Sony Thinking of Bringing First Party Titles To Pc

[Novalee]

Sony has said in a 2020 corporate report that it plans to bring more first-party games to the PC in the future.

"We will explore expanding our 1st party titles to the PC platform," says the report, "in order to promote further growth in our profitability." The decision to bring more of the Sony in-house catalog to the PC is cited as a key strategic point to the coming direction of its Game & Network services division.

https://www.pcgamer.com/sonys-new-strategy-brings-more-of-its-titles-to-pc/

I hope this does come to fruition.

 

[Terronium-12]

If the utterly terrible release state of Horizon Zero Dawn is in any indication: Please don't.

I love HZD and of course I bought it again when it released on PC earlier this month, and it runs like absolute 🤬.

 

[NLxAROSA]

If the utterly terrible release state of Horizon Zero Dawn is in any indication: Please don't.

Funnily enough Death Stranding, which als runs on the Decima engine, runs beautifully. That said: I had very little problems with HZD, even on my old i7/GTX970 at 1440p. So I say to Sony: bring 'em on.

Needless to add perhaps: since the report was written after those releases it's pretty obvious they made a lot of revenue from them and want to expand on that. Good for us gamers on all platforms!

 

[AudiMan2011]

Sony should bring GT over to PC, with crossplay support. If they do then I won't have to buy a console ever again.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Sony should bring GT over to PC, with crossplay support. If they do then I won't have to buy a console ever again.

Would 100% buy a GT game on PC.

It's interesting though: if Sony decides to go ahead with this (MS is already there) it makes the PC the go-to platform if you want it all.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Sony has said in a 2020 corporate report that it plans to bring more first-party games to the PC in the future.

"We will explore expanding our 1st party titles to the PC platform," says the report, "in order to promote further growth in our profitability." The decision to bring more of the Sony in-house catalog to the PC is cited as a key strategic point to the coming direction of its Game & Network services division.

https://www.pcgamer.com/sonys-new-strategy-brings-more-of-its-titles-to-pc/

I hope this does come to fruition.

This means the death of PlayStation then. It will mean that just as there is no reason to buy an Xbox there won't be a reason to buy a PlayStation either. You only need a PC. Idiotic idea.

 

[inCloud]

This means the death of PlayStation then. It will mean that just as there is no reason to buy an Xbox there won't be a reason to buy a PlayStation either. You only need a PC. Idiotic idea.

In perfect world where gaming PC cost isn't 1000$+. Its like saying that Volkswagen should not exist because there's Mercedes Benz.

 

[Tired Tyres]

In perfect world where gaming PC cost isn't 1000$+. Its like saying that Volkswagen should not exist because there's Mercedes Benz.

Except that you can game on a reasonably priced PC whether you like to believe it or not. You do have to compromise on certain things yes but it's still doable.

Nice move the goalposts response though.

 

[inCloud]

Except that you can can game on a reasonably priced pay say whether you like to believe it or not. You don't have to compromise on certain things yes but it's still doable.

You can't get console price/performance ratio with PC. Its possible to build PC for 500$, but it cant compete with consoles in 3-4 years period.

 

[Tired Tyres]

You can't get console price/performance ratio with PC. Its possible to build PC for 500$, but it cant compete with consoles in 3-4 years period.

There were YouTube videos at the time of the PS4/Xbox one launch to see if you could build a gaming PC for the same money. They did.

 

[GTxForza]

Funnily enough Death Stranding, which also runs on the Decima engine, runs beautifully. That said: I had very little problems with HZD, even on my old i7/GTX970 at 1440p. So I say to Sony: bring 'em on.

Needless to add perhaps: since the report was written after those releases it's pretty obvious they made a lot of revenue from them and want to expand on that. Good for us gamers on all platforms!

To me, Death Stranding's ownership seems to belong to Kojima, not Sony.

Well as I know PS4 version is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment while the PC version is published by 505 Games (Publisher of Assetto Corsa console versions).

 

[inCloud]

They did

First of all, PS4/XboxOne spec was crap even in 2013. PS5/XSX specs will be way better in comparison with 2020 PC hardware.
Second, XboxOne-like PC for 400$ in 2013 was comparable, but in 2017 it struggle and in 2020 it cant maintain stable FPS in half of the games that runs ok on XboxOne.

