PlayStation Co-CEO: Consoles to Remain Core of Business - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 October 2024 / 2,812 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment's CEO of Studio Business Group and Hideaki Nishino in an interview with Nikkei (and translated by VideoGamesChronicle) said consoles will remain the core of its business, even as the company releases more titles on PC.
"I think that with mobile devices, there are many games that show advertisements, and PCs are difficult to set up, but with PlayStation, once you turn it on, you can experience the content you bought straight away," said Nishino.
"The store where you purchase software also offers an intuitive experience because the products are laid out in an easy-to-understand manner."
He added, "We are trying to increase our share of the overall game market by developing content for PCs as well. There is no doubt that consoles will be at the core of our business, but by offering titles for platforms other than consoles, we will reach a wider range of customers."
PlayStation has started to release live service games day one on PlayStation and PC, but the single-player and narrative-drive games will launch as first on PlayStation with the PC release later on.
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the PlayStation 5 Pro last week. The mid-generation upgrade to the PS5 will launch on November 7 for $699.99 / £699.99 / €799.99 / ¥119,980. Pre-orders will open on September 26.
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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"PCs are difficult to set up, but with PlayStation, once you turn it on, you can experience the content you bought straight away,"
Yeah, that's always been one the big differentiators between consoles and PCs since the beginning of the video game industry being a plug and play solution. But, there's also supposed to be another big differentiator between consoles and PCs that Nishino doesn't address. Affordability. The 3DO and NeoGeo being 2 prime examples of consoles charging an absurd premium that priced out the majority of the console market and ultimately failed. You can even make a case for the PS3 launch that made Sony eventually change course. But that's something I hope console makers really consider going into the next generation.
It's not the case of plug and play. You have to install the game first, and then the patches . Not much different to loading a pc, and installing . It's a fast experience
On PC, I don't pay to play online, I have several stores to choose from where to buy games, I have game subscription services like Game Pass or cloud computing services like GeForce Now. Therefore, because PC users have all these facilities, the price of games is lower than the price charged in any console store.
I'm a consumer, so I don't care about the work involved in making games for my hardware, but I demand that they arrive optimized and without many bugs. The company must find a way to minimize costs and maximize profits, and there are several competent professionals for this, in addition to the variety of technologies.
Stop looking for photorealistic graphics and focus on producing games with a good story, well optimized, with minimum frame rates of 60FPS, at least 1440p (4K would be better). I think people want this... I'm not going to stop the game to see the detail in the corner of a wall, how many pixels there are in that scene, a 5 FPS drop... man! I just want to play fun stuff at a fair price.
"I'm a consumer, so I don't care about the work involved in making games for my hardware, but I demand that they arrive optimized and without many bugs. The company must find a way to minimize costs and maximize profits, and there are several competent professionals for this, in addition to the variety of technologies."
I kinda feel you are asking for a contradiction here. You want service games because it's cheaper and support PC because it's cheaper, which means less money put into the industry then want better more optimised games with few bugs that run consistently with minimum specs that for the most part, most game companies even now are struggling to achieve. Nintendo don't even bother with 60fps and 4k and charge £60 for their games, that's how much Astro Bot is and I mean still £60. Breath of the Wild is still that price on their digital store.
I agree that there needs to be more competition on digital store fronts, if we are to move to a digital future, it needs the same competition high streets once had as most digital store fronts while doing lots of sales also reset their prices after back to RRP and rare is it game stay down in price like retailers would do as demand drops (although question is Nintendo keeps their prices on their store at high because demand is never going down. :P).
There is no contradiction... There are several good books on production management... I like Nigel Slack's book, where he deals precisely with maximizing profits and minimizing costs, focusing on 5 production objectives: speed, quality, cost, reliability and flexibility.
We are in the era of cloud computing, AI and the Internet of Things, so there is a possibility of achieving the 5 production objectives. Microsoft is a leader in AI. Is it really that difficult to produce an AI that can optimize the work of programmers? Is it impossible to create an AI that can identify bugs and perhaps fix them without the programmer having to check several lines of code? An AI that can identify the type of hardware and the combination of components, and thus be able to optimize the software through algorithms and machine learning to get the most out of it. Would this cause unemployment? Yes, it would, but the company can prepare its employees with courses to qualify them and use them for other areas.
