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Do people still doubt a PC PlayStation Storefront is coming?
- Thread starter Mibu no ookami
- Start date
Elysium44
Banned
And they can put them on Steam like they have with all their other games so far, which have been well-received and sold decently.
Microsoft has some very popular games on Steam which were in high demand, eg. Forza Horizon 4 and 5, and Flight Simulator among others. I bet these have sold a lot more on Steam than on the Windows store. I mean, if they had been selling well on the Windows store where Microsoft took 100% of the revenue, why release them on Steam in the first place. Clearly there was a huge pent-up demand from Steam customers.
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James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
Day and date PlayStation store with compatibility with consoles (cross buy) and trophy integration
2 years later on Steam, no cross buy or PS UI integration
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Guilty_AI
Member
We could start with the horrible refund and discovery systems.
FrankWza
Gold Member
I'm just saying that they are tolerating something you hear that they don't because of all the options they have and the strength of that platform. Getting a game day one has so far been proven to make that gamer do something they normally do not. Quality speaks in mysterious ways.
Leonidas
AMD's Dogma: ARyzen (No Intel inside)
I think there is a good chance it happens. With Steam VR2, PlayStation's PC initiative, evidence of PlayStation trophy support.
A launcher seems likely.
And if that happens, I think we'll see quiker releases of PC games (more day and date
)
Hopefully it will use my PSN log-in and also allow me to use my PSN credits, which I have but will not use on console since there isn't really anything for me worth buying there (since everything is going to PC).
A launcher seems likely.
And if that happens, I think we'll see quiker releases of PC games (more day and date
)Hopefully it will use my PSN log-in and also allow me to use my PSN credits, which I have but will not use on console since there isn't really anything for me worth buying there (since everything is going to PC).
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ReBurn
Gold Member
If Sony allowed dual entitlement so you only had to buy games once and you could play them on both console and PC I think it could be a worthwhile tool to transition console gamers wanting to move to PC to a PlayStation PC store and launcher.
I think existing PC gamers will complain if Sony makes their games exclusive to their store like the same way they complain about EGS making games exclusive. So they'll need to keep releasing on Steam as well.
I think existing PC gamers will complain if Sony makes their games exclusive to their store like the same way they complain about EGS making games exclusive. So they'll need to keep releasing on Steam as well.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
I don't think crossbuy for the same rate is ever going to happen and if they release their own storefront, I fully expect that they'll stop releasing their games on Steam.
PC gamers can complain all they like. They'll have two options to play PlayStation games, buying a PS5 or getting the PC launcher.
Kadve
Member
Media Go - Wikipedia
They technically used to have one. Though it was more of a PC front end for PSN.
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Magic Carpet
Gold Member
Imagine if they did this and all my current PS4 and PS5 1st party Sony games suddenly played on PC. That would be so awsome, (Nerd dreaming)
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ReBurn
Gold Member
I don't think that Sony has the leverage in the PC space to tell PC gamers to take it or leave it. There are just too many games releasing on PC all the time. When you pair that with the fact that Sony doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to the quality of their PC ports I think an exclusive approach will be a hindrance.
PC gaming has survived and grown just fine without Sony first party games. I think they can try to force people to their store if they want and they can try to make people buy their console games again, but I don't think they'll be as successful with that as they have been releasing games on Steam.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Speculation: Sony will launch Spider-Man 2 on their PC Storefront rather than Steam. They're already taking a major hit on the game based on the Marvel licensing, to pay Valve an extra 20 percent of revenue probably doesn't make a lot of sense for them.
Maybe they'll release TLOU P2 and Spider-Man 2 and launch their storefront around the time that Season 2 of the last of us comes out.
Maybe they'll release TLOU P2 and Spider-Man 2 and launch their storefront around the time that Season 2 of the last of us comes out.
jm89
Member
Only works if they completely dump steam, doing something dunb like releasing on steam at the same time or even a few months/years down the line will just make people not use it.
They would really need to be willing to put alot of resources to make it work. Can't just release some half assed store.
They would really need to be willing to put alot of resources to make it work. Can't just release some half assed store.
Interfectum
Member
The only way this works is for them to adopt the exact some thing that MS did with Xbox Play Anywhere. If you can download a PS Client on PC and play a ton of your PS games at better fidelity with the same trophies and saves, it may carve a nice niche for them. There needs to be a real incentive for players to leave Steam for these games.