 

[maximax]

Firstly I was excited, then I thought of several factors that would not make it good for the market, the developers and the consumers.

I am very excited about what 3D Audio with hundreds of sources + HRTF implementations might offer. Also the dual sense controller seems very interesting when I am away from my wheel setup. If 100+ millions people have the very same hardware it will let devs to optimise their code and ideas.

Prices, innovations, optimisations... if consoles disappear, I hope all will not degenerate into a unhealthy monopoly. Imagine a world where you have to pay 1500+$ for a single graphics card that offers PS5 Pro visuals.

 

[NLxAROSA]

To me, Death Stranding's ownership seems to belong to Kojima, not Sony.

Well as I know PS4 version is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment while the PC version is published by 505 Games (Publisher of Assetto Corsa console versions).

All true that. I do think it's safe to say that the PC version happened with Sony's approval as they were the original publisher. And I think the PC version of Death Stranding was received a lot better on PC than on PS4.

I thought Sony did this to warm up PC players for the upcoming PS5 and it's exclusive titles, but seems they might have different plans. I do think they'll maintain staggered launch dates: launch on PS5 first, then a GOTY/all DLC version a year or two later. For obvious reasons.

 

[GTxForza]

All true that. I do think it's safe to say that the PC version happened with Sony's approval as they were the original publisher. And I think the PC version of Death Stranding was received a lot better on PC than on PS4.

I thought Sony did this to warm up PC players for the upcoming PS5 and it's exclusive titles, but seems they might have different plans. I do think they'll maintain staggered launch dates: launch on PS5 first, then a GOTY/all DLC version a year or two later. For obvious reasons.

I also thought of Horizon Zero Dawn PC version is kind of like a PS5 remastered title in my opinion.

Similar that back in the '90s, some of Psygnosis' games like Wipeout, Destruction Derby, etc. They were shared between PS1 and PC.

 

[GTxForza]

Okay, here is my another guess.

Probably will be some selected games by Sony's decision.

 

[Dave A]

This means the death of PlayStation then. It will mean that just as there is no reason to buy an Xbox there won't be a reason to buy a PlayStation either. You only need a PC. Idiotic idea.

I think consoles will still have thier place becuase if you buy a PlayStation or X-Box you can just plug in and play any game that is released on that console. You don't get that carte blanche with a PC so it appeals to a different crowd. Certainly Sony might sell less consoles, but I don't see consoles dissapearing if this does happen.

It would certainly mean I wouldn't need a console (I have already forgone buying the XB1 beucase hte games I want are availalbe on Windows 10) but I have an expensive Windows machine.

 

[warp9engage]

This means the death of PlayStation then. It will mean that just as there is no reason to buy an Xbox there won't be a reason to buy a PlayStation either. You only need a PC. Idiotic idea.

Nonsense. Consoles will always have the ease of setup and maintenance on their side. Plus no worries with upgrades. So many people love the idea of just buying and playing a game, without having to worry if they have enough memory, or if their graphics card has the power to play how they want. They love the idea of 'It says PS4, it works on any PS4'.

Also, a PC will never beat the power-per-dollar ability of a console. It's a lie that they can. Every single PC build I see always has to cut costs somewhere to stay in budget. Either they will choose a slightly less powerful GPU, less powerful CPU, not as fast memory, less and slower storage, there is always a compromise. You want to game properly on PC? Spend at least 1K, from experience. As inferior as a console's hardware may look, the fact that those systems are dedicated to gaming, rather than being a multi-purpose platform, and are identical across all units, can go quite a long way in getting a game to run better than one could expect.

If consoles need exclusives to survive, then they are failures as pieces of hardware since people are not buying them because they believe they are the better platform, but because they have no other choice, in order to have their favorite software. In other words, if consoles need exclusives, they're not selling on their own merit.

 

[Joey D]

You want to game properly on PC? Spend at least 1K, from experience.

