I checked your data, and it appears to confirm my claim that these are total units sold across PS4 and PS5. There is no specific and separate data for the PS5 and PS4, allowing for a direct comparison between the two generations. Despite the transition to the current generation of PS5, PS4 remains an active platform that generates revenue for Sony year after year.
There is nothing new here that we didn't already know. We do know that the peak years for the console market in terms of hardware size were the PS2/Xbox era, when game development costs were relatively low in comparison to modern games. So there has been stagnation since the PS4/Xbox One era, and the only reason platform holders' revenue has increased is due to game price increases and the introduction of subscription services and microtransactions as a new source of digital revenue.
And there is information about the Halo 3 budget, which was $60 million at the time and was considered a large budget for 2007.
"The total cost to Microsoft for “Halo 3”: a little more than $60 million. Development costs will probably be just above $30 million, given an elite team of 300 full-time artists and programmers working for three years on the game at Bungie, the internal Microsoft studio that created the games, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. Bonuses to key developers and artists will probably add $25 million to the tab, Pachter said. Though about $15 million to $20 million in television marketing will be spent promoting the game, the majority will be footed by marketing partners such as Pepsi, Burger King and Pontiac that want to ride the “Halo 3” hype."
I don't need to provide any evidence other than Phil Spencer's statement about how Xbox lost the "console war" during the PS4/Xbox One era, as well as his overall assessment of the console market's stagnation.
"PS5 shipments are around 2m behind the PS4 launch alignment, and the PS4 completely collapsed in its 7th year. GTA VI will launch in the first month of the PS5's 7th year. It only needs to stop a sharp decline; it won't need to increase sales at all."
Even if I agree with your overoptimistic scenario that GTA will boost hardware sales and PS5 will reach or even slightly exceed PS4 total sales, it does not change the fact that the console market is stagnant, which simply means that the user base is the same as the previous generation and console game sales are not higher than the previous generation.
Sony's record revenue and profits are not due to an increase in the number of games sold in its ecosystem but rather to price increases on its subscription service, microtransactions, and an overall price increase across all games, whether first-party or third-party. Sony controls the price system on its closed ecosystem to keep the price high while taking a 30% revenue cut for PSN sales, which is why it makes so much money, implying that Sony is simply "milking" its own user base, which is not significantly larger than the previous generation. In other words, the fact that Sony makes more money from the same existing user base, which is the same from the PS4 era, indicates that the market is stagnant; it does not grow in terms of new users or increased game sales, so Sony decided to simply increase revenue per user to boost profits with price increases. It's the same with Game Pass, whose subscription growth has peaked and whose user base isn't expanding to generate more revenue, so Microsoft has decided to simply increase revenue per user through price increases to force existing subscribers to pay more.
"I'll be sure to let everyone in the industry know what Jeff Grubb said so they can know the benchmark for their game. Regardless if it cost $1b for CoD or $20m for a Returnal."
Budgets do indicate the level of success, which is why Jeff Grubb is correct about blockbuster AAA games that cost more than $200 million to develop. Returnal and Astro Bot are not AAA games; rather, they are AA productions with relatively low budgets that do not require massive sales to be profitable. Spiderman, God of War, Horizon, and Last of Us all have budgets of $200 million or more, and Sony expects at least $7 million in sales to break even and begin generating profit.
"Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 achieved spectacular sales for a system with lifetime sales of 24 million; over 33% of the userbase bought Halo 2. Halo 3 continued the growth Halo 2 achieved, starting out on a base of 11.8 with sales slowing around the 30 million mark. It's important to note that whilst Halo 3's attach rate is just under 20% now, it was around 33% on its 2nd birthday. Halo Wars performed well for an RTS on a console, so its relatively low sales don't indicate any sort of fatigue or decline in the series. Neither does Halo 3: ODST, as a game that started out as an expansion pack, and was priced at a controversial $60, it will still manage over 6 million lifetime, and has an outside shot of overtaking Halo: Combat Evolved ."
"Please provide a source that states the primary source of revenue is Mtx. CoD normally sells 10m+ in its first quarter, that's close to $1b on the sticker price alone."
