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Ex-Sony Exec Says PC Ports of Old PS5 Games Are Almost Like Printing Money

Draugoth

Gold Member
ex-sony-exec-says-pc-ports-of-old-ps5-games-are-almost-like-printing-money-1.large.jpg

Speaking in an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (paywalled), Shuhei Yoshida explained that during his tenure as PS Studios boss, he pushed to bring more first-party titles to PC, but this wasn’t Sony’s business model at the time.


He noted that as the company’s perspective has matured, it’s started to realise the potential of releasing on storefronts such as Steam.

He explained:

“Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular. The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation.”

“China is a huge PC game market. And China is a growing but very small console market. In order to reach the audience in countries like China then it’s crucial to release on PC. So, I believe PC versions really reach a new audience.”

Source
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular. The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation.
Sure bub. We've seen the sales numbers. You're not doing a fuck with that idea.

Printing money now, sacrificing appeal of the platform in the future. In fact, despite "printing money" by shilling to a competing platform (because that worked out sooo well for Xbox), their profit margins are far lower than the PS4's.

No amount of that helps me as a PS gamer.
 
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dcx4610

Member
I've said the same thing for years. You have....

1. PC gamer that doesn't own consoles and will never buy a console
2. PC gamer that also owns a PS5
3. Console only gamer who will never own a PC

The first example, you are losing money by not offering them games. The 2nd example, you might even get them to buy it twice. The 3rd is going to buy your games on console. It's win/win/win. You might upset hardcore console gamers that want exclusivity but they aren't not going to buy your game because it's on PC. It's easy money.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Sure bub. We've seen the sales numbers. You're not doing a fuck with that idea.
We have for a handful of games and they did well enough.
Printing money now, sacrificing appeal of the platform in the future. In fact, despite "printing money" by shilling to a competing platform (because that worked out sooo well for Xbox), their profit margins are far lower than the PS4's.

No amount of that helps me as a PS gamer.
Sacrificing the appeal for who? Did you migrate to PC yet? I don’t think so.
 

Puscifer

Member
Sure bub. We've seen the sales numbers. You're not doing a fuck with that idea.

Printing money now, sacrificing appeal of the platform in the future. In fact, despite "printing money" by shilling to a competing platform (because that worked out sooo well for Xbox), their profit margins are far lower than the PS4's.

No amount of that helps me as a PS gamer.
It's an inanimate plastic box, it doesn't have feelings bro.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Sure bub. We've seen the sales numbers. You're not doing a fuck with that idea.

Printing money now, sacrificing appeal of the platform in the future. In fact, despite "printing money" by shilling to a competing platform (because that worked out sooo well for Xbox), their profit margins are far lower than the PS4's.

No amount of that helps me as a PS gamer.
Minus Helldivers 2 the port sales have paled(and sometimes greatly) in comparison to the console version sales.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Minus Helldivers 2 the port sales have paled(and sometimes greatly) in comparison to the console version sales.
Minus the one game that came day 1, the sales have paled compared to the PS5 version. I really wonder why that is.
And that’s the idea.
If PC gamer gets hooked on Spiderman he might buy PlayStation for the next one and avoid waiting for it to come out on Steam.
Time to stop with this. This straight-up doesn’t work.
 
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evanft

Member
I've said the same thing for years. You have....

1. PC gamer that doesn't own consoles and will never buy a console
2. PC gamer that also owns a PS5
3. Console only gamer who will never own a PC

The first example, you are losing money by not offering them games. The 2nd example, you might even get them to buy it twice. The 3rd is going to buy your games on console. It's win/win/win. You might upset hardcore console gamers that want exclusivity but they aren't not going to buy your game because it's on PC. It's easy money.
The only people who whine about Sony porting games are losers whose entire personality is based on their product purchasing decisions. They buy every accessory, pay full price for the highest tier of PS+, and expect Sony to bow down to them because they keep giving them money. Absolute clowns who think it's 1992 and this is Genesis vs SNES.

Seriously, reading their unhinged bullshit on Iconera makes me think democracy was indeed a mistake.
And that’s the idea.
If PC gamer gets hooked on Spiderman he might buy PlayStation for the next one and avoid waiting for it to come out on Steam.
And if they instead just wait or the PC port, Sony is still getting their money, so they're winning no matter what.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Minus Helldivers 2 the port sales have paled(and sometimes greatly) in comparison to the console version sales.

You really have no idea how much Helldivers 2 is selling or how much the ports are. Too many people are obsessed with measuring CCUs as a measure of success for single player games or think that Single Player games only sell at launch. Launch sales on PC are not like console, early adopters will jump into games, but the bulk of the people will buy on discount over time. That's probably why Sony didn't bother delaying Spider-Man 2 and why they have limited marketing for it.

Steam royalties are under 30 percent, but let's call it a steady 30 anyways.

A port isn't going to cost more than 5 million dollars. At 50 dollars a copy, break even is reached at below 150,000 units... That's even assuming the port costs the full 5 million, when it's probably less.