I've never spent that much on a gaming PC and it plays games just fine with reasonably high performance. You can easily build a decent gaming PC for $600 if you do your research, don't overbuy on things, and skip all the RGB crap. You can really spend as much or as little as you want on a gaming PC. Yes, it might not play games at 1080p with 60fps+, but you can still play games that look pretty good.

The issue many people run into with PC gaming is that they don't update their drivers. Yes, a game is going to look like garbage and run poorly if your GPU drivers were last updated nine months ago. Case in point, MS Flight Sim looked terrible when I first installed it. A day later Nvidia released drivers for it and it drastically improved the quality of the game.

===

Honestly, it would be a smart move for Sony to bring its first-party games to the PC. Consoles don't exactly make money for a company, at least not until years after its initial release. Games do make money though. By expanding the customer base, Sony will sell more games and thus end up with more profits. I'm iffy on buying a PS5 and will probably end up passing on it, meaning I wouldn't buy any games. However, if Sony releases say GT7 and MLB: The Show on PC, I'd buy both without question (and probably others as well).

 

[Silver Arrows]

Prices, innovations, optimisations... if consoles disappear, I hope all will not degenerate into a unhealthy monopoly. Imagine a world where you have to pay 1500+$ for a single graphics card that offers PS5 Pro visuals.

Consoles won't disappear, I don't know why people have this Chicken Little belief that they will. People want ease of use and a relatively closed off ecosystem for games. That won't disappear if some Sony exclusives make the jump to PC.

However, if Sony releases say GT7 and MLB: The Show on PC, I'd buy both without question (and probably others as well).

This is already happening. I imagine MLB was getting tired of having their own series in RBI Baseball getting smashed both critically and in terms of sales by a console exclusive title, so they decided to open up the doors to having everyone play The Show considering the goal is to have The Show on all major platforms by 2022 (Or even earlier)

My interest will be to see how The Show manages to scale up to something incredibly high horsepower, in terms of PC, and to something that is essentially phone architecture in the Switch. Because if a theoretical Switch version of The Show manages to at least offer what the home console / theoretical PC port does, and deliver pretty good performance for the money and for the system powering it...then you have what will be, without question, the best sport series year in and year out an instant winner on the Switch.

 

[warp9engage]

I've never spent that much on a gaming PC and it plays games just fine with reasonably high performance. You can easily build a decent gaming PC for $600 if you do your research, don't overbuy on things, and skip all the RGB crap. You can really spend as much or as little as you want on a gaming PC. Yes, it might not play games at 1080p with 60fps+, but you can still play games that look pretty good

But, let's say, you're not that tech-savvy and you don't really know where to get the best deals on PC parts. You can easily overspend even if you're not trying too. Also, if you're going through the hassle of doing all that research on parts and prices, you're probably either completely committed to PC (and on a budget) or you won't settle for 'decent' or 'reasonably high'. For the average Joe, 'decent' or 'reasonably high' is just getting an affordable console and calling it a day.

The issue many people run into with PC gaming is that they don't update their drivers. Yes, a game is going to look like garbage and run poorly if your GPU drivers were last updated nine months ago. Case in point, MS Flight Sim looked terrible when I first installed it. A day later Nvidia released drivers for it and it drastically improved the quality of the game.

And again we have the crucial importance of the simplified experience, where consoles are king. People play on consoles because they like that everything technical is being done for them, in the background, while they play. For us, who are already versed on PC gaming, something like updating your driver is trivial, but believe me that can be too much for someone on console, as ridiculous as it sounds, especially when we're talking about young kids or parents helping their young kids.

Honestly, it would be a smart move for Sony to bring its first-party games to the PC. Consoles don't exactly make money for a company, at least not until years after its initial release. Games do make money though. By expanding the customer base, Sony will sell more games and thus end up with more profits. I'm iffy on buying a PS5 and will probably end up passing on it, meaning I wouldn't buy any games. However, if Sony releases say GT7 and MLB: The Show on PC, I'd buy both without question (and probably others as well).