Majority of PC Gaming Revenue Reportedly Comes from Microtransactions https://gamerant.com/most-pc-gaming-revenue-microtransactions-earnings/ "The PC gaming industry saw a whopping $24.4 billion spent on game microtransactions in 2024 alone, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Roblox, and Fortnite leading the pack for earning the most via the in-game purchases. This number doesn't include DLC, which saw its own gains, rising 0.8% from 2023 to earn $5.3 billion in 2024. "
"During Activision Blizzard’s Q3 2021 earnings call, the company revealed that they earned a whopping $1.2 billion from just microtransactions in three months. This means that, from July to September 2021, their games pulled in that much money from just downloadable, additional content. Activision Blizzard pull in $1.2 billion from Warzone and other titles’ microtransactions"
Activision made a record $5.1 billion from microtransactions in 2021 Activision-Blizzard reported a new record all-time high of $5.1 billion in microtransaction and subscription revenue in 2021. 2021 was Activision-Blizzard's best year ever. The company delivered all-time highs in net revenues ($8.804 billion), operating income ($3.62 billion), and a whopping $2.7 billion in net income. Last year also delivered a bounty in microtransaction cash.
The company generated a staggering $5.1 billion from in-game purchases across its live service titles, which includes DLC, World of Warcraft subscriptions, and of course lootboxes and cosmetics. These purchases made up 61% of Activision-Blizzard's total $8.354 billion net bookings.
Of course, you are free not to like XBOX IPs, even if you fail to provide any rational reason for your vehement rejection of all XBOX games, despite the fact that you have clearly never tried to play the majority of them. It appears that you are biased against XBOX based on emotional reasoning, which is a weak reason to be against the XBOX game in the first place.
Xbox doesn't produce only Doom and Gears; even if you're disappointed in these games for whatever reason, there is still a variety of first-party games that are completely different from Doom and Gears. Avowed, South of Midnight, Hellblade, Forza, Starfield, Outer World, Indiana Jones, etc.—all these games have received positive reviews from Metacritic and are objectively good games for the average gamer. It seems that you just try to downgrade Xbox games to justify your own choice of abandoning the Xbox console and joining PlayStation.
By the way, you no longer need an XBOX to play XBOX games because all games are now multiplatform and can be purchased on your PS5. The only benefit that you truly lost by selling your Xbox is that you don't have access to Game Pass, which has all those games on day one, and now you're forced to pay full price on PS5.
"It's a simple reason: they're not interesting or fun for me, just like I'm not interested in some games/franchises, including from Sony themselves."
Halo, Gears, Forza, Age of Empires, Hellblade 2, South of Midnight, Avowed, Fable, Blade, Indiana Jones, Doom, Keeper, Outer World etc.
It seems wild to me that you just casually decided to ignore all those franchises and the different kinds of games because they don't seem to even attract your interest, but I accept that your worldview seems to be different than mine.
He accomplished it. However, the entire XBOX team attempted to conceal the transition to become a multiplatform publisher because it knew it couldn't simply admit that it had stopped being a hardware platform holder without facing backlash from the hardcore XBOX fan base, which couldn't adapt to the new reality at the time. So Xbox attempted to communicate the transition in a more modest manner, but Nadella intervened and forced them to adapt quickly, pressured by shareholders to increase profit, and this is where we are now.
I understand what you mean, but my entire hypothetical lineup for Game Pass day on releases is based on the assumption that Game Pass's current revenue will rise from $5 billion to $9-10 billion following the recent price increase, allowing it to increase content spending while maintaining a higher profit margin. Let me explain.
I read that 70% of 35 million subscribers have Ultimate Game Pass. This is 25 million subscribers for Ultimate. Assuming Game Pass loses 5 million, the remaining 20 million will pay $360 per year, which is $7.5 billion in revenue. You could add another $2 billion from lower tiers for a total of $9-10 billion in revenue with the price hikes. This is double the revenue from 2024, in which Game Pass had reported 35 million subs and $5 billion in revenue.
If Game Pass boosts its revenue from $5 billion to $9 billion after the price hikes, Xbox would have the funds to invest more in annual day-one AAA releases.
Even if you believe my hypothetical scenario is exaggerated, I fully expect Microsoft to release at least one AAA game per month, for a total of 12-15 AAA day one releases out of the total 75 day one annual releases promised following the price increase.
This is not true at all. Many PC gamers, including myself, do not own a console and instead buy all of their games from Steam. Sony generates an additional 2-3 million sales per game on Steam from PC gamers who do not own PS5s and have no other way to access first-party games besides Steam.
The 10 million sales milestone is widely regarded as the pinnacle of modern AAA game success. Halo was able to generate these kinds of sales despite having a very low development budget, so it was a huge success, equivalent to making 15-20 million sales today.
Call of Duty is a live service, and its primary source of revenue is microtransactions across all platforms, which is why it generates $1 billion in revenue each year. Do you really believe that Call of Duty's $300-400 million budget is based solely on full-price sales to recoup all that investment? I recommend reading more about the live service revenue model.
"Except the PS5 will likely sell more than the PS4 eventually, as its sales are not dropping off and it will sell more consistently at the end of its lifecycle, especially with the release of GTAVI."
