Uncharted PC Port Has Lowest Player Count of Any Sony Game at Launch

Tbf I feel like Uncharted's released in a rather crowded time window, awkwardly sandwiched between A Plague Tale: Requiem and Persona 5 Royal, with Modern Warfare breathing down Nathan Drake's back too. Furthermore, Uncharted as a franchise have always been viewed with some negativity amongst the so-called PC Master Race owing to its so-called CiNeMaTiCity, so it's not entirely surprising that the game didn't do as well as it should even given its mascot franchise status. Expect TLOU to do even worse imho. I personally find this kind of attitude insufferable but sadly Bloodborne or Bust is a very prevalent mentality amongst this community.

That said I'm one of the proud 10,000 players who have given the game a second go, and is eager to experience the 4K 100+fps max visuals goodness on her newly bought RTX 4090.

After the initial novelty of PS 1st party games being on PC has worn off it looks like, as most predicted, PC gamers aren't interested in these types of games, not to mention they get cracked and pirated day one.

Sony has devalued their brand for PC scraps.

They probably should have released all 5 games at the same time the movie came out. But hey, what do I know.

@TrickyDicky99 Ah the sanctimony about piracy. Buying used games would have similarly deprived game studios of their income, and prior to the implementation of DRM piracy on consoles wasn't uncommon either. Going back further to the days before I was even born, Famiclones and 100-in-1 cartridges were everywhere too and ironically it's because of that Mario and Zelda have become household names.

I'm not surprised, it's a game with "4" on the title, and primarily known for its narrative, people are going to be more hesitant to jump in.

IMO Sony should have just ported the trilogy, it doesn't need to be up to par with modern releases, people know they're older games, we see old games re-release all the time.

Maybe releasing a story based game with the number 4 in a new platform is not a great idea but then what do I know...

Judging by the lack of fanfare from Sony about the port they weren't expecting big numbers anyway. Seems like it got as much attention as it deserved from all parties and there's nothing wrong with that.

Let's not ignore the fact that thousands of people can't play the game because of driver and CPU related issues. I am one of those people that can't launch the game before installing an old NVIDIA driver.

BTW the PS blog about this release suggests that Uncharted 1-3 will receive remakes just like TLOU 1.

@SweetSummerShunv buying used games means people can sell their games, and they use that money to buy more new games. Just like how the car market works. Without being able to sell cars the whole car market would collapse.

I reckon they are remaking Uncharted 1, as we speak.

Hopefully, this sends a message to Sony. Enough with these PC ports. Something like Dreams would have been fine. Everything else, not so much.

Cue all the salty fanboys that are still coping with PS games on PC...

@SweetSummerShunv "Ah the sanctimony about piracy. Buying used games would have similarly deprived game studios of their income.

The two aren't in anyway remotely comparable. Second hand games are not available to millions of people on release day. A site I'm a member of had close to 20k downloads for GOW on the day it came out for PC, that's one site that requires invitation to access, so imagine the numbers across the board.

None of these numbers above sound like success stories to me.
So much effort and resources wasted for them PC ports and they are already minimalizing to an absolute. Not to mention the devaluation of the console itself. The same fate will be on their mobile attempt. Just watch.
It's time to accept PC gamers, console gamers and mobile gamers aren't the same kind of gamers. They might be a small portion of overlapping but the absolute majority is its own thing.

I hope this keep happening so Sony stop porting games to pc.

It's a game I enjoyed back when it came out but I've no interest in playing it again on PC, there are a lot of games coming out at the moment so I'm not surprised that it has struggled

@GuttyYZ The game would definitely benefit from it. Hopefully they can do Golden Abyss at the same time.

That said, i'd prefer a new game in the franchise if given the option

Not surprising given Nathan Drake Collection isn't on PC, expecting players to start with Uncharted 4 is a guaranteed disaster waiting to happen.

I don't buy the excuse that it's selling poorly due to PC players not having the prior games for backstory. The Uncharted games are largely self-contained stories anyway. Explain how Metal Gear Solid V was successful on PC when neither MGS3 or MGS4 ever came to PC.

I bet Sony will still come out and say they were pleased with these pitiful numbers though and will have zero effect on how quick they release their PC ports.

That's because they're not exclusive games anymore. Just ...games. Thanks, Sony.

@Rob_230 Same, I would prefer a new Uncharted story.

