Sony’s controversial PlayStation Network requirement for its PC games is once again in the spotlight after the company delisted the original Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam and the Epic Games Store and added the PSN requirement to the upcoming single-player remaster.
They're competing with PC now and simultaneously trying to turn this into a vector to convert people to PS5. It won't work, but the fact that there are PC versions at all show how they can't just do what they want with impunity.
It'll be interesting to see what Sony will do considering they're not going to pull PC players to PS and PC ports open to door to piracy which is definitely going to increase with the PSN shit. I doubt the PSN data is so valuable they're just going to let people pirate their games. Either they're going to pull out the PC market to prevent piracy or they're going to get rid of the PSN for PC. The latter makes too much sense so it's probably going to be the former.
Sony has sold double the consoles this generation (60 vs 30 million I think). And the Series S is very unpopular with devs, increasing the complexity of developing games for Xbox to get just half the PS market.
Game Pass is popular, but it’s just one stream of revenue, and a lot people are only using it on PC. Sony is selling consoles, 70 EUR games, and in addition their own subscriptions.
I understand MS’s strategy, and maybe this was the best they could have done for this gen, but Sony and Nintendo is dominating console gaming, with MS lagging far behind.
Don't forget how much money MS is spending on these game company acquisitions just to close other studios they already have that released great games instead of funding them to make even more great games. I feel as though game pass really relies on getting more customers to sign up for its success and eventually there will not be enough to sustain itself and that is why we are already seeing price increases and changing of the tiers
Nintendo just doing what they've always done is ironically what gamers have been calling for all this time.
Just make fun games with no silly BS.
Say what you will about Nintendo's litigation strategy (its to protect the value of their IP in their mind), but they're kind of crushing it even compared to Sony.
I don't think Sony is making much more money than Microsoft is, though. They may have sold twice the consoles, but the generation is brutal in terms of actual profits.
"The slide reveals that between when the PS5 launched in late 2020 and now, it's generated $106 billion in sales, and a total operating profit of $10 billion, making it the most successful PlayStation console ever."
Sony has sold double the consoles this generation (60 vs 30 million I think).
Sold consoles isn't that great of a cathegory to judge the two, since both lose money on every sold unit.
And the Series S is very unpopular with devs, increasing the complexity of developing games for Xbox to get just half the PS market.
Get ready for the same thing to happen on the vanilla PS5. Devs will target the PS5 pro for trailer footage and the games will run like shit on the old PS5.
Game Pass is popular, but it’s just one stream of revenue, and a lot people are only using it on PC
It's very cheap to offer and if they don't need to sell xboxes to have a wider customer base, that's a bonus - not a drawback.
but Sony and Nintendo is dominating console gaming, with MS lagging far behind
We'll see how far they'll be lagging behind once they leverage their Call of duty monopoly.
Even if they sell at a loss, the number of consoles mean the potential number of buyers for games. More consoles sold means they can sell more games and other profit generating products/services.
Sony is barely selling any PS5 Pros as there is a low interest at this high price, which is unlikely to change in the future. The current console is not even fully utilized, lot of recent games are still PS4 cross-gen. 0 chance of the base PS5 being left behind
MS will not make COD an exclusive, as they will not give up on the chance to sell a 70 USD/EUR game to 60 million PS5 users, which is double the size of their own market
You said yourself that a lot of gamepass subscriptions were on PC. You know how many people own PCs?
That's what happened with the Xbox one X and the PS4 pro. Game devs want to make their games look best for trailers, so the graphics will be focused on instead of optimizing for the lower tiered consoles. It'l be like "if you want stable 60fps, you'll need the PS5 pro".
Starfield already didn't come to the PS5. There even was a version for the PS5 in development.
Vanilla ps5 will be left behind? Really? The Vanilla ps4 was never left behind.
Further, it seems you lack an understanding of how systems even utilize things like this. If you were a computer gamer you'd easily know. It's not really any extra programming. It's just resolution, frame rate, and other shader setting and stuff simply being adjusted. Literally easy as hell. Just think about how a 2024 game can run on an old 1060 video card just fine, but the same game look nicer and also run just fine on a 5+ year newer 4080 gpu. Even if Sony immediately stopped selling regular ps5's and we go three more years into the future, it makes absolutely no financial sense to make a game that only ran ok on the pro version. It's too easy to have it run on the Vanilla version as well. "I'll turn off advanced lighting and high detail shaders". All done. That was a hard 10 minutes of work.
Since the Pro was released, no 1st party PS4 title ran at 60fps.
Further, it seems you lack an understanding of how systems even utilize things like this. If you were a computer gamer you'd easily know.
Bwahahahaha! Wait, you're serious? Let me laugh even harder! 🤣🤣🤣 I've built my first own PC about 20 years ago and played PC about 10 years l.nger.
It's not really any extra programming. It's just resolution, frame rate, and other shader setting and stuff simply being adjusted
Ok, you clearly don't have any idea about game development. Different hardware on PC is an incredible bitch to develop for. That's where console development is way easier: you develop for one hardware configuration and can therefore optimize more effectively. That's why console games can look significantly better than PC games on equivalent hardware.
Making games run at 60fps is low priority compared to shooting a trailer with impressive graphics, which is which performance optimization has a relatively low priority on lower-end hardware.
It's not as easy as the customizable graphics settings for PC games.
Tons of games weren't 60fps before the ps4 pro was ever released. That isn't leaving the ps4 behind.
Also. Woooow. You made your first pc 20 years ago. I'm like super impressed. Except I'm old. Older than you apparently. Or at least I started much earlier. Come back when your first pc had to have dip switches all over the motherboard and 4MB of ram was a whole lot. I was playing computer games in the 80's, noon.
But so what, really? That's a dumbass "flex" to try and make. "I've used a computer longer than you, so that means I know more". Like, seriously? That's what your little mind tries to go to? You're an idiot.
But so what, really? That's a dumbass "flex" to try and make. "I've used a computer longer than you, so that means I know more". Like, seriously? That's what your little mind tries to go to? You're an idiot.
I wasn't trying to flex. Iwanted to correct your unfounded claim that I obviously wasn't a computer gamer.
Except I'm old. Older than you apparently. Or at least I started much earlier. Come back when your first pc had to have dip switches all over the motherboard and 4MB of ram was a whole lot. I was playing computer games in the 80's, noon.
That in turn is a bit in the realm of pot calling the kettle black.
Tons of games weren't 60fps before the ps4 pro was ever released. That isn't leaving the ps4 behind.
My point was that console exclusive games are optimized mainly for the highest-end console for which they are developed. I don't know how to explain it much simpler.