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Guilty_AI
Member
Problem is, they'll need more than that for a store to be worth it for them in the first place. Some people might go there to get their games, but costumers will still be lost. Third party sales is certainly not going to be high either. Despite all the moaning about Valve 20-30% cut, it is far from a bad deal consider what they get in exchange.
The scenario i find far more likely is that they'll make some PS launcher that'll be required for their GAAS. That is really the only circumstance where having their own PC front is worth it.
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Interfectum
Member
They should also copy Steam by building a community around the store front. Day 1 these should be reviews, forums and completely open stats that the press can use for hype. Don't hide anything... be transparent as fuck.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Gamers have shown that they're absolutely willing to buy games elsewhere. Minecraft and Fortnite are two of the biggest games in the world and they both sell fine off of steam.
What Epic and Microsoft both have in common is a lack of 3rd party support. That's something that Sony can easily get.
Sony is actually known for having pretty good PC ports, especially since they bought Nixxes. Their Nixxes ports as well as Jetpack have been well received.
Console gaming has survived and grown just fine without Sony. I think they can try to force people to their console if they want and they can try to make people buy their consoles, but I don't think they'll be as successful with that as they would have been releasing their games on Nintendo.
Elysium44
Banned
Microsoft tried that originally with releases like Forza Horizon 3, only available on the Windows store.
Sony getting to keep 80% of say two million sales revenue on Steam will still bring in more than maybe 100% of a million on their own proprietary store. And their own store would have additional costs of design and maintenance, server upkeep that is included in the 20% Steam fee.
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skit_data
Member
If they create a storefrobt for PC I hope they'll borrow heavily from Steams interface and preferrably update the PS Store in a similar manner. Yeah user reviews are a step in direction but I want to more easily find games from the same publisher or developer and that part still requires googling them and then manually searching for their games.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Microsoft did this and it destroyed their business. I don't think it is a model to copy.
I think there is a market to sell to console and pc gamers separately. More to it, they have a completely untapped market on Mac.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
What is a bigger game Forza Horizon 3 or Spider-Man 2?
The costs and design and maintenance are largely sunk costs already existing with their ps5 store. The website already exists, the servers already exist.
Sony doesn't just save 20% on their own games, they can generate sales from 3rd party publishers as well. It's a no brainer.
Interfectum
Member
Play Anywhere didn't destroy their business... mishandling their studios and game pass did.
Sony needs to adopt what MS and Steam have started... bring value to your digital purchase.
The Pleasure
Member
Only when dealing with Marvel/Disney
Generic
Member
The "exclusivity" argument is kinda funny considering 90% of PC games are exclusive to Steam.
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Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Play Anywhere didn't help. It helped push people off of their console.
Even when they release their own portable PS5, I doubt you'll be able to just carry over your game library. They want additional software sales and so does the industry.
Sony is going to be the only company that has a handheld, console, and pc storefront. They don't need to do gangbusters on handheld and PC, all they need to do is be profitable to improve margins. Console is still the main bread and butter.
SportsFan581
Member
They might make a store, but they'll continue to support Steam. Launching exclusive to smaller stores is rarely a positive for games on PC (in terms of sales). And this is coming from someone who has no problem using multiple launchers.
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Elysium44
Banned
Their catalogue isn't strong enough to generate that pull factor away from Steam imo.
People might buy Sony games there if it was forever the only place to get them, but they would still sell far fewer than they would on Steam. EA learned this with Origin, even though their own first party line up was pretty strong. They ended up coming back to Steam, just like Microsoft and those third parties who used Epic. It would be a gamble from Sony which I don't think would pay off.
ReBurn
Gold Member
Sony's third party console support is not going to follow along with them to a PC storefront unless they can provide some sort of benefit over the places people buy their games today. Unless Sony is willing to undercut the other places where people buy games they're not going to have any advantage with third party publishers. The only leverage they really have is their first party games.
And I'm sorry, but Sony is not actually known for having high quality PC ports. Not on day 1 anyway. If they think people are going to move to a different storefront on PC those games are going to need to be perfect on day 1. Or they're going to have to allow no questions asked refunds like Steam. And we know Sony's stance on refunds.
