It will do no such thing.
It already has been successful for them for many years, starting with horizon zero dawn and god of war many years ago and that brought them console buys before later porting the sequels to pc for the same purpose.
This isn’t some new strategy for them, just a continuation of something that has already been successful.
Here’s an example from 2022: https://www.reddit.com/r/horizon/comments/rfrwgq/anyone_else_buying_a_ps5_solely_for_forbidden_west/?rdt=64106
These types of posts are common with the spiderman, god of war, horizon series to name a few.
If we are going with anecdotal evidence of a reddit comment as evidence. Then I’ll throw in mine of I went from owning Playstations for exclusives to skipping it this gen, since I don’t feel like dropping that much money to play earlier.
To be fair, the comment they replied to stated the exact opposite with no source for their claims either.
In a vacuum, it might work. Unfortunately for them, there are decades of quality games that are completely outside of Sony’s grasp. We can wait, lol. I am still waiting for last of us to go on a steep sale. I can wait :)
[email protected] [email protected]
For those who like reminders
Sony are severely underestimating how many years I’m already behind on big “tentpole releases” (missus).
Has timed exclusivity of any game made someone buy a console? It always felt like a ridiculous notion to me.
Maybe it’s because I never buy games at launch
What it actually does in my case is make me forget about the game before it comes to PC, and just not buy or play it. I might be excited about a game now while the hype is fresh but in 6 months, I’ll be excited about other stuff. If anything, I’ll buy it when it’s 75% off on some Steam sale.
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I was saving up to buy PS5 for a long time too. But, when I couldn’t buy one, I just bought PS4 for half price and then, since Sony releases it’s games on PC anyway, I am not going to buy PS5. I have no need for that.
Those scalpers weren’t buying from Sony.
You walked away from ps5s forever because a multinational corporation didn’t cater to you personally?
You make it sound like Sony couldn’t do anything about it, that it’s just a normal thing we should expect now.
Funny that Valve managed to release the steamdeck without this problem.
Sony just didn’t care
The PS5 came out at the start of a chip shortage. The Steamdeck came out as the shortage was resolving. That’s hardly an accurate comparison.
The shortage only started to lessen in 2023, while the steamdeck released in 2022.
Also Valve delayed the release of the steamdeck due to the shortages.
Yeah, so Valve had 3 years to prepare while Sony basically launched at the same time as the shortage began. I’m not sure what the point is supposed to be; I think even the harshest Sony critics agree that there’s not a whole lot Sony could’ve done differently given the circumstances. I mean, what do you think Sony could’ve done differently?
Waiting list system the same Valve did? Registrations with 1 unit per person? Idk literally anything other than ignoring the problem?
Sony literally did those things. I can’t believe you’re making me stick up for Sony of all people lmao
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Sony absolutely did sell consoles directly to consumers. That’s how I got mine lol.
Sony has absolutely no interest in enabling scalpers. They gain nothing, and in fact lose out on revenue because of it themselves. The PS5 initially sold at a loss, with the assumption that buying games, accessories, and subscriptions will turn the whole ecosystem profitable for Sony. Scalpers arent buying subscriptions. They probably aren’t buying games because the digital market makes the supply close to infinite. They probably aren’t buying accessories because the supply was similarly not restricted. So the only thing scalpers are doing is giving Sony a loss, delay the consumer’s ability to buy anything that’s profitable from Sony, then taking more cash out of the hands of consumers that, arguably, might have been used to buy more games/subscriptions/accessories. Sony has absolutely nothing to gain and quite a bit to lose from scalping.
Scalping affects all kinds of industries. It’s only even possible when demand exceeds supply at a given price point. I have no reason whatsoever to believe Sony was purposefully restricting supply (it was in their best interests to produce as many units as possible).
Any further action restricting scalpers would be the responsibility of retailers. Sony can’t just force Target or Wal-Mart to incur additional expenses to start tracking who is buying PS5’s and restricting those. Even when retailers do it, it’s usually a joke to work around. Heck, the minimum-wage employees tasked with enforcing such rules might be the ones doing some scalping to try to supplement their income.
The only way to eliminate scalping is to make it unprofitable. One way of doing that is… Just don’t buy from scalpers. But consumers cannot organize and behave rationally like thaf- the free market is often a downward spiral of bad decisions, and a lot of casual consumers just don’t care about spending a couple hundred dollars more.
The other way is to raise prices. If Sony and Wal-Mart are selling something for $500 and a scalper can flip it on eBay for $900, getting $400… That means that consumers are willing to pay $900 for that item. Perhaps it should have originally sold at retail for closer to $900? But then the narrative would be that Sony was overcharging- that the PS5 was a luxury item for rich people only. Even if it sold out, the stigma would stick for the whole generation (like the PS3).
Sony made a product everyone really wanted and charged less than they could, and you want to blame Sony for actions of all the people between you and them?