Agreed. It all depends on how much they can gain, in sheer game sales, compared to needing to buy a console to access a single game. A lot of people will just skip out on a title if it means spending premium on a piece of hardware, just for that game, therefore won't buy either the system or the game. But if the game is available on their platform of choice, they'll jump in right away.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Nonsense. Consoles will always have the ease of setup and maintenance on their side. Plus no worries with upgrades. So many people love the idea of just buying and playing a game, without having to worry if they have enough memory, or if their graphics card has the power to play how they want. They love the idea of 'It says PS4, it works on any PS4'.

Also, a PC will never beat the power-per-dollar ability of a console. It's a lie that they can. Every single PC build I see always has to cut costs somewhere to stay in budget. Either they will choose a slightly less powerful GPU, less powerful CPU, not as fast memory, less and slower storage, there is always a compromise. You want to game properly on PC? Spend at least 1K, from experience. As inferior as a console's hardware may look, the fact that those systems are dedicated to gaming, rather than being a multi-purpose platform, and are identical across all units, can go quite a long way in getting a game to run better than one could expect.

If consoles need exclusives to survive, then they are failures as pieces of hardware since people are not buying them because they believe they are the better platform, but because they have no other choice, in order to have their favorite software. In other words, if consoles need exclusives, they're not selling on their own merit.

You say so much rubbish you clearly were not there when PS4/Xbox1 were released. It was EASY to build a PC that was as good for the same money. They were nothing more than low tech, low risk machines. This time they should be much better and closer to PC tech base but still based on laptop based tech.

Consoles are DEFINED by their exclusives. Without them there is no reason to buy one at all.

Sony knows this. It is why they put so much emphasis on them.

Nintendo knows this. It's why they still exist and exceeded the sales of the Xbox 1 ages ago.

Guess which console doesn't have many exclusive reasons to buy one.

 

[Veinz]

Would be nice if GT was available on PC. That’s one less reason for me to buy a PS5. But on the other hand, if I had a PC that was good enough to play any driving game, then I doubt it would be Gran Turismo.

 

[tunaphis]

In Australia any pc build (new parts) will run you more than a console,Building a pc to compete with a new gen console using the TFlop standard would be a round $3-4k. A Corsair One offering similar graphical power is $6k here.
Why Sony is offering these games with a new system coming is beyond me.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Consoles won't disappear, I don't know why people have this Chicken Little belief that they will. People want ease of use and a relatively closed off ecosystem for games. That won't disappear if some Sony exclusives make the jump to PC.

Microsoft has been releasing games for XB and Windows for quite some time now and it didn't hurt their XB sales AFAIK. For me personally: I would have never bought FH3, FH4 and FM7 if they were platform exclusives as I don't own an XB but do own a PC. Same for Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding. Money in the bank for the respective publishers/developers that they wouldn't have gotten from me if those games weren't available on PC. Doesn't mean you can get rid of the consoles though. My son plays exclusively on his PS4 despite having the same games on PC (Fortnite, Apex, GTA5 etc.).

It's obvious why Sony is coming around; they wouldn't be considering it if they didn't think it would be a net positive.

On the PC/consoles costs debate: yes, price is higher for a decent rig, but games are also cheaper, and no subscription required for online play. Depending on how many games you buy/play over a number of years PC gaming can be more expensive/the same/cheaper than console gaming.

 

[warp9engage]

You say so much rubbish you clearly were not there when PS4/Xbox1 were released. It was EASY to build a PC that was as good for the same money. They were nothing more than low tech, low risk machines. This time they should be much better and closer to PC tech base but still based on laptop based tech.

I was there and I stand by what I say. I know because I owned all those systems and a gaming PC at the same time. You cannot build a PC with the same gaming performance output, as the console, for its price, especially at or close to the console's release. You can build a 'decent' gaming rig (1080p 60fps) but not a perfect match (you will have to tone down settings). Only, maybe, a couple of years down the line will you be able to match specs on price. It may have been 'easier' with the XB1 and PS4 generation, but this is certainly not going to be the case with these new consoles. They're beasts.

Consoles are DEFINED by their exclusives. Without them there is no reason to buy one at all.