I just don't see Sony being able to bring their console mojo to PC. They just don't have the loyal following there they have in the console space. They're going to need to do something more extraordinary than just bring their games with them.
Guilty_AI
Member
Another thing worth mentioning. If they keep their current model of releasing their first parties years after their playstation debut, there's even higher chances a PC storefront would fail as they couldn't even capitalize on release hype anymore.
If they want this (hypothetical) venture to succeed they would have to, at the very least, release all their games day 1 on PC.
If they want this (hypothetical) venture to succeed they would have to, at the very least, release all their games day 1 on PC.
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Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Same arguments people keep making.
Did EA have 3rd party games on their storefront?
I agree that if Sony didn't plan on selling 3rd party games, selling their own games exclusively would not make sense. Microsoft likely will leave steam in the future now that they have ABK, Bethesda, and their own games.
Both Epic and Microsoft have thus far struggled with 3rd party support.
hououinkyouma00
Member
Every single time any bit of information comes out people blow it so far out of proportion. People act like them saying that they are working on PC support and creating all these situations in their heads.
You know what the only thing that blogpost said? That they are working on PC support for PSVR2 and that's it.
You know what the only thing that blogpost said? That they are working on PC support for PSVR2 and that's it.
T4keD0wN
Member
Theres currently 7,802,000 people playing games on steam, 965,523 are playing counter strike.
The vast majority comes from counter strike loot crates, shark card and fifa ultimate team stuff.
They will need to persuade other companies. Contacting, licensing, overseeing all the legal documents necessary costs money. They would either need to persuade other companies its worth their time and resources or pay them if they dont go that route. Theres logistics in everything.
Ive worked as PM for over 5 years, if you want to get the leadership to approve a projects, short version is that you need a case with very accurate data estimates that will indicate that it support the business strategy somehow, or that it makes money.
In any case i would eventually need to do a risk analysis which would include presenting why others have failed and why i will not. In this particular case the leadership would laugh me out of the room when i would say that we (someone who has decades less experience in publishing on PC and zero experience with creating PC launchers) can do what Microsoft, Epic, EA and Ubisoft couldnt and then then they would suggest that i take a time off to see a doctor.
I am fairly confident that i could manage to get them to approve a small launcher project that doesnt attempt to dethrone the market leader and, but merely supplements it. But no way could i manage to come up with any resource/budget/risk plans that look even remotely acceptable even if i had 20 clones.
Dr.brain64
Member
YES.
I think sony is the perfect competitor to steam.
I think sony is the perfect competitor to steam.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
I already gave you example of ways Sony can entice 3rd parties in a way no one else really can.
Sony can say, if you release your game on our PC storefront, your PS5 royalty drops from 30 percent to 25 percent. That's a massive benefit, especially for large games like GTA6.
If GTA6 sells 40 million copies on PS5 for an average of 55 dollars, that is 2.2 billion in revenue. 30 percent of that is 660 million. 25 percent is 550 million. That's 110 million dollars just for putting your game on Sony's storefront.
Please point to the Nixxes ports that have been ill received or Jetpack. Go on.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
CS2 was updated in 2023.
They already have the infrastructure in place to do all of those things. The logistics are already there.
Explain to me how the PSP got greenlit and why it succeeded when every other handheld failed.
You can be in business without dethroning the market leader.
tommyleelynn
Member
They had that with Portal 2 on the PS3, so it’s possible.
It would be dual incentive for the player and Sony to make it possible asap.
IFireflyl
Gold Member
Imagine thinking that paying third-parties to release games exclusively on a certain platform/storefront is the same thing as third-parties simply not having the desire to release their games on certain platforms/storefronts.
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Astray
Member
People forget that one of the biggest reasons the Xbox store failed is because it was Microsoft's way into making UWP a thing, which would have killed a lot of the freedom the PC nation enjoys today.
Sony doesn't have the same calculus here, they just want to sell games without paying Steam a percentage, and they have more leverage and incentives than anyone who ever really faced Steam before.
People forget that Sony started it's foray into gaming facing a competitor with a gigantic marketshare (Nintendo) and has largely overcome that challenge within 2 gens, Nintendo had to literally merge their products to stay in the game.
Thats not to mention what happened with Sega and Microsoft too.