You said the experience of building a PC was great (it can be- I’ve built several myself), but aren’t you forgetting about all the shortages, supply machines issues, and scalping that happen within that industry as well? I never saw pictures of cryptofarms with tens or hundreds of PS5’s hooked up. NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have all received criticism for not doing enough to prevent scalping for various product launches over the past few years- are you bringing the same energy to them?
Nintendo arguably has restricted supply artificially with things like Amibo and there were allegations they did so with the Wii as well. Are you boycotting them?
It’s perfectly fine to just… Not want a PS5. PC’s are good too, and a lot of people have both.
I thought way evga used to handle sales of GPU with people being sent a message when they were next on queue was a great way of handling shortages so people didn’t have to try and go stand in line for hours or try to check out before bots online. Same with how steam handled the sale of their steam deck letting people know when they were next in line.
I’m not going to buy a PS just to play a few exclusives/timed exclusives, just not going to happen.
Either the game gets ported to PC, or I don’t get to play it. Simple as that.
Either that or, I might get a used PS4 together with used physical copies of the games in a few years, when it’s much cheaper, play them and then sell it all again or give it to my brother or something.
If they want to entice me, they need to:
- open their platform
- release interesting form factors
- provide interesting, unique features
The Steam Deck did that, and I would happily buy a Sony handheld or something if it offered value.
But no, they instead want me to buy a locked down system that competes with my existing PC, and their sales pitch is, “buy this or you can’t play these games.” I don’t respond well to threats of FOMO, so I’m not going to buy it. I own a Switch and a Steam Deck because they provide value I can’t get elsewhere, I don’t own a Playstation or an Xbox because they don’t.
Gravity Rush was great and I’m disappointed no one has done anything similar since.
When so much is multi-player now, the cross platform stuff sucks on console. Average PC players are gods compared to using a regular controller on console.
Good thing I don’t play multiplayer games very often.
Good thing I quit multiplayer games that aren’t just against friends a long time ago.
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Yeah, I bought it because it was an interesting form factor, not too expensive, and I could repurpose it if I ended up not liking the Steam experience. I honestly play 99% Steam games, so I’m liking it a lot.
I don’t buy most consoles (except Switch) because they’re not interesting form factors, games are generally a lot more expensive, and it’ll just become ewaste.
If Sony made a good, standalone handheld, I might get it. If Microsoft continued the Kinect, I might get an Xbox (I had the 360 for Kinect in the past). But no, neither is compelling, so I don’t buy them.
I agreed with you until you talked about the switch
If it helps, I mostly got it so I could play fun couch co-op games w/ my kids. We’ve taken it camping, on road trips, etc, and it’s honestly quite good for that.
Nah i mean he blamed Xbox and Playstation but praised Nintendo while in fact Nintendo is as anti-consumer as the others
I wrote both things.
Yes, Nintendo is anti-consumer and way worse in that regard, but they really deliver on the “new ways to play” angle. I just can’t get anything like the local multiplayer experience I get with Nintendo elsewhere, and that’s true for almost all of their history:
- NES - awesome accessories, like the DuckHunt gun, running pad, etc
- N64 - local multiplayer games were fantastic, and the controller was interesting
- Wii - controller made for a very fun casual multiplayer experience
- Switch - very portable and the joycons are very easy to pass around
And their handhelds were all the best on the market:
- gameboy - first and had fantastic battery life, the gameboy color was immensely popular; no competition whatsoever
- gba - way better gameplay experience vs gameboy, Sega Game Gear had terrible battery life, huge back catalogue with gb compat, so upgrading was a no-brainer
- Nintendo DS - PSP had better hardware, DS had better battery life, better load times, and just better portability all around; 3DS improved on this
Nintendo has continually delivered an interesting gaming experience with almost each generation. That’s why they appeal to people despite the anti-consumer behavior they have, and that’s why I buy their systems.
Valve gets most of my gaming money because they win the rest of my priorities, but Nintendo gets some too. PS5 and Xbox compete in all the ways I don’t care about, Nintendo and Steam compete in the ways I do.
i’ve never been a big Nintendo fan, i got the Wii and the Nintendo DS as a child but that’s all. I don’t understand the reason to buy a switch when a Steam Deck can do exactly the same and much more imo, But i got your point.
But it can’t. Can you remove the controllers and play with a friend? Can you slip it in a bag, just in case? Can you play on an airplane or road trip without worrying about battery life?
The Steam Deck is fantastic for single player gaming, which is why I have it. But battery life isn’t great for portability (road trips or flights), and for multiplayer, you basically need to hook it up to a TV and have more controllers.
I don’t see much point in a Switch Lite except to reuse games from another Switch you have.
Depend if you’re apart pc or console team at first, as a pc user why would i buy a console that only let me play the games of the manufacturer with a obsolete hardware while i could do the same + any games running on pc with the other one ?
Nah, I’m good.
Folks on Steam: set up tents and lawnchairs
I still haven’t played Cyberpunk yet, which seems like it’s aimed directly at me and I really want to play, just because it hasn’t been cheap enough on the Steam sales yet. I think they might be slightly underestimating the patience of PC gamers lol.