Also in response to this article, I think you are right. A quick Google reveals that the top search, at least earlier, was 'Uncharted 1 PC'. So people are wondering if they can play 1-3 first before 4.

It's for sure because of Persona 5 R. I've seen somewhere that it has around 30k players simoultaneously.
I guess the hype was greater for the JRPG.

Shame, they’re missing out on something that has no peer on their platform.

Sad to see that some people here have the same ”SONY BETRAYED US!” mentality. Blessing us with a few ”Ragnarök is gonna FLOP, because it comes to pc in 2024!” comments in the near future too, I’m sure.

I probably would’ve bought this if I was new to the series, but I would also be disappointed by the trilogy not being playable on the same platform too.

@truerbluer Game series reputation, hot buzz on the controversy with Kojima, and probably because both parts of Metal Gear Solid V simultaneously released within the same year (GZ) & day (TPP) of the console ports. And it having a bigger distance narratively from MGS4 for sure.

As for Uncharted, they definitely aren't self-contained. Except Golden Abyss on PS Vita with being a prequel. Starting out with Uncharted 2 for example, the characters talk about events in UC1 that have you wondering what the heck happened. Same in UC4 when they put such heavy emphasis on Nathan debating on quitting after everything he went through when he talks about it.

Pretty much Uncharted has became more niche of a franchise in the previous decade under the shadow of Last of Us and other new mainstream games. This new version is 5-6 years after the original release dates. I'm sure they were expecting bigger sales after the movie's success. But the name "Uncharted" doesn't have a strong buzz like in 2012 anymore.

Time to revert some policies and stick to what made playstation so great. They did an easy moneygrab when they had trouble to produce enough ps5s but the time has come to give the console their ultimate focus.

@Intr1n5ic And yet, piracy somehow did not affected huge numbers of players for God of War, Spider-Man or Horizon Zero Dawn...

I did not expect Uncharted to reach huge numbers akin to God of War. But being way lower than Days Gone is really surprising.

I didn't even realise it had released on PC. There was so little fanfare for this launch.

@Godot25 They aren't huge. they are ok considering the huge install base of PC's. In contrary sony sells 10+ million copies throught their consoles for AAA games.

I'm a major Uncharted fan, but don't really want a PS5 and have moved to PC only now. I didn't buy it because 1, it was 50 bucks for games I've already played. 2, it should have included the Nathan Drake Collection as well. And 3, yeah it's a crowded season. PC players don't want to pay the same amount as ps5 players at launch 6 months to a year down the line. It's why I didn't buy FF7 integrate on PC until it hit 50 or 40 bucks. Not paying 70 for a year old game.

@DrClayman PC players play stuff from the 360 generation all the time. It wouldn't have mattered.

I could imagine that many who are interested didn't buy it because for some reason Sony decided to not put Uncharted 1-3 on PC as well

Also, I would have bought it if it included the excellent UC4 multiplayer, but they couldn't be bothered to support that either.

@zebric21 Yes. They are huge considering circumstances.
You are forgetting, that Sony is releasing those games on PC years after PS4. It's literally free money laying around that they are now collecting. Cost of port is miniscule and you get few millions copies sold.

People who bought them on PC does not want to play on consoles. So Sony is chasing those remaining players who are willing to buy those games but are not willing to play on consoles.

I can guarantee you, that if those games were released on PC day one, numbers on Steam would be different.

@Godot25 I'm not forgetting anything, i know that's literally free money for them but they can't expect to sell like crazy either so i would focus my efforts on ps5 right now as stock is improving.

Think it's more the total flood of titles hitting PC from Sony right now.

maybe a large portion of PC players have played it? many have a console alongside pc.

@zebric21 But focusing on one is not diminishing focus on another. PC port was created by Iron Galaxy. So it's literally no big deal for operation of PlayStation Studios (Naughty Dog in this case).
So I don't know what PS5 stock has anything to do with Uncharted on PC.

Look. Sony needs perpetual growth in revenue. PlayStation is main engine for that growth. So it's clear that PlayStation console gamers are not enough anymore. That's why Sony is releasing their games on PC. That's why every live service is coming also on PC day one. Days of "you have to buy this console to play this game" are over.

I just think of this game as another tomb raider with a different character, It doesn't interest me for that reason, maybe some people are the same as me.

I’ve come to regard Uncharted as one of PlayStation’s least interesting properties now. The original trilogy works in the context of design trends of the era they were released in but I found 4 hard to replay because I found little compelling about it other than it being a showcase for the PS4’s graphical grunt.

