Sony's PC gaming era is over – at least for single-player games

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Sony is revising its position on PlayStation exclusives following months of speculation on the matter. While it's not a total shutout of competing platforms, the development will impact fans of a particular genre.

According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst recently told employees during a town hall meeting that the company will start restricting single-player narrative games to the PlayStation. It is unclear when the change will occur, and which upcoming games it might impact.

The good news is that multiplayer titles will still be eligible to be ported to other platforms. But for single-player, non-multiplayer games, it sounds like it will be PlayStation or nothing.

As Neowin highlights, multiple factors likely led to the decision. Sony reportedly has not been satisfied with PC game sales figures, and some inside the company believe the multi-platform strategy is harming the PlayStation brand and could hamper future hardware sales. The publication also notes that some games take a year or longer to find their way to the PC, and are often buggy at launch. Sony's requirement of a PlayStation Network account also rubbed some gamers the wrong way.

Sony launched the PS5 in November of 2020 and by this point in its lifecycle, you wouuld expect to be able to pick one up for far less than its initial MSRP. Instead, the current climate prompted Sony to increase the cost of the console back in March. A standard PS5 will now set you back $649, a full $150 above launch price. The PS5 Pro now commands a staggering $899.

Continuing on the hardware front, Sony is internally shifting its focus to the PlayStation 6. Rumors suggest the next-gen console could arrive in 2027 despite the ongoing memory shortage. Earlier reports claimed the system might be delayed until 2029. Recent leaks suggest the PlayStation 6 could offer up to three times the performance of the PlayStation 5, putting it on par with an Nvidia RTX 4080.

Permalink to story:

Sony's PC gaming era is over – at least for single-player games

 

[dangh]

If that decision will bring back ps2 and ps3 quality level of games, I would be happy with this decision. What is happening rn with their first party studios is some kind of joke. If they deliver, I will be more than happy to pay for their console. If they won't deliver, the PC still have some nice titles.
I rather overpay to get a quality title, than underpay for wide availability, but boring crap.

 

[Billybobjoey]

"Uh oh, demand for the upcoming PS6 is going to be lower because of the absurd up front cost. How do we incentivize people to buy it who would otherwise be on the fence?"

The tech performance/power jump from the PS5 to PS6 is going to pale in comparison to past generational leaps, if something is exclusive to the 6 then it better look realer than real life. Call of Duty (which is ending this year, granted.) and a ton of other third party games have been continuing to support the PS4 which came out in 2013! I don't see a world where there's much of a reason to buy a PS6 in the first half of its lifetime.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Anyone that has a PS5 already is pretty much everyone that will ever have one. There are zero games on the PS catalog or the Switch catalog or Xbox catalog that I must have, therefore I have no need for a console to play those games. However, if said games are eventually ported to the PC I may acquire a copy at some point in time, but I will not buy a console for any game.

The issue here is that consoles are so much more expensive than they used to be, require you to pay to play online on top of you already paying to have internet from your ISP and the consoles are trying to be a personal computer that can do everything.

The day when you would buy game, insert the cartridge or disc, play the game and enjoy it are gone. To me, that is what made a console great. I already have a PC, I can game on it, go online, do whatever else I need with it....why do I need a console? They offer zero things that my PC can already do.

I think consoles have lost their identity and are struggling to find a way to reclaim it and they just don't know where they belong anymore. I don't think this move is a good move by Sony, but then again, I really don't care about their game catalog....so what do I know?

 

[NumberNine]

I'll survive without Sony's single player games and their multiplayer games too.

PC is not lacking developers. Playstation is.

 

[Notmare]

I don't think it takes a genius to realize this is going to hurt them more than it helps. It just seems like a greedy tactic to lock people into their ecosystem so that people will spend more there.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

This is a bummer but probably won't impact me until they make another Spider-Man.

 

[yRaz]

Anyone that has a PS5 already is pretty much everyone that will ever have one. There are zero games on the PS catalog or the Switch catalog or Xbox catalog that I must have, therefore I have no need for a console to play those games. However, if said games are eventually ported to the PC I may acquire a copy at some point in time, but I will not buy a console for any game.

The issue here is that consoles are so much more expensive than they used to be, require you to pay to play online on top of you already paying to have internet from your ISP and the consoles are trying to be a personal computer that can do everything.

The day when you would buy game, insert the cartridge or disc, play the game and enjoy it are gone. To me, that is what made a console great. I already have a PC, I can game on it, go online, do whatever else I need with it....why do I need a console? They offer zero things that my PC can already do.

I think consoles have lost their identity and are struggling to find a way to reclaim it and they just don't know where they belong anymore. I don't think this move is a good move by Sony, but then again, I really don't care about their game catalog....so what do I know?

