Godot25

It's almost like what Spencer said about people being so entrenched in their ecosystem, they won't leave is true.

PlayStation users haven't bought Xbox consoles for Forza Horizon 5 and waited 5 years for it's arrival and then bought it in droves. They are doing same thing with Starfield and they would have done same thing with Fable, Gears of War E-Day etc.

And there is so much to play that if those games didn't come to PlayStation, they would shrug it off and play something else. Something PC players will start doing when Sony will stop porting their games to PC.

tbf. not many people bought Returnal on both platforms lol. And I don't expect Saros being insanely popular.

Ehh. No.
According to info currently "out there" Project Helix will support Windows. Meaning all Windows games. If Sony would be dumb enough to somehow block it (which I doubt, because it would set dangerous precedent and I doubt Valve would even allow it), there is still pirate hat to put on lol.

...said the "leaker" who also claimed that there will be a huge layoff wave in January in Xbox division? And that next Xbox console probably won't be a thing?

Yeah. That one.

I mean, I don't expect exclusives to come back, but I would take this guys "leaks" with biggest pinch of salt ever.

@StitchJones Yeah. But that was when development of AAA game didn't cost 300 million without marketing lol.

Not to mention fact that one studio was able to release AAA game every other year. Not like today, when you need to wait 5 years for one game.

Pretending that things are like in 2016 is laughable at best.

Novelty of PC releases of PS Studios games just worn off. Combine that with fact that releases were staggered. So Sony basically came to conclusion. Either we will release story-driven games day one on PC (to boost sales), or we will cancel them.

So either PS5 ports sold like dogshit on PC, so Sony is stopping porting because of that. In that case you can hardly expect PC users to buy PS5, because they clearly lost interest in your games. I mean, if you look and compare Steam CCU of God of War to God of War Ragnarok, you can see more than 50% drop-off.

Or PS5 ports were selling relatively good on PC, but Sony is feeling "cannibalisation." In which case they will hope that because 1-2 games per year PC users will buy 600€ console. Which is hardly a given. If they won't do that you are essentially giving up on "free" revenue.

There are two problems in my opinion. First is fact that people are so entrenched in their system of choice because of digital distribution that expecting them to buy second system is just really hard ask to do. Especially when you expect them to switch permanently. Which Sony obviously hopes for. But I doubt PC players have any reason to switch because PC ecosystem have way more games and exclusives. I would argue that prying PC user from his ecosystem is hardest thing to do because of free MP, cheaper games, more choice.

And second and biggest problem is quantity of games. Sony currently just doesn't have quantity of SP story-driven first-party games to justify switch for most of the people. You basically have Insomniac, Naughty Dog, SSM, Asobi, Sucker Punch, Guerrilla, Housemarque. Housemarque and Asobi are definition of niche and can't be considered system seller studios. Guerrilla is making MP game and their SP game won't be there until 2030 at the earliest.
So you are basically left out with studio that haven't released new game in this gen (Naughty Dog), Sony Santa Monica which is stuck with making games in God of War universe, Sucker Punch and Insomniac which has been hard-carrying PS5 gen.
I'm sorry, but 1-2 games per year is hardly a good reason to buy whole console for.

And most hilarious thing is that Sony just shut down studio that could increase their output in this regard (Bluepoint).

I'm disappointed tbh.
When Cory said he is working on new thing, I have expected it to be new thing. Not another game in God of War universe lol.
SSM is basically Insomniac, but instead of Marvel Games they are making their own "universe"

@dark_knightmare2 I said that I don't expect them to do anything. I was just reacting on fact that new boss could mean sweeping changes. So it isn't "you can't put genie back into the bottle."

All it would require is for Microsoft to start thinking long term instead of short term, like they are now. Asking for 30% margins when even PlayStation at their best is able to produce 14% margins is the primary reason why they went multiplatform. But I doubt they are able to do that.

What exactly is all over the place?
Xbox got a new boss. Nothing will obviously change short term because decisions made by new boss will take some time to implement.

But if she will find a vision that will satisfy demands from their superiors (Nadella and Amy Hood) and also results in some huge changes in terms of exclusivity of Xbox games, she can absolutely make some changes. That's what "The plan's the plan until it's not the plan," means.

But I doubt something will happen. I expect moving towards timed exclusivity at worst (or best, depends which side of console war you represent) or keeping things exactly like they are now.