Sony doesn't have the same calculus here, they just want to sell games without paying Steam a percentage, and they have more leverage and incentives than anyone who ever really faced Steam before.
People forget that Sony started it's foray into gaming facing a competitor with a gigantic marketshare (Nintendo) and has largely overcome that challenge within 2 gens, Nintendo had to literally merge their products to stay in the game.
Thats not to mention what happened with Sega and Microsoft too.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
I mean people aren't really arguing in good faith here. You've even seen people admit that it is probable to happen they just don't want it to happen.
You can name 10 handhelds that failed but the PSP was a massive success. No it didn't dethrone Nintendo, but it sold 80 million units. The best selling non-Nintendo handheld in history is like 11 million units.
The idea that the Sony brand doesn't have leverage when it comes to publishers and consumers is at best a lie.
You can look at specific reasons for products succeeding and failing.
Why did the PSP succeed and why did the Vita fail? Why did the PS2 and PS4 succeed when the PS3 underperformed?
Why did the PS1 dominate when the Jaguar, Saturn, Sega CD, 32X, 3DO, CD-I all failed...
Why was the Xbox 360 more successful than the Dreamcast, Genesis, Saturn, and Master System combined?
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Guilty_AI
Member
They ain't magicians, a lot of successes in these kinds of ventures can be attributed to the company's ability to read the room. Right now the room says PS trying to compete with Steam on the PC market is not only a bad idea in its very foundations but also a pointless one. A troublesome venture even Epic Games with Fortnite's money and massive playerbase, Unreal Engine, exclusives and constant stream of free games and generous discount cupoms couldn't accomplish in 5 years.
And for what? So they can extract a few extra millions bypassing steam fees from games that already generate billions for them? All while shouldering tons of well-documented risks? It doesn't make any sense.
I don't doubt they'll make a PS launcher, however the intention behind that launcher would be as complement for their GAAS games. For crossplay, crossaves, MTX, etc. They would still sell their games on Steam as usual.
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Sinfulgore
Member
I don't think a PC Playsation Storefront is coming. Sonys PC ports, especially the ones that come months after release, don't generate enough money to warrant the cost of creating a store and no one is going to switch the storefront they use to buy the bulk of their games. This is why so many of these storefronts have failed, even with exclusives a gamer might download the Epic Games Store to play Alan Wake 2 at release but that doesn't mean they will make any other purchases on the Epic Games store. For most PC gamers a game has to either be not available on Steam or considerably cheaper somewhere else for us to even consider buying it not on Steam.
bigdad2007
Member
I can see them having a storefront, but can’t see it really competing with Steam/GoG. There is a large percentage of the PC audience that is locked into Steam, they might have their own launcher like EA and others but it would be dumb to not still sell their games on Steam.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Which PC ports are you talking about? Sackboy Adventure? Who says people have to switch. Storefronts are free. Again, I won't continue to list the litany of ways a PS PC storefront is different from individual publishers. People are either going to listen or they won't and they'll have to see for themselves after the fact.
Locked in? Locked in how? Not to mention there are millions of new steam users every year.
If the worst result for Sony is they get 5 users and a place where they can sell their games without paying Valve royalties, it'll be a success for them.
Sinfulgore
Member
All of them. The Insomaic leak showed us that the top-selling Sony PC game only sold 3.3 million units. That might sound like a lot but this is PC gaming not console. 3.3mil units sold doesn't mean 3.3 million people bought the game at full price so the profit on these PC ports is a lot lower than you would expect.
Storefronts are free but the owners only make money if people buy games on it. A storefront can't sustain itself on exclusives alone and a game being exclusive is the only thing that would make a PC gamer buy it from Sony's Storefront vs Steam.
Braag
Member
Dunno man, that's up to Sony to decide.
As a long time PC only gamer I got really fed up couple of years ago of the countless storefronts, it turned into a chore to browse all of them. So I decide to just stick to Steam and buy games that appear there. I don't care if I miss out on some games, I have way more games to play than I have free time.
As a long time PC only gamer I got really fed up couple of years ago of the countless storefronts, it turned into a chore to browse all of them. So I decide to just stick to Steam and buy games that appear there. I don't care if I miss out on some games, I have way more games to play than I have free time.
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