Oh, really? I feel like I grabbed it for like, $30 or so a couple months back.
I’m very cheap lol, and I think the cheapest I’ve seen it in Canada was about $40. Close, but I think they can do better!
Like us pc gamers don’t know how to wait out a game
Sony is delusional
Sony has been the enemy of PC users/enthusiasts for the last two decades, they can go to hell.
Remember that CD rootkit debacle?
Jokes on them, I rarely buy a game at release anyway. An extra year of console players beta-testing the game just means I am more likely to know a game is a dud that much sooner.
They’re going to be waiting for a long, long time then.
Get your shit on steam and stop making that stupid PSN network that leaked my information that I’m still dealing with to this day a requirement to play your first party games.
If I’m spending $450 + $70 + $80/year on gaming it’s going to be a steam deck and not a ps5.
There are at least tens of thousands of games to play on the PC. They must expect FOMO to be a huge motivator but I don’t think it’s going to have much of an effect.
ITT: a bunch of people saying “I won’t”.
You’re probably in the minority. There’s 16k subscribers in this community and, currently, about 30 million active users on Steam. Most of them have never heard of Lemmy, and heck a lot of them probably were never on Reddit. The PS5 has sold 50 million units- that’s over 3,000 PS5’s for every subscribed account here.
A lot of users here have PC’s that approach or exceed the PS5’s capabilities. You have fancy expensive monitors, a nice desk and chair, a gaming mouse and mechanical keyboard. The people this CEO is talking about don’t. They may have an old desktop from the pandemic, or a laptop. They might just use their kitchen table as a desk.
Or, heck, they might not even have a desktop or laptop at all. It’s still early, but there have been studies suggesting that Gen Z and Alpha are using PC’s less and doing more of their computing on phones and tablets.
Overall I thought it was great that Sony started releasing their games on PC (and especially through Steam, usually with pretty decent PC ports). It’s great to give consumers more options. Delaying the PC release probably means more time for the devs to work on the port (Sony’s PC ports have been mixed on launch, but even the bad ones have gotten fixed pretty quickly afterwards, and it’s been a while since the last one). Delaying PC versions seems like a pretty reasonable compromise.
They’ve been doing this strategy for a few years now, and Sony isn’t seeing PS5 grow the way they need it to, and that’s in an environment where they’re so dominant that their competition has thrown in the towel. PC overtook any one console some years ago, and due to how long it takes Sony to make them now, they don’t have the volume of unique exclusives to entice people to buy the console like they used to. This strategy isn’t working, and they will pivot. They just need to say, for now, that they’re not going to.
What makes you think the PS5 isn’t growing how they need it to? It’s outselling the Xbox and it isn’t close. In a less direct comparison, it’s outselling the Switch. It’s outselling what the PS4 did, and that was successful. I don’t understand where this sentiment that the PS5 is struggling is coming from. The second half of your first sentence even mentions that they’re really dominant right now.
I also don’t understand “PC overtaking any one console”… Like, how is that even a comparison? When was the last time there were more consoles than consumer PC’s… The SNES era? I’m not even sure about that, you might need to go further back.
Even if you want to talk about just gaming, that’s tricky to even start to compare. The closest I can think of is that according to this Steam averaged 120 million monthly users last year. According to this, PSN averaged 118 million monthly users in Q4 2023. That’s pretty much dead even. I don’t think it makes sense to add other platforms to the PC side without adding in Nintendo and Xbox to the console side, in which case… Consoles have more users and it’s not close. And they both are just a fraction of the mobile gaming market anyways.
Sony has absolutely proven that they can generate the unique exclusives that sell consoles. That’s… Why they have the best-selling console right now. Their strategy is working. You could say this about plenty of other consoles at points in the past (PS3, WiiU, 3DS, GameCube, N64, Xbox One). If you even said this a couple years ago about Sony struggling to manufacture PS5’s fast enough that might make sense. But they’re currently dominating the home console market. So I don’t understand why you think they’re struggling or need to drastically change the way they do things?
Just to clarify- what strategy are you predicting that they will change?
What makes me think that the PS5 isn’t growing how they need to is because they’ve admitted it with their words and actions. Their margins are thinner, they’re not moving as many consoles as they’d expect to at this point in the generation, and they felt the need at all to put their games on PC when they never did before. “Struggling” is the wrong word, but the console business model as it’s existed for decades no longer works like it once did.
I’m not talking about number of PCs compared to number of consoles. I’m saying the same game sells more on PC now when it used to sell way more on consoles. Maybe there are a few stragglers that still do better on consoles, but they’re rare now. Your number of active users for PSN includes PS3 and PS4 users. I’m included in those PS4 users, and my PlayStation only plays Hulu these days.
The strategy I’m predicting they’ll change, despite this PR statement is that PC releases will come out closer to the console version than they do now, and they’d be crazy to do anything else in the wake of Helldivers. Temporary management in the wake of Jim Ryan even said they were going to do this.