The gaming industry needs to modernize, an industry needs to take the lead and truly make continuous improvement (PDCA). Walter Andrew Shewhart and other quality gurus taught us that there is always room for improvement, but this is extremely beneficial for customers and for the industry that applied the quality concepts... if the competition doesn't keep up, then all that's left is to see their profit margins fall and their market share shrink.
I repeat that it's cheaper on PC, because there's healthy competition from stores wanting to offer games at a cheaper price than any console store. You yourself say that Nintendo charges high prices for low-budget games, but who is Nintendo's competitor? The company is right! The same will happen when Microsoft gives up the XBox console and becomes a major studio, because who will compete with Playstation? The company won't listen to the consumer in a market where there is no competition, so games selling for $80 or $90 on the console wouldn't be a surprise to me... it wouldn't be a surprise if Sony readjusted the price of games by 5 to 10% every year, following inflation in several countries.
I mean at the end of the day they are a hardware company.
Good. It is as it should be and all is well in the land.
Yeah, a lot of these debates around console vs PC recently are silly. At the end of the day 90% of console consumers are not interesting in having a PC under their living room TV lol
For the 10% its of cause valuable conversation to gauge what will bring you more value. Maybe in the next decade MS or another hardware maker will streamline the PC gaming experience to make it living room friendly
This is in line with cloud gaming, where you can pay for a subscription service and play your games on any device, and the best part is that you don’t need console or PC hardware.
For casual gamers, this is great, as they can just turn on the TV, grab a controller and play. If cloud gaming companies can achieve frame rates above 60 FPS and 4K, then many people might not see the need to buy a console or PC to play.
Our focus will be to make our ecosystem as DIY as possible. You will buy a separate stand, separate disc drive and separate storage for PS6 and it will cost a lot. However we will delay our games for pc enough that you will still be inclined to buy it.
They certainly aren't abandoning Console anytime soon... but it will continue to decrease as a primary focus
People can dislike all they want... but the truth is undeniable
PlayStations focus has gone from 100% all Console to adding PC and even TV into the mix.
Focus isn't greatly diminished... but it certainly isn't 100% anymore either.
"ripping the crap out of our customers will remain the core of our business"
Fixed it for you
You guys are so salty. It is literally only 50$ more than the highest tier of steam deck, yet none of you have a problem with steam deck pricing model
sigh Steam Deck is first of all a PC. It’s not a console. A fairly powerful handheld PC at that. You always pay a premium for PC capabilities on the go. Like a laptop where there's quite a few that are the same price as a standard gaming desktops. You try to package what the PS5 Pro has in handheld form and you’re gonna be looking at well past $1000 starting. And Steam Deck is actually on the low end of handheld PC pricing compared to what's in the market like the Lenovo Legion Go or Asus ROG Ally. Your hot takes are insane man. As long as it's in Sony's favor I suppose. You seem to think Sony is incapable of doing wrong.
You know Steam OS isn't as useful and windows PC though right? Lacks a lot of features so that argument would only work with the ROG ally or something similar. I know you can install Windows on it but from what I have seen windows doesn't work as well as hoped
SteamOS is built on Linux. You have 2 modes on Steam Deck. Handheld mode (the console-like experience) and Desktop mode. You switch it to Desktop mode, and you have a whole standard operating system ;P I've used my Steam Deck for everything from standard internet browsing to even for work. Not to mention, you can fully install Windows on your Steam Deck if you want! Like I said, it's a PC. You can install anything you want. That even goes for the ROG Ally. Valve is even opening SteamOS to be installed on any PC if you want.
