Sony President Wants to Improve Margins by Growing 1st-Party With Multiplatform Releases - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 March 2024 / 7,181 Views
Sony President Hiroki Totoki has stated he wants to grow PlayStation profit margins and one way to do it is by releasing more multiplatform games.
"In the past, we wanted to popularize console and the first-party titles' main purpose was to make the console popular," said Totoki.
"It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first-party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, first-party can be grown with multiplatform and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on.
"I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive in improving our margin performance."
Sony has in recent years been releasing first-party PlayStation games on PC. This month Sony for the first time published a game day and date on both PlayStation 5 and PC with Helldivers 2, which has been successful with it hitting over 200,000 concurrent players on Steam.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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They probably mean more and more frequent PC releases.
If money is no object I am not sure what the downside to being a PC gamer is these days. You get basically everything while also having more hardware flexibility and competing store fronts (which means lower prices on software). If all you care about is genre diversity and being able to play everything, the “ideal” setup seems to be a PC and a switch (and then whatever replaces the switch from Nintendo)
Only downside is some PC ports are not done very well. I've become a PC gamer myself at this point and I never thought I'd say that. But it has both Xbox and PlayStation first-party games.
I believe there is more cheating on PC....? That doesn't seem to have been emphasized much by the console brands, probably because they can't strictly avoid cheating. But I think the difference in scale is clear.
Also some people prefer controllers to M&K and to not be handicapped for that.
Yeah that can be an issue with multiplayer games that I hadn't thought about. Not an issues with single player games at leat. IMO mods that change or add stuff in single player games is fine. But once it ruins the experience for other players like in multiplayer games it is bad.
Lots of cheating on console as well.
There are Keyboard/Mouse adapters to translate over to console controls to give people a significant edge in multiplayer games.
Cheating on PC tends to be a little bit different... And can generally be circumvented by frequent updating.
There's practically no physical option for getting games on PC, so that's a downside to some for sure.
Physical..and noo not all moder. Games are unplayable without patches or need a internet connection.
This is such a weirdly phrased statement but ealier PC releases would certainly be welcome though they would have made the most sense back when demand outstripped supply.
With the success of Helldivers 2 I could see more live service games from PlayStation getting day and date releases on PS5 and PC, while single player games could release sooner on PC than in the past.
Live service titles being day 1 on PC I think is something that has made sense for a while: the Predator MP game was PS4/ PC day 1 back in 2020.
But I agree that SP games will probably arrive sooner on PC. I imagine any remasters like Until Dawn will be slotted into day 1 as well.
God of War on Xbox. Nice!!!
Makes sense. A lot of the recent PS first party releases on PC haven't reached the peak God of War reached with 73K concurrent players, and a big part of that is PC players just don't want to be treated like second class citizens. 1-2 year delays, if not longer, doesn't do you any favors in growing the PC playerbase. I was shocked that games like Miles Morales peaked at 13K, Uncharted peaked at 10K, and R&C: Rift Apart peaked at 9K.
Of course, this all came crashing down with what just so happened to be a day and date release with Helldivers 2.
I think it has more to do with titles getting buried under all the options a PC gamer has available, especially when many of those options can be picked up at a discount. Anticipation and excitement dwindle over the course of a year and far fewer people are talking about the game that long after the initial release. Buzz is extremely important in the PC market because of all the competition.
Absolutely. Also not every game will do equally well in console and PC spaces just due to genre preferences.
That's true. When it comes to the titans of PC gaming, you've got FPS, RPG, Survival, and Strategy (MOBA included) that rule the PC space. Unfortunately, Sony's games don't really appeal to that kind of crowd.
Still, releasing day and date on PC would only help build up that playerbase.
It would make zero sense at all to have day and date with PC for single player games. It would alienate the entire playerbase as everyone would be asking "why did I even buy a PS5 if I can just play on PC", its very simple, if you want to play Sony first party single player games day and date, buy a PS5!
PC players deserve what they get, as they do not play directly on Sonys platform, in Sonys ecosystem, so yeah get used to waiting 2-3-4 years and be fortunate you even get anything.
Sony’s President and yourself don’t see eye to eye it seems.
It makes a lot of sense, but you don't see it. You are so entrenched in the walled garden mentality so you think it's the only way a console can be successful. Even if Sony released their games multiplatform, even other consoles, console sales would still be about the same, especially if Xbox is doing the same. Sony already has the brand power and awareness to sell consoles, even without exclusives. The audience for consoles will always be there because they prefer the simplicity of it.
Games are becoming too expensive now to keep everything on one platform. Hence why the president is saying this.
Releasing on PC sooner rather than later will certainly help. And while they are thinking about it... they too could pick a select few titles to port to XB and Switch like XB has done. Nothing wrong with a little reciprocation in this business. Nintendo could do the same with some of theirs as well. In the online, live service space... all are welcome.
PS5 is a hardware success but a software unsuccess
What do you mean? Do you think people buy the consoles just to use them as paper weights?
Make triple AAA games exclusive for 1-2 years on console then release it on pc
Helldivers is somewhat double AA products and can be released day one on pc
Sounds a little bit like the Xbox news i heard earlier today
Helldivars 2 is Sonys most popular PC game and it was day and date. Its obvious.
and now less people will buy PS5 because of it. PC players might have bought some stuff on PSN. If Sony is gonna do this they need to have their own storefront on PC and make the games exclusive there
Sony will make more money off Steam than them having their own storefront.
Not if people go to PS5 and then buy other stuff there. Then they get a cut of everything and peripherals and all other manner of stuff!
Why would customers do that? Once you start investing in Steam they will start to realize the benefits, offers free online, better deals and offers a bigger community. Steam is just a better place to play PC games. Sony can try a PS PC store front but based on those before it, doesn't work out in the long run.
More sales will make up the 30% difference
Sounds like they should get more incentive to make their ecosystem better than steam
They can try, or they can just make a plethora of more sales bringing games to Steam. Helldivars 2 has surely proven that.
one sale while losing an ecosystem member
Millions of more software sold = Greater profits.