I mean. If Sony got a new boss and that boss would present a strategy that would eliminate PC ports entirely and bosses would say "okay" than Sony would stop making PC ports. Let's stop pretending that this is some kind of "you can't put genie back to the bottle" situation lol.

And what exactly will PS fans do? PS5 is de-facto console. Sony won. Even if they would shut down majority of their first-party studios, people would still buy PS6 because they have all their games there and Xbox is publishing their games on PlayStation.

Sony is under no pressure to listen to feedback or even react to any kind of "boycott"

@theSpectre I haven't said that it was fault of studio itself.
But it was understandable. Because they made commercial and critical failure, while loosing majority of devs who made previous game special (Prey).

This is just headscratcher. Especially since they are experts in remake/remaster work and you JUST announced GOW trilogy remake.

@Leinad7 If competition will release hybrid console/PC then it literally doesn't matter because Sony is already releasing their games on PC. So nothing would change. And it's pretty clear that Nintendo doesn't care about "visuals" arms race.

Sony murdered Bluepoint to increase it's operating margin. For same reason why Xbox canned multiple studios and projects last year. Not because they had to (they were not in red), but to please shareholders.

It's just. Studios like Bluepoint, Media Molecule or Firesprite just won't move a needle for Sony post "Xbox-capitulation" world. They need multi-million sellers like TLOU, God of War, Horizon or Ghost of Yotei. They can secure nich-er games through external partnerships (like Kena or NioH 3) while not having those studios on constant payrolls. Those studios were more necessary when Xbox actually cared about consoles, because PlayStation used them as differentiator alongside their huge IPs.

It's similar situation for Xbox. When engaged in "war" it made sense to purchase niche studios like Double Fine, Ninja Theory or Compulsion Games. But as a huge publisher, you need huge sellers. And in world where Xbox have Gears, Fable, Forza Horizon, Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, Halo etc. I just can't see place for games like Hellblade 3 or Kiln. So I'm preparing for worst.

Well. It make sense in some twisted way.
Sony won console war. There is no incentive for them to keep running studios that are not producing multi-million sellers like Insomniac, SSM, Naughty Dog or Guerrilla Games. Why would they? They are default choice for console gamers regardless. And it won't change since Xbox next gen will be basically PC in console shell.

So why risking funding studios like that?
Purchases like Firesprite, Bluepoint, Housemarque etc. were made in reaction to arms race from Microsoft who purchased Bethesda and several other studios (pre-ABK). With Microsoft bowing out from this race there is no point.

If I'm Bend, Firesprite, Housemarque or Media Molecule I would be pretty worried for my future.

Shutting studio down after acquisition when game bombed it kinda understandable (looking at you Microsoft).
But purchasing a studio, which made no game for you (after acquisition) and you still shut it down is hilariously inept.

@the_everything_gamer ??
If you count out Sons of Sparta (which was developed mainly by external studio), they released one game in 2022. Another is slated for 2027 (Cory's new game per reliable insiders). And then there is GoW trilogy which is in preproduction - meaning several years from release.

Is it really comparable with Insomniac which made Miles Morales, R&C Rift Apart, Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine in span of 6 years? (if Wolverine won't be delayed)

@BeenGamingSince_83 "The PS5 still has gargantuan potential imo."
Where lol? People treat PS5 like some kind of exotic architecture (like PS3 was) where you can tap to some kind of unrealised potential, when in reality PS5 is just repackaged PC with custom OS and really really fast SSD.

I really don't understand it either.
It's almost a certainty that we will get 4-5 years cross-gen period. So it's not like people would need to buy PS6 at release lol. They can stay on PS5 and they will still receive games, including first-party stuff.

So I don't understand why people should "celebrate" delay of PS6 (and next-gen consoles in general). It's like celebrating that Nvidia delayed RTX 5060 because I "only" have RTX 2060. If you are okay with paying way higher price for console then usual, then just buy new console. If you don't see a value, stay with PS5 until price will drop to your desired amount after all RAM/SSD craze will end.

I would buy a console that will bring me better performance and not having a need to drop internal resolution to 576p while smudging screen with FSR. If someone isn't willing to do that, it's okay.

And let's be frank. Era of "generational" jumps is over. PS6 will bring at best more horsepower and better image reconstruction techniques and that's about it. There won't be another HDD - SSD jump and there certainly won't be any jump like from PS2 to PS3 or from PS1 to PS2. PS6 will be equivalent of PC GPU and CPU upgrade. And sooner will people come to terms with it, the better.