Then they suck. They are incapable of selling on their own merit. Exclusives are a way to coerce consumers into buying technically inferior hardware and services to access something else that they like. If there were no exclusives, not only would you have to prove to the consumer that your games are the best, but that your platform is the best place to play them on. The ultimate test of whether you made a good system or not, is when you have a multi-platform game, you can play anywhere, and people still choose your system. That's when you know you've built a winner.

Nintendo is an example of the above. They have, by far, the inferior system, hardware-wise, so the exclusives cheat is the only way to ship systems.

 

[Tired Tyres]

I was there and I stand by what I say. I know because I owned all those systems and a gaming PC at the same time. You cannot build a PC with the same gaming performance output, as the console, for its price, especially at or close to the console's release. You can build a 'decent' gaming rig (1080p 60fps) but not a perfect match (you will have to tone down settings). Only, maybe, a couple of years down the line will you be able to match specs on price. It may have been 'easier' with the XB1 and PS4 generation, but this is certainly not going to be the case with these new consoles. They're beasts.



Then they suck. They are incapable of selling on their own merit. Exclusives are a way to coerce consumers into buying technically inferior hardware and services to access something else that they like. If there were no exclusives, not only would you have to prove to the consumer that your games are the best, but that your platform is the best place to play them on. The ultimate test of whether you made a good system or not, is when you have a multi-platform game, you can play anywhere, and people still choose your system. That's when you know you've built a winner.

Nintendo is an example of the above. They have, by far, the inferior system, hardware-wise, so the exclusives cheat is the only way to ship systems.

In other words because Nintendo directly contradict what you're saying, then it must be them that are wrong and not you. Nice try. Wrong.

Exclusives are the reason to buy a system. If there aren't any then you buy the system that makes the most economic sense to you. In my case PC. What's right for you is down to you.

 

[warp9engage]

In other words because Nintendo directly contradict what you're saying, then it must be them that are wrong and not you. Nice try. Wrong.

Not wrong, right. Nintendo has no choice but to make exclusives because they don't want to (or can't) make a comparable console with the rest of the market. No one is going to buy multi-platform games on the Switch, if given the choice, because the other versions are just better, so they can't sell systems on hardware alone, thus needing exclusives. Nintendo is the outlier, the same is not true for Microsoft and Sony.

Exclusives are the reason to buy a system. If there aren't any then you buy the system that makes the most economic sense to you. In my case PC. What's right for you is down to you.

Price is not the only reason you buy a system, especially if they all cost around the same. You buy because of specs/performance, because of ease of use, because of quality of service etc. Plenty of reasons to buy a system beyond simply 'economic sense'. If you need exclusives to sell a system, you're probably trying to compensate for something that system lacks compared to the competition, and the people buying your system are not buying it because it's a quality system, but because they have no choice on the matter to experience what they truly want.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Not wrong, right. Nintendo has no choice but to make exclusives because they don't want to (or can't) make a comparable console with the rest of the market. No one is going to buy multi-platform games on the Switch, if given the choice, because the other versions are just better, so they can't sell systems on hardware alone, thus needing exclusives. Nintendo is the outlier, the same is not true for Microsoft and Sony.



Price is not the only reason you buy a system, especially if they all cost around the same. You buy because of specs/performance, because of ease of use, because of quality of service etc. Plenty of reasons to buy a system beyond simply 'economic sense'. If you need exclusives to sell a system, you're probably trying to compensate for something that system lacks compared to the competition, and the people buying your system are not buying it because it's a quality system, but because they have no choice on the matter to experience what they truly want.

Nope. I need a PlayStation to play Gran Turismo. Therefore I buy PlayStation. I don't need an Xbox to play Forza so I don't buy one. I have got a Switch. Guess why? That's right, system exclusives. Buying a games playing machine for any other reason does not strike me as being rational.

 

[warp9engage]

Nope. I need a PlayStation to play Gran Turismo. Therefore I buy PlayStation. I don't need an Xbox to play Forza so I don't buy one. I have got a Switch. Guess why? That's right, system exclusives. Buying a games playing machine for any other reason does not strike me as being rational.

I mean, if you're fine with paying 400-600$ just to play one or two games because some corporation decided to limit them to one specific system for extra profit, more power to you. Personally, that's just an anti-consumer and anti-competition practice.