking about PC or Nintendo exclusive games.

 

A valid point in case of Nintendo, which tends to be a very strict company, but PC isn't exactly a closed platform the way consoles are - developers simply choose not to port their games, for whatever reason or another.

[ziggypossum]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259420/Days_Gone/

[Trini]

17 hours ago, Baka_Marimo said:

I'd be happy already if they brought Playstation games to Playstation, namely Persona 4 Golden. Atlus' reasoning behind releasing an enhanced version on Steam but not on PS4 was (and still is) a mystery to me. P4G is widely regarded the best Vita game of all time and withholding a modernized version from the very lineage of consoles that gave birth to the series seems bizarre to me.

 

I'm still wondering myself why they haven't pulled the trigger yet, and why PC first for that matter. 

[ShadeSplit]

6 hours ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

A valid point in case of Nintendo, which tends to be a very strict company, but PC isn't exactly a closed platform the way consoles are - developers simply choose not to port their games, for whatever reason or another.

 

It's usually down to costs or knowledge of the porting process, so I wouldn't blame them. But my point was more about the attitude of the fans. In this case, they tend not to even tell you to "just buy a PC" (as I've seen quite a few times concerning the Switch). Rather, they will assume you have one, and tell you to play the game there.

[JediKnight_327]

I think they're trying to get PC players interested in these games so when the next one comes out they're enticed to buy a playstation instead of waiting 3 years to play the game on PC.

 

Most people who wanted to play it already has on playstation so they wont be cannibalising sales, especially if its priced at £40 on Steam like Horizon Zero Dawn.

[Rozalia1]

Days Gone is one of those games which makes me think "That is an exclusive?" so it coming to PC is unsurprising to me.

 

Sony should be careful with this as while there are benefits, especially for some older titles, doing it too much and too quickly can ultimately hurt their business on their own platform. One of the big reasons Microsoft never got me investing into their console was because of just this problem which has since then went 100% as before they did have a small slate of exclusives, they just weren't stuff I liked, but now everything they do is on PC too. Personally I expect Sony will maintain a middle ground as they have between Microsoft and Nintendo, we just have to remember that with Microsoft shifting things so much further away in recent years, the middle ground is now in a different place.

 

I wonder about game quality too. It's well known that 1st party titles usually get a lot of juice out the system as it is built specifically for it. If they switched to a "lets release this on PC and Playstation" way of things it could result in a lesser quality experience overall. Perhaps someone can correct me on that, but when you see cases like Cyberpunk 2077 it does make you think.