Don't believe me? Here's Valve's instructions on how to install Windows on Steam Deck. https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6121-ECCD-D643-BAA8 very first sentence, "Steam Deck is a PC, and other applications and OSes can be installed"
No I'm not. Steam Deck using Linux is exactly why I'm bringing it up. Linux lacks of lot of compatibility compared to Windows. You wouldn't buy a handheld based on Linux to use a PC, lets face it and be honest with ourselves. I know you can install windows on it, but Linus made a video called "i installed windows on a steam deck and regret it". Windows doesn't work that well on it because it wasn't designed to run windows as it's primary function
Yes you are. You clearly have never used it. You're just going by what you've heard on videos. Outdated videos at that. To your first point, yeah Linux isn't a 1:1 with Windows, but it has the applications that the majority of purchasers would be using it for. Whenever I'm using the desktop, I rarely ever think about what I'm missing from my regular PC. Office for example, but I'll just use an alternative that's available on Linux. There's always another solution. And most importantly, a LOT more functionality than what the PS5 Pro OS offers, thus further devaluing your initial argument.
Also, you're pointing out a Linus video from when the Steam Deck first launched. When Valve was focusing on just getting the platform to as smooth a state as possible. Within just a few months after launch, updated drivers were provided to where Windows works like Windows now. I certainly didn't have any problems with it. Don't point out videos that are literally years out of date.
Ultimately, my initial point still stands. Steam Deck is a handheld PC and trying to compare that to the PS5 Pro to try to justify the price is a bad faith argument. Especially when you consider just the screen of the Steam Deck is at least $100 IIRC. You're not gonna get a screen on the PS5 Pro.
Ultimately, you trying to convince me and others that I can't use steam deck pricing because it's TECHNICALLY a PC is ridiculous. No-one is going to use that tiny screen to do PC related things on and you know it.
Another sigh you can dock the Steam Deck to a monitor or TV and use it like a regular desktop with a mouse and keyboard and the whole shebang. LMAO "technically" a PC? Brother, IT IS a PC. Goodness gracious I need to know your thought process lol
No-one's buying steam decks to dock them and use them as a PC though are they. Geez. What is YOUR thought process.
Yes, they are. Quite a few do lol. Does the majority? Idk, probably not, but many still do. I'm someone who constantly follows the Steam Deck community and sees questions about what dock to get or best way to streamline their setup all the time, and you're just claiming that nonsense because your argument is fundamentally flawed. Stop moving your own goal posts. Every new comment you make goes further and further away from your initial point.
Going by your logic, the PS3 launching at 599$ in 2006 (780 today) is completely fine because you could install Linux on it so it technically wasn't just a gaming device. It's just a stupid argument to make, but your the one making it.
Wow you really going down that rabbit hole lol. I’m not gonna respond to yet another bad faith argument about a device that was a console first and never a PC first the way the Steam Deck is.
I will end this conversation with this though as it’s something I completely forgot about. Outside of the quality of the screen and the amount of internal storage, the Steam Deck has the exact same internal power across all models. So whether you’re playing on the $350 model or $650 model, game performance is exactly the same. So yeah, your argument is dead and buried as you’re comparing the performance of a console that’s $700 to a device that can be as low as $350 for the same performance as the $650 model.
so when you say Steam deck has other uses other than gaming it's fine but when I say ps3 could use Linux and also has other uses other than gaming it's bad faith? Just accept your L kind sir. I totally owned you with that PS3 argument and now you have no answer.
Steam Deck is, again, a PC that can also fully run Windows properly. Can’t do that on the PS3. So just keeping screaming into your own echo chamber. I’m sure all 5 people that actually went out of their way to use Linux on their PS3, a GAME CONSOLE, which didn’t even have anywhere near the same amount of functionality in 2006 as it does today, were very happy to have that usability while, everyone else was busy playing classic games like MGS4 and The Last of Us. You keep telling yourself that though ;) peace!
What a hypocrite.
They're not, but PlayStation isn't that well liked on this website. SpongeBob edition Xbox console was just being sold for 700$ and haven't seen any outrage over that. Xbox can launch SpongeBob edition consoles for 700$ but it's not OK when Sony does it
Odd that a sales site favors XBOX. Must be depressing for the folks who come here as XBOX favorites.
Essay Pro