Not the kind of game a lot of people head to PC to play, not surprised at all. I don’t expect many Sony titles to really blow up on PC, except for maybe Bloodborne or Returnal.

@jrt87

they bought a special box; Just not one sold by sony.

My first thought was "4" and "Thief's End" being the issue putting people off.

But I actually played 4 first, and it is definitely a game you can play before the others, because the character work is so good. But then, when do PC players care about character development and story??? 😁😁😁 PC players (yes I'm generalising on purpose for effect) are the type of people who instantly skip cutscenes and care only about gameplay and frame rates and killing enemies 😁😁😁 no idea what's going on in the story, or why anything is happening, but hey, there's killing to be done!

In summary, it's not the "4" or the fact it's the "Thief's End" it's the letters "P" and "C" that are the issue 😬

@Intr1n5ic Sony would not be getting money from the pirates at all either if they haven't released the PC port. On the contrary they'd not even get the money from PC gamers who do not pirate. Furthermore, piracy can still serve as ways to increase exposure, and do you honestly think that everyone who knows about Mario or Zelda outside the developed countries did so because they own a legit Nintendo console?

@Ravix Fun fact: most played games on the consoles are still sports, CoD MULTIPLAYER and racers.

Just got a steam deck and really thought hard about getting this game until I realized it was 50 bucks. And upon some further thought I decided that the uncharted collection would be way more satisfying on the hand held.

Edit: apparently it runs pretty well in the deck but at 50 bucks it still doesn’t feel like a great value. I’ll wait for a pretty steep sale.

@Godot25 Apart from HZD which sold around 3M on PC (mainly due to it being the first 1st party game to release), the other games barely hit 1M sold.

What huge numbers are you referring to?

@TrickyDicky99 So now it's about the consumers, then in that case why singling out the PC gamers who pirate if they're also trying to save some money? If it's about the game studios getting compensated then buying and selling second hand games is as damaging as piracy. Don't think for a moment that if the console makers just ditch DRM tomorrow pirated discs won't start popping up all over the places, and indeed jailbroken PS5s that allow pirated games already exist:

https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/03/the-ps5-has-been-jailbroken-to-allow-pirated-games-for-the-first-time-17492849/#:~:text=It%20happens%20to%20every%20console,custom%20software%2C%20including%20pirated%20games.

Again I won't judge PS5 players who do this either, so long as you intend to go fully legit when you've landed yourself a well paid job.

@SweetSummerShunv if you buy used games you are helping the industry because the people who sell their games can use the money to buy more new games, it's not difficult to understand.

People who buy new cars sell their cars after a while and buy new cars again. Now imagine if they couldn't sell their cars, the sales of new cars would plummet

@TrickyDicky99 Ehhh.
Sony released last numbers few days after God of War released on Steam.

So, Spider-Man was not out at that time, and God of War will surpass Horizon for sure based on concurrent players number. So I think that all three broke at least million copies sold.

Days Gone was not that successful, but to be honest, that game was not successful on PlayStation either. That's why second game was not greenlit by Sony.

Current estimates by VG Insights are 1,2 million for God of War, 1,15 million for Spider-Man, 2,4 million for HZD, 1,29 million for Days Gone. Not bad numbers at all. Also those numbers are not counting EGS numbers.

It’s so amusing that certain members of this community get up in arms over the games they love reaching a wider audience.

@SweetSummerShunv yes? 😁 I mean I clearly stated I am generalising for effect...

but even then I'm talking exclusively about games with a storyline.

When it comes down to games with a story, I'd wager more people skip cutscenes on PC to get back to the action/killing. So I'm not surprised it's not gone wild with big numbers. It's not a very "PC" game.

I mean, I've seen people skip the cutscenes on The Witcher 3 on PC just because they want to get to the action and killing, and nearly 100% of The Witcher storyline from Novels to games is that maybe killing isn't actually the answer 😅

@TrickyDicky99 Piracy also helps games to get a lot more exposure so it also helps the industry, even if less directly so. Plenty of kids who were born in less-than-wealthy families got to know these games through playing the pirated versions, and end up buying legit copies when they grow up. The industry won't be getting the pirates' money anyway but stand to lose the revenue from the legit PC gamers.

Didn't Naughty Dog say they are releasing a PC version of every game they make back to back with ps5 going forward?