While you arent wrong, and entry level PC costs over $1000 these days. Minimum viable system is coser to $1200 these days. So, yeah, the PS6 is going to expensive, but the performance you get for the money you're paying is gonna be a bargin relative to market rate performance. And here is something to think about, we don't have to play video games. There isn't any law saying that hobbies have to be affordable. It sucks that things have to be this way, but this is the market we are in. If you don't like it maybe everyone should stop giving nVidia their money?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

If that decision will bring back ps2 and ps3 quality level of games, I would be happy with this decision. What is happening rn with their first party studios is some kind of joke. If they deliver, I will be more than happy to pay for their console. If they won't deliver, the PC still have some nice titles.
I rather overpay to get a quality title, than underpay for wide availability, but boring crap.

the quality of their titles in no way is related to their Porting to PC. Sony has closed many of the great studios that made games and they are bleeding developers (or laying them off) while diving into stuff nobody asked for, like concord, marathon, and the upcoming horizon whatteva it was

 

[godrilla]

Joke is on them, have you seen the slop that is coming from them. Good riddance!

 

[poshflamingos]

Anyone that has a PS5 already is pretty much everyone that will ever have one.

It's not just that. There's also the fact that PS5 shrunk slightly compared to PS4 (slightly trailing it in sales), and that trend should continue with the PS6 with the increased prices.

While Nintendo grew a decent bit and PC grew a lot this gen, Playstation stagnated and shrunk (and Xbox shrunk drastically). With a stagnated userbase, there's no way for Sony to grow its business besides squeezing their shrinking userbase harder, which is why you now have $650 base and $900 pro consoles, $80/year subscriptions, $70 games, and anti-consumer practices like A/B pricing they were implementing recently.

This exclusives move isn't "a new business strategy", it's them switching to survival mode. Sony is watching their main competitor die and be swallowed by this massive looming entity that grew 50% since the pandemic days (Steam, based on daily concurrent peak numbers) while they themselves are already shrinking. The next Xbox will just be a PC, and it will have Sony games in it if they keep porting them. So Sony is desperately clinging to the only thing they still have that gives their platform any value, the games they can hold hostage.

Except this doesn't fix the problem they had in 2018/2019 that first made them first start porting games to PC: that their games are ballooning in production cost, and their stagnated/shrinking userbase is not enough to sustain them. They either need to explore other platforms for extra income, or their exclusives will simply stop being financially justifiable. Every other company that used to make Playstation exclusive games (Square Enix, Atlus, Team Ninja, Capcom, Konami, Kojima Studios, etc) already arrived at that conclusion and went multiplatform.

 

[m4a4]

Sony's requirement of a PlayStation Network account also rubbed some gamers the wrong way.

Yeah, as I've said before, this just seems like a tantrum in response to the above. Capcom is treating PC gamers well enough and it shows.

Maybe they'll get desperate again down the line and cave (hopefully for good).

 

[bloomsun]

Well... That's unfortunate... for them. I'm not buying a console for a game. Not gonna happen.

 

[axiomatic13]

Erecting fences where there used to be none is an exercise in failure.

 

[Subset6]

What’s coming down the pipe from Sony Studios that I may want… Horizon 3 (maybe?), whatever the next Naughty Dog game is, Santa Monica studios game?? That’s about all I can think of. Worth likely 1K ps6? Prolly not. I’m am done and over with Last of Us re-re-remasters.

 

[Jarenien]

I wouldn't cancel them, but rather just up it to 2-3 years between release on PS and the port. People will not wait 2-3 years if it is a game they really want, and those that do buy it on PS will undoubtedly double-dip on PC, as it will be long enough that with the improvements to it and the fact that they will remember not much, will make it a worthy purchase. I do that now with PS games even with the 12-18mo it is now and have no regrets.

 

[Megalomaniac]

The big picture is that these companies are obsessed with the idea of perpetually billing us and making us pay them regularly, monthly, annually, etc for subscriptions.

The gamer is going to have to be smarter and simply NOT PAY - even though it means not getting services. Go back to the classic games which offered better gameplay and complete, tested, working games in a complete package.

 

[texasrattler]

If that decision will bring back ps2 and ps3 quality level of games, I would be happy with this decision. What is happening rn with their first party studios is some kind of joke. If they deliver, I will be more than happy to pay for their console. If they won't deliver, the PC still have some nice titles.
I rather overpay to get a quality title, than underpay for wide availability, but boring crap.

I believe it won't be compatible with ps1,2 or 3. Only goes back to PS4. Think that was reported a few months ago.

 

[texasrattler]

The 4080 comparison only matters if its now. Could be relevant in a year if the 60 series doesn't release. If they wait/delay, in 2 or 3 yrs the PS6 could be 2 or 3 generations behind. This is important and why Sony dont make much on pc sales as they dont release them at the same time. Waiting a year, the masses simply move on. That's a Sony issue and nothing more.
The console will sell but the issue most will have is the price. Availability will likely be a big issue if released in 2027. Could be another 2 yrs before most even get one. Basically 2020 all over again.

