Comments 7

Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off

Pequod

@windxtravelerx They would be wise to refocus on console. Back in 2020 they internally expected 120 to 170 million lifetime sales and they will achieve that because of GTA VI (probably end up on the lower end around 130 million). Jim Ryan led 2.5 years of bad decision making during the generation, going too hard into live service without properly assessing the risks and by treating porting like free money for shareholders without considering long term brand damage and missed sales within their platform. He's long gone now and they're responding to Switch 2 with price cutting.

Brazil has always been a unique situation with taxes, import fees, currency devaluation. PC may well be better for you on games. In US/UK they tend to price match Steam during big sales and physical can be cheaper either through Amazon or used games.

Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off

Pequod

@Ralizah There is a bit of hope now because Hideaki Nishino has control of Playstation and Hermen Hulst has his role reduced and tied to the underperforming western studios. There is a visible pivot happening and the handheld that will line up with PS6 could change things in Japan enough that it swings back to exclusivity.

And yeah, Switch 2 will put pressure on them because they've narrowed the gap on hardware enough and the next Xbox supporting Steam and therefore Sony ports undermines that strategy that started with Jim Ryan.

Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off

Pequod

@Ralizah Sony's response to this previously was to rationalize that it's ok if they lose some console owners because the extra revenue from porting makes up for it. But it's nonsense. $1.2 billion after Steam's cut is not enough when they could strong arm their position in the console space for greater profit long term with real exclusives. Especially when Microsoft's next Xbox will be a console/PC hybrid costing $1000 or more which creates room for PS6 growth that isn't just speculating on the Chinese buying more because you backed their studios.

The PC presence should be restricted to a PS+ PC sub option, they would get all tiers of PS+ up to 65 million users then.

Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off

Pequod

It's a trivial amount compared to the $29.2 billion the whole Playstation business generated. PC ports should be ended for single player and more effort made to redirect sales to console, short term money grabbing just hurts the long term prestige of the more valuable console business. If Sony weren't so prone to short sighted decisions they would see there is an opportunity to fill the vacuum left by Xbox and sell 200 million consoles next gen, especially with the extra handheld.

Less money also needs to be given to the American studios, they've been found out. It's spectacle over substance. Europe and Japan need more of that funding.