And some people were laughing at Microsoft trying to sell 4 years old game at full price lol...

Didn't expect anything else from Naughty Dog.
Studio this gen is huge ***** show. They haven't released any new game since start of this gen and still have to force employees to crunch, just to have something to release in 2027.
Meanwhile they spent several years making live service game until they realised that they don't want to become live service studio.

It's just hilarious and pathetic.

I though that after Xbox "gave up" people will migrate to PS5.
But it increasingly more looks like either console segment is actually shrinking (PS5 is still lagging behind PS4 by few millions while Series X/S is also lagging behind XOne), or former Xbox users are moving more towards PC, not PS5.

@Ryoth If that was outlier, I would agree. But 31st Union and Cloud Chamber are a talking in same tune. It's all about perception.

Like...Xbox is seen as failure in terms of managing their studios (or that's the "reality" if you visit social networks) because of closures like The Initiative despite the fact that they have released more than 10 high rated games (75+ on OC) in just one year and many successfully supported live service games alongside that. But all you read on the internet is how badly Xbox is managing their studios...

@Toot1st Yup. That's why I don't understand why anger is aimed towards Perfect Dark and Everwild and not towards Blackbird (ZOS new game). Because unlike PD and Everwild, Blackbird wasn't in dev hell for almost a decade and was almost ready for full production.

lol at "ruthlesly"
Game was in development for 8 years with few vertical slices to show for it. Xbox gave Gallagher two additional studios to help with development with no results.
Cancelling of PD (alongside Everwild) was least surprising cut Xbox has ever made. Even while it was disappointing. Blackbird on the other hand...

Also, with Take-Two and their handling of studios (Cloud Chamber with BioShock, Ghost Story with Judas, 31st Union with their game) it would be like going from one "bad" place to another lol.

@Acquiescence So will Xbox get Physint, since it will be able to run every game that is on PC

Thanks god that PS5 and upcoming PS6 is not using and will not use RAM...
...right?

@Vaako007 If your theory was correct, than every Xbox game would launch at those prices lol.

Truth is simpler. This is the game for avid fans that tend to be willing to spend more, because they know they will be playing this game for years to come. So for them additional content is worth it.

For guy who just want to dab into this genre, there is still base edition with enough content.

Also, this approach seems to be working fine.
https://i.ibb.co/xthTBx7t/Scherm-afbeelding-2025-11-04-om-08-58-24.png

@Dimey stop being delusional. Sony would not leave Steam even if they will try this cross-buy thing and their own Store.

Every publisher who tried to leave a Steam came back. Activision, Bethesda, Ubisoft, EA. Hell, even Blizzard started to release their games on Steam. Basically, only company big gaming that ignores Steam is Riot.

If next Xbox would be able to run full Windows (as an option to Xbox shell) and therefore run Steam, there isn't a way to prevent that device running .exe from PlayStation PC ports.

@Rich33 Well, according to data, COD currently is literally too big to fail. Only beaten by Fortnite in charts on console.

Obviously COD needs a lot of people to sustain, but that's also true for BF6. Or have you missed fact that EA threw four studios to the "Battlefield mines?" with Ars Technica reporting 450 million $ budget just for development? So to me, BF6 should be worried about being able to keep healthy playerbase. Because there is no way they can add as much content as COD is adding without that many devs supporting the game.

Also, even if BO7 won't be as successful as BO6 (which it probably won't), Activision just needs to wait a year, kick up new marketing cycle with huge overhauls since it's Infinity Wards turn with MW4, supposedly with new engine...

BF6 will need a lot of work just to sustain itself, not to fight COD...

@Rich33 I would say first option is correct.

Let's face it, COD is not going anywhere. BF6 maybe had huge launch, but that's still mainly on PC.

On consoles it couldn't beat year old COD game (+ Warzone) in terms of engagement
https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3m46ngmpcuk2b

But this is why competition is important. Thanks to BF6 pressure, COD ditched stupid skins and SBMM and are really leaning into player feedback. So at the end of the day, both fanbases will benefit from this.

@MaccaMUFC It's probably "priority" reason.
Xbox wants to have their big franchises (Gears, Fable, Forza Horizon 6) out next year. Which means that Playground will release 2 AAA games in one year. Which is a big ask. So I guess priority is Xbox and PC version for both games.

@Th3solution Well. Speak for yourself.
I'm constantly shuffling games I have installed because of pathetic 650GB that I have available.
Only Forza Horizon 5, Destiny 2 and God of War Ragnarok are taking almost 400GB of storage on my PS5.