 

[EdmondRC]

I sold my PS5 and never once regretted it. Sonys cinematic single player games lost their appeal completely IMHO after PS3.

 

[daffy duck]

Too bad for them. I've got GOW and TLOU for my PC, that's all I've wanted from Phony.

 

[Rapob]

I sold my PS5 and never once regretted it. Sonys cinematic single player games lost their appeal completely IMHO after PS3.

I don't agree, PS4 is the best PS generation for me ever, and I have had them all, except PS5.

PS1 was nothing special. PS4 for me easily beats PS2 and PS3. PS4 also had remasters of many of the best PS1/2/3 titles anyway (Better graphics, higher res, 60 fps - I enjoyed the Uncharted remasters alot). PS4 pretty much had it all.

PS5 was and is a huge disappointment, PS6 can only get better. Might get one, we will see.

If Nintendo releases a Switch 2 OLED I will probably get that first.

 

[Starfals]

Ha, I guess Sony won't have a chance to get any of my money anymore. Their lost. I got all of their games, and im happy with them. I guess my money wasnt good enough. Even tho Last of Us part 1 took 1 year before it can ran on my RTX 3070 8GB edition. It kept telling me for 1 FREAKING YEAR that I was out of VRAM. Patches kept fixing that around the 8-month range, but it wasn't enough. Still kept on crashing. It was fixed literally after 13 months and like 15 major updates. Should have waited, but I got it day 1. Similar story for All of their games. Only God of War 2018 was perfect. Spidy? Yeah, buggy. Ratchet? Buggy. Sackboy? Crashboy... Ghost of Crash? Yeah. Needed also around 6 months and many updates. The PS network BS also made a lot of PC gamers boycott Sony. AND YET, they still sold OKAY. FREE MONEY is free money. Full price too, for old games. There is alot of BS if you think about it. Sony didn't do a good job and people still bought their ports. Ports... that word used to be a dirty word and Sony brought it back.

I honestly never wanted any other games. The only thing I might really want is a God of War 1-3 remasters/remakes. That's ALL Sony has to offer. Killzone? Whatever. Cya Sony, I wont buy a console for your games OR EVEN GTA 6! I aint that dumb. My 1500 euro 5080 is good enough for 4K 60 fps. I wont spend a dollar more for more hardware.

P.s. Returnal was also funny. Tons of lag and bugs at launch for me, just 2 weeks later = perfect 60 fps at 4k on a 3070 with some tweaks. I guess its too hard to delay the launch with 2 weeks and release the game in a good state. Total Biscuit said it best - Release a broken game and everyone will forever remember it.

 

[dangh]

the quality of their titles in no way is related to their Porting to PC. Sony has closed many of the great studios that made games and they are bleeding developers (or laying them off) while diving into stuff nobody asked for, like concord, marathon, and the upcoming horizon whatteva it was

Their internal studios were pushed with tasks like preparing graphic engines for PC instead of working on next titles. And the CEO was constantly trying to mimic what other companies did, including MS, instead of focusing on their own strength. I do not know if they would be able to regain the same focus they had before, and I'd rather see Yoshida at the helm, but at least they realised there is an issue and maybe they will start deliver again great games. If not, then PC wont lose much anyway.

I believe it won't be compatible with ps1,2 or 3. Only goes back to PS4. Think that was reported a few months ago.

I said I want the same quality and polish level of games from previous consoles, not the backward compatibility. I want great games, which they were doing long time ago, and I hope they will be able to go that direction again.

 

[acrossthestars]

A standard PS5 will now set you back $649, a full $150 above launch price. The PS5 Pro now commands a staggering $899.

I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd say that the PS6 is at least $1,200.

I mean, the PS5 Pro launched at $700 and is currently $900―an almost 30% increase in price, inside of 2 years...and that was before the AI sh*tstorm truly went off the rails. How on God's green earth would its successor, which is more powerful AND coming out during the RAMpocalypse, cost less than $1,000 before tax? Unless Sony has some truly desirable "Next-Gen" exclusives that justify its asking price, anything less is actually impossible. According to this article from TechPP, there's supposed to be 4 tiers of the PS6―including a "Lite" model, with 16 GB of GDDR7. That's very likely the PS6 equivalent of the PS5 and it's "supposed to" (if leaks are true) cost $350 bare-minimum? Has Sony lost their mind? (The answer is "yes", by the way). The RAM alone costs at least 1/3 of the entire BOM, at this point. The entire PS6 lineup is going to move basically no units, save for several hundred thousand here and there, from whales for whom money is no object, and then it will be dead weight on Sony's public balance sheet. A very nice, expensive paperweight.

What good is 32GB of GDDR7 RAM going to do you, when the power goes out because you couldn't afford to pay the electricity bill?