@Ravix It really depends on the playstyle of the player and personally I don't agree with your example there either - heck I even dunked on these PC elitists myself, but I don't think when some PC players choose to skip cutscenes, it means that they don't like stories or plots. Heck in the ancient days of PC gaming, there were wholly text-based RPG games, so I don't think skipping a few convo lines mean that PC gamers are in general uninterested in storyline.

While I'm also someone who thinks putting your games on other platforms devalues your own, I've gotta say, these anti-PC gaming posts are pretty openly ridiculous.

@TrickyDicky99 Most people selling used games are not depending on those feeble revenues to fund new game purchases. And even if they were, there's no evidence it wouldn't be used to buy other used games.

I mean, this entire franchise has always been a PlayStation exclusive, launching it in a new platform, but only the fourth game in a narrative driven franchise seems a little alienating.
I don't understand why they didn't release the remastered trilogy before the fourth entry. I bet more people would be interested.

@SweetSummerShunv yeah, it was mostly just a joke and a broad generalisation of PC players for personal entertainment, based on something I'd seen which I consider sacrilegious, the skipping of Witcher cutscenes. For which the penalty should be the confiscation of all games that run at over 60fps because PC gamers physically can't cope playing games under 120 without vomitting, I hear 😁😁😁

I still think Uncharted isn't really that suited to PC though. But if anyone is worried about jumping in at 4, definitely do it, it's worth it. But not if you're going to skip cutscenes, because then it's really not worth it 😁

Having watched the Digital Foundry analysis of this, I thought Alex basically concluded it was a moderately lazy PC port with not enough settings to tweak, plus some visual bugs that may or may not be fixed on the retail version. I wasn't impressed and by the sounds of it neither was he.

Perhaps it's just not a big enough improvement to warrant serious interest from PC players. For me it's just Sony doing the usual thing of trying to keep up with Microsoft and not pulling it off (the overpriced DualSense Edge is their version of an Elite 2 for example).

Yes they should have ported the trilogy first and its senseless that they didn't. Then port 4. Then do a quadrilogy collection at a discounted rate. That seems like simple business sense to me, but Sony run more on senselessness and hubris these days so it's not surprising.

@KaijuKaiser They did make another PSP. It was called the PS Vita. It was amazing hardware but then Sony gave up on it and poured all their effort into the then-new PS4 instead.

what’s the appeal of this franchise anyway

@jrt87 okay. And cinematic games were largely developed and backed heavily on PlayStation and definitely still thrive on PlayStation and became the identity of PlayStation.

And we are talking about specific cinematic, narrative heavy action games where there is a choice to skip to the action.

Of the games that have been ported to PC, the ones doing the best are the ones where the action is massively more engaging than Uncharted. Uncharted is great, but without the story it is not as great as the others. The set pieces are fantastic, but they are basically quick time plotted events, with some repeated platforming and shooting segments (which work because of visual appeal and design, and desire to move ahead with the story) Whereas God of War is also great, but if you cut all the story it is still a great mindless action axe em up, cut the Spider-Man story and it is a fast paced web slinging action fest, cut the story from horizon and it's a cool Robo-Dino hunting sim. So the portion of PC players who might like to skip to the action might well be more happy with the other 3 titles. Therefore there is a disparity created, and that's the basis of my theory which I posted partially for humour's sake anyway 😁

@nomither6 the characters, the locations, the set pieces and the mix of humour and seriousness (the overall tone) and the way it is written and made with sympathy for the things it is inspired by.

I don't enjoy the gunplay in it much, but I pushed on for those mentioned reasons and loved it for them.

I have a PS5 and PC, I buy most of my games on PC but have a PS5 for Sony's games, but I do buy any of those on PC too. However, without getting 1 - 3 I am not buying 4 until I know I can get the others. It was an odd choice and I think a lot of players aren't going to jump in on Part 4, and yes I know some games have proven this wrong, but this is def the case for me. I love the series, but I there is less of a reason to double dip here as I cannot play the first games.

Good it flopped

Didn't Spiderman JUST drop? The timing is likely what is causing the low sales plus to a lesser extent this is mainly one of those games you sit back on a couch and play. Not really made for PC gaming.

Probably because you asked a massive group of PC only players, to purchase the FOURTH game in a series without providing the means for them to play the first trilogy and get to know the characters. It's like starting with Memberberries and then going back to watch what they are talking about. It's backwards and dumb.