@masofdas It will be obviously multiplat day one.
Sony would never allow mention of ports to other system if it was timed exclusive before time exclusivity period ends.

Rebirth wasn't announced on PC, despite fact that Remake was already released on PC. And everybody with few braincells knew that game is coming to PC. Regardless, Square could not announce a port. Only after timed exclusivity period ended.

Do I need to remind people, that Xbox couldn't mention Xbox ports of Deathloop and Ghostwire, because of timed exclusivity deal? Despite the fact that they owned studios and both games?

@naruball Well. Sony and Microsoft know concrete numbers. And they started bringing their games to the "other" platform. So that draws obvious conclusion (ie. console audience is stagnating).

If Xbox users moved somewhere it would more probably be PC, since Game Pass is also there and thanks to Play Anywhere you can also move part of your library to PC.

@zebric21 You are acting like you can't download Apple Music/Apple TV on Android. Or Google Gemini on iOS.

What exactly they are pushing to innovate lol? By making x86 AMD-based console with almost same performance and same price in different box? And with stores that have games available for same price? What exactly is a benefit for consumer?

I mean. They can fight. For our money and free time. Make better games. Make better services.

It's pretty clear that people are not willing to move to "other" console brand just because of few games. Especially when they already built a digital libraries on their home console.

PS players waited 4 years for Forza Horizon 5 and then bought it in droves. Same for Xbox players with Helldivers 2.

So it would be nice to see this whole console "war" charade to end. It will be good for everybody. Sony and Microsoft will make more money, and gamers will have more games to play. Only hurt people would be fanboys who have strange reason to cheerleader for billion dollar corporations for free.

I have Xbox as my main platform with PS5 as a secondary platform. And I stopped playing HD2 (and spending on Super Credits), because I didn't want to pay for PS Plus just for one game. Now that Sony released HD2 on Xbox, I bought game second time and spend money on Super Credits. Literal win-win situation.

I don't know why you are even bothering to report what Alinea estimates in terms of sales.

It was revealed that they were estimating sales of FF XVI on Xbox with number of reviews left on Xbox Store vs. number of reviews on PlayStation Store. But they failed to realise, that Xbox Store don't have overall reviews for whole world (like PS Store), but separate "buckets" based on region and language. Which means that their whole base for making estimates of pretty much off the reality.

@Oram77 Because there wasn't many misses. In commercial sense. Despite how polarising Halo 4 and Halo 5 were, they were both huge commercial successes.

Even Halo: MCC which was a catastrophe in terms of networking for first few years was a huge commercial success.

Infinite wasn't such a success. That's why whole management layer of studio got laid off, whole studio was restructured and rebranded.

@Ricky-Spanish Bungie that made Halo doesn't exist anymore. And I doubt that they would even make a better game than Halo Infinite. So this certainly isn't a "slam dunk" as you think it is.

There are few people from Halo days still in Bungie. One of them is on sabbatical (Jason Jones) and one was a lead of Edge of Fate (Tyson Green)

Bungie's purchase was probably biggest misfire (outside of Zynga) of whole "acquisition spree" from 2019 to 2023.
Declining live service game that was cause for two (or three?) layoffs, Marathon that seems like DoA.

Beautifully spent 3,6 billion lol.

@Cutmastavictory But your whole point is really strange.

Why on Super Earth would Sony need to release H2 on Xbox to secure potential Helldivers 3 when H2 was fastest selling PS Studios game in history?

Answer is "it isn't a reason." Reason for Xbox release of H2 is that Sony knows that "console wars" are over and they want more money.

@Cutmastavictory There won't be any Helldivers 3 anytime soon lol. Arrowhead already said that they are making their next game on their own ie. not published by Sony. And since Sony owns Helldivers IP, it's pretty much given that Arrowhead is not working on Helldivers 3.

Dumb meltdowns aside...I really doubt Sony would care to do this if their "Xbox port initiative" was only for Helldivers 2 and MLB.

...just saying

I already see how this "battle" will end.
BF6 will be released, everybody will be claiming "COD is dead." And then BO7 will be released month later with little fanfare and it will still overwhelmingly beat BF6 in terms of actual sales. And that's even with "Game Pass cannibalization" in mind.

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah. I'm sure it has everything to do with subscription services...which are not even that big in grand scheme of things...

...and not because of free-to-play live service "black hole" games that are constantly in top of "most played" section on Steam, PSN and Xbox Live

@Vaako007 And how exactly can Game Pass "run out of money" lol?