Nixxes has 87 employees on LinkedIn, let's round that up to 100. Most port projects are completed in 6 months. If we assume that the average salary of a game developer at nixxes is 100,000 euro per year (would be on the high side, salary range is between 55k and 100k euro) and every employee at nixxes is an engineer (they're not). That would mean a 6-month project would cost you at most 5.2 million USD (salary, plus fixed costs).

The goal here is to get some ROI to get profit to cost ratio more manageable.

If a game costs 300 million dollars to develop and you want to recoup 50 million dollars on PC. 1.57 million units at 50 dollars gets you down to 250 million dollars from 305 million dollars.

So what do you need to do in order to get 250 million on console? Well since you're getting 100% of the cost you break even at 3.57 million copies.

Sony's AAA model is MUCH safer once you incorporate PC sales.
 

GreatnessRD

Member
I've said the same thing for years. You have....

1. PC gamer that doesn't own consoles and will never buy a console
2. PC gamer that also owns a PS5
3. Console only gamer who will never own a PC

The first example, you are losing money by not offering them games. The 2nd example, you might even get them to buy it twice. The 3rd is going to buy your games on console. It's win/win/win. You might upset hardcore console gamers that want exclusivity but they aren't not going to buy your game because it's on PC. It's easy money.
Post should be pinned
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I've said the same thing for years. You have....

1. PC gamer that doesn't own consoles and will never buy a console
2. PC gamer that also owns a PS5
3. Console only gamer who will never own a PC

The first example, you are losing money by not offering them games. The 2nd example, you might even get them to buy it twice. The 3rd is going to buy your games on console. It's win/win/win. You might upset hardcore console gamers that want exclusivity but they aren't not going to buy your game because it's on PC. It's easy money.

The people who are upset keep saying wait for the other shoe to drop, but they can't explain why MAU keeps rising. At 129 million and growing, we're looking at Sony being on pace to sell much more than the PS4's 117 million units. If MAUs increase by 6 million units again next holiday season, we're looking at 135 million units, if it increases by 6 million every year until 2028, we're looking at 141 million units potentially, which is significantly more than 117 million. We're talking about 66 million units sold over the next 3+ years. GTA6 plus price drops across the PlayStation family will get us close to that. PC is having no tangible impact on PS5 sales and are unlikely to have an impact on PS6 sales.
 

LRKD

Member
Yeah in the short term, you reach non PS5 owners, in the long term you train PS5 owners, that they are better of on PC. Loosing exclusives was bad for Xbox , and it'll be bad for PS. Good for consumers, at least in the short term, but long term I think it'll just end up weakening their already weak first party offerings.
 

Astray

Member
He's %100 right, but the lede is also kinda buried.

He specifically mentioned China as the biggest reason Sony are doing this.

China has been a major reason of PC Gaming's rise, just look at any big game's CCU timeline, it always starts to rise around the time Chinese people get back home from school/work, and it starts going down at 12AM China time when they go to sleep.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
"The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation."

So, they ultimately want to persuade people to buy a Playstation console somewhere down the line.

Who would've guessed?
 
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ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Sacrificing the appeal for who? Did you migrate to PC yet? I don’t think so.
At this rate, you'll be instructing me through the PCMR rites of passage.

"The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation."

So, they ultimately want to persuade people to buy a Playstation console somewhere down the line.

Who would've guessed?
It is a ridiculous idea.
 

BlackTron

Member
The people who are upset keep saying wait for the other shoe to drop, but they can't explain why MAU keeps rising. At 129 million and growing, we're looking at Sony being on pace to sell much more than the PS4's 117 million units. If MAUs increase by 6 million units again next holiday season, we're looking at 135 million units, if it increases by 6 million every year until 2028, we're looking at 141 million units potentially, which is significantly more than 117 million. We're talking about 66 million units sold over the next 3+ years. GTA6 plus price drops across the PlayStation family will get us close to that. PC is having no tangible impact on PS5 sales and are unlikely to have an impact on PS6 sales.

I've always said it would take a generation for this to catch up to them. The effect was never going to be immediate.

In a decade the core reason Nintendo will still have the best margins of anyone will still be because they never budged on exclusivity to start the erosion process.

They have it today because they didn't budge 10 years ago.
 

daninthemix

Member
I've said the same thing for years. You have....

1. PC gamer that doesn't own consoles and will never buy a console
2. PC gamer that also owns a PS5
3. Console only gamer who will never own a PC

The first example, you are losing money by not offering them games. The 2nd example, you might even get them to buy it twice. The 3rd is going to buy your games on console. It's win/win/win. You might upset hardcore console gamers that want exclusivity but they aren't not going to buy your game because it's on PC. It's easy money.
This is a far too logical and rational examination of the situation, and as a result will be rejected by the frothing fanboys who still exist in a state of permanent livid rage mania - coupled with denial - some 5 years on from HZD's PC release.
 

Fabieter

Member
I've always said it would take a generation for this to catch up to them. The effect was never going to be immediate.

In a decade the core reason Nintendo will still have the best margins of anyone will still be because they never budged on exclusivity to start the erosion process.

They have it today because they didn't budge 10 years ago.

Sony would kill for Nintendo margins.
 
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