The PC ports are still mindboggling from a long term business view. Absolutely devaluing their brand, reason to buy consoles, taking the allure away from their games, etc just for some scraps from PC players. PC players show loyalty to no one and that's not an insult, just the truth. This should be a wake up call.

@TrickyDicky99 amen you right on point with that statement

There a lot of reasons why this wasnt as successful. First, it an old game at this point and isnt excatly worth it price tag. Second, the port was done by Iron galaxy, who plenty remember as the studio who ported Arkham knight to PC. Third, the game has a AVX2 requirement leaving many PC gamers unable to play...

The list goes on... it also doesn't help that the release was smack dab between plague tale requiem, MW2, Persona 5 royal, and Gotham Knight.

Hopefully, sackboy a big adventure does better.

Off topic I’m kinda concerned for Sony not enough variety in their exclusives more and more remasters and remakes on the horizon the PS5 is kinda boring system at the moment hopefully that will change

I believe this is the first time they released a pc port during the holiday time frame.

Spiderman and HZD were august. God of War was January. Days Gone was May.

I wouldn't be shocked if sackboy and miles morales underwhelm against the big holiday titles too.

It's almost as if porting the 4th and 5th entries in a series before the first three was a monumentally dumb idea...

There are some issues running this game on PC that are not going to help it climb the charts.It's buggy. Unplayable for me right now. Going to roll back the Nvidia driver to see if it's playable. I reckon I am about half way through the game and it constantly crashes to desktop. Reading some steam discussions it seems quite common. This is the only game I have had trouble running on my PC.

@Ralizah I know plenty of people who buy games at launch and trade them in a month or two later and get 50%-75% of the purchase price back.

@Godot25 the released figures a few months after God of War released and was under 1M. Meanwhile it sold 3.5M in 3 days on PS4.

@Ralizah As someone who had to quit gaming from time to time during her austere university years owing to both academic work load and financial reasons, selling used games was essential to paying my bills in the last week or so before my studentship cheques - yes that's how bad I was with finances back then.

I play on all platforms I can afford to buy. Although I’m mostly a console gamer. Also, PC gaming for me is definitely NOT Windows, but I don’t know how much this is relevant these days.

All of that said.

I want to get it to play it on my SD, but I’m not going to pay 50 euros for a game I’ve already played twice on console.

Not the most relevant of comments as gamers like me are probably just outliers.

@DoppiaD why not windows ? i game on console mostly even though i have a pc too

@TrickyDicky99 Nope.
Data is from march. So, few weeks after launch of God of War on PC.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTo7BboXsAEujrq?format=jpg&name=large

God of War almost million, HZD 2,4 million and Days Gone 825k. So that was without Spider-Man released. It safe to say that God of War is way beyond one million. Same for Spider-Man.

@nomither6 I’ve been working in IT for more than 20 years now and I learned to dislike it. I don’t want anything to do with it. I use Linux on desktop and MacOS on laptop, mostly because of the Apple Silicon. Although I gotta admit I learned to like it. Linux remains king for me though.

I too game for the most part on console. But sometimes I use a PC, with Linux or MacOS even. Also the Steam Deck, but quite honestly I consider that more a console that runs PC games.

@DoppiaD oh ok , that’s interesting . i asked because i never knew how preferred Mac is over windows , i’ve been hearing about it more than ever recently . even with things like adobe programs , mac is mostly preferred . it’s a shame for me because i’m so used to windows and inevitably will need to use mac sooner or later

My laptop struggles to play Classic WoW.

@claytortot213 it's bloody hilarious keep em coming 🤣

@Godot25 God of War released in Jan and figures are as of March, so a few months, not weeks

@TrickyDicky99 Does it disprove my point? Not really.

I've stopped playing on PC in favour of my PS5!

I can only talk about my situation, being on Steam for more than 10 years(where pc gamers online Store has over 70k games).
I didn't even know until last month that some PS games were ported to PC.
I didn't invest on my PC every 2-3 years, so I am more like retro gamer instead of playing always newest AAA games.
There are so much games on Steam, and PS games don't stand out from the crowd in my opinion. Don't take me wrong, many of them are great games. However, there was life on Steam before ported games and I am telling you, there are many amazing games out there already.
There are a few game categories which are more likely playable on PC than PS.(if it would exist on console). Some gamers like (Only?) those type of games.?

Might ported games are not as popular yet as it expected but I like the idea. Maybe some better marketing is needed or time to spread the "word" between PC communities.