You know, huge advantage of subscription model is that you kinda know how much money you are going to get, because people are paying every month +- same price.

So if you know that you are going to get 5 billion per year (which Game Pass is currently at), you can set budgets for stuff like third-party deals, marketing efforts etc. etc, while also keeping profitability of service intact. If there is less money coming, you will just scale down third-party deals.

That's why it was always hilarious to me when people were doubting profitability of Game Pass. Because making Game Pass profitable isn't that hard. Because Microsoft knows how big of a money pool Game Pass has, so they can work on deals for devs accordingly and scaling up only when money pool is larger and larger.

What a dumb take lol.
In recent months Game Pass had day one games like Expedition 33, Blue Prince, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Citizen Sleeper 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed etc.

Does any of those games seems like it was made by "wage slaves?"

It's just *****. Maybe if those games were "Game Pass exclusives" I would take that argument. But even that is not true, because each of those games were also sold "traditionally" alongside being in sub service. If not on Xbox, then you are selling it on PlayStation and PC. So it's in best interest of devs to make best game possible.

Also, Game Pass also funds games that would not be commercially viable otherwise. And those games are highly artistic stuff like Pentiment or Keeper.

I see that Push Square is doing exactly same thing that Pure Xbox did when Xbox execs started to have these kind of comments.

Almost like they are trying to spin in a way that it doesn't sound like they are saying thing that they are obviously saying lol. But okay. Take your "kumbaya" pills and please don't be PR agency for Sony lol.

Everybody with few pair of eyes knows that Helldivers 2 is just beginning.

@Rich33 Xbox was always "niche-er" console. Only reason it was ever going toe-to-toe with PlayStation was because Sony shot themselves in the foot with pricing of PS3.

Xbox sold 1/8 of what PS2 sold
Xbox One sold less than half of what PS4 sold
Xbox Series sold way less than half of what PS5 sold

People are pretending like Xbox was some kind of juggernaut that was beating the competition. Which was maybe true, but only during 360 era and only in US market. But that's not true. PS3 even outsold X360 with one year less on the market.

They are right. Even at it's best Battlefield could hardly match sales of COD games.

Could it sway some people away? Yeah. But I doubt it will do any kind of "terminal" damage. Especially since gear is moving from BO6 to BO7. Not to mention fact that even if this year's COD would be not that great, every COD game is only relevant for 12 months.

@Lup Nate is probably most trustworthy insider out there.
He was first who talked about Xbox games coming to PS5 last year.

Logical question is why Sony wouldn't port their games to Xbox.
PlayStation users have no reason to switch, because Xbox game are coming to PlayStation. So it's not like Sony needs to worry about "if we port our games, users will leave PS ecosystem towards Xbox"

So if they port their games to Xbox, they will earn more money, while keeping their console audience stable. Sounds like no-brainer to me...

@T-Bone09 "Have you seen God Of War come to Xbox? Spider-Man?"

Obviously not, because Sony is at the beginning of exploring their new approach towards other platforms. So these things takes time. Of course. But I guess with increasing pressure in terms of budget of games, it could speed up this process significantly.

Even when Microsoft started porting their games on PC in 2015-2016 they weren't on PC day one and some games (like Halo 5) never came to PC. But few years later everything was day one and one decade later Xbox is biggest publisher on PlayStation.

Like I said in my top post. Sony is using ports like MLB, Helldivers 2 or even upcoming Marathon for research. To recognize if they would cannibalise sales of their consoles. If answer to that question would be no, there is literally no reason for them not to make Xbox ports. Because it's literally free money. Like they are doing now on PC.

"devs are skipping Xbox?" Bro. Only high profile games that skipped Xbox were Black Myth (which hilariously coming to Xbox exactly one year after PS5 version) and Baldur's Gate III because of Series S. All other high profile games that skipped Xbox, skipped that platform because Sony paid big bucks for that to happen (Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy VII and XVI). And fact that Square Enix is backporting FF games to Xbox is kinda proof that whole narrative "Xbox users don't buy games" is just hilarious ***** not underpinned by hard data.

Of course some devs (like Moon Studios) will prioritize PS5 versions of their game because PS5 have bigger installbase. That's obvious and logical. But if what you are saying is truth, Sony would not even think about porting Helldivers 2 onto Xbox consoles. Not without Game Pass deal. Because "nobody buy games on Xbox" lol.