This is completely wishful thinking, based on the assumption that the GTA VI release will increase hardware sales by 70% or something crazy like that. According to current data on PS5 sales pacing, the PS5 will compete with PS4 sales but will not outsell them in total lifetime sales, implying that the PS5 will remain stagnant in comparison to the PS4 era.
We'll have to wait and see how GTA VI affects hardware sales for the PS5 Your current assumptions appear to overestimate the hardware boost associated with the GTA VI release.
The only way for Sony to achieve the same profit margin as Nintendo, but with higher budget games, is if all of the PS5 exclusives sell 6-7 million units on average during their initial release window. However, the average number of PS5 exclusives sold is only 2-3 million, as evidenced by games such as Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy 16/Rebirth, Astro Bot, Death Stranding 2, Rise of Ronin, and so on. We'll just have to wait and see how many sales Ghost of Yotei generates in its first year as a PS5 exclusive before it is ported to PC.
Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, and Miles Morales were cross-gen titles. Spider-Man 2 and Ghost of Yotei were the only PS5 exclusives that allowed you to accurately estimate the PS5 dynamic market. The main difference between Yotei and Spider-Man 2 is that Yotei, like Tsushima, had a $60 million development budget and was able to recoup all of its costs with only 3 million sales, whereas Spider-Man 2 had a $300 million budget and Sony expected 8 million sales just to break even before turning a profit.
As previously stated, the term "console stagnation" refers to the fact that each generation of console does not outgrow the previous one, implying that the entire console market has reached its peak in terms of hardware sales and user engagement. This is not my personal opinion, but that of many analysts and Phil Spencer himself, based on fundamental data on hardware and software sales, as well as a comparison of game budgets for each generation. Even Take-Two's CEO recently stated that the current gaming trend favors mobile and PC growth, with consoles trailing further behind.
"Take-Two CEO says consoles aren’t going away, but gaming is moving toward PCs"
<Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that although consoles are not going away, gaming is moving towards PCs.
Zelnick said that the gaming industry is shifting to more open systems rather than closed.
Gaming companies like Microsoft’s Xbox have hinted at more PC-based consoles in the future.
Yeah, I agree with that. Sony should simply stick to their current branding of creating high-budget blockbuster games, but the problem is that these games are not selling well enough as console exclusives to justify the high-risk investment of millions of dollars, so Sony is forced to maximize sales by bringing their games to PC, which will generate additional revenue and profit that console users cannot.
It's good cherry-picking to choose some random stats that don't show the actual problem of console stagnation. It's just copium.
If you compare the PS5 and PS4 generations side by side, you can see that PS5 sales will not even surpass PS4 total sales at their current rate. All PS5 exclusives have moderate sales of 3-4 million each before porting to PC, with the exception of Spider-Man 2, which sold 12 million copies but it had an insane $300 million production budget, compared to the first Spider-Man (2018), which was only $100 million. This is 3 times the cost of the first games.
Personally, I believe Microsoft made the correct decision by pursuing a multiplatform strategy, but they should invest more in Game Pass to significantly increase the value of the content in order to justify the recent price increase. I'd rather have 30-40 AA/AAA high-quality games than 75 low-quality indie slop releases on the first day.
I've created this scenario for a fantastic lineup of day-one games that can truly make Game Pass the dominant platform:
**September**: Remakes of Halo 2, 3, 4, and Reach ($200m) + new Halo 7 ($400m). Total $600m, 5 games.
**October**: Remakes of Gears of War 1–5 ($100m) + new Gears of War ($250m). Total $350m, 6 games.
**November**: Remakes of Fallout 1, 2, 3, 4, and New Vegas ($250m) + Fallout 5 ($300m). Total $550m, 6 games.
**December**: Remakes of Elder Scrolls 1–5 ($250m) + new Elder Scrolls ($300m). Total $550m, 6 games.
**January**: Remakes of Fable 1/2/3 ($150m), Fable: The Journey ($20m), Fable Heroes ($5m) + new Fable ($200m). Total $375m, 6 games.
**February**: Remakes of Doom 1/2/3/64/Final Doom ($200m) + new Doom ($200m). Total $400m, 6 games.
**March**: New Forza ($200m), Perfect Dark ($150m), OD ($200m). Total $550m, 3 games.
**April**: Hellblade 3 ($150m), Star Wars Eclipse ($250m). Total $400m, 2 games.
**May**: Blade ($150m), new Superman ($250m). Total $400m, 2 games.
**June**: Everwild ($50m), Hi-Fi Rush 2 ($80m), new Diablo ($400m). Total $530m, 3 games.
**July**: New Age of Empires ($100m), Banjo-Kazooie 1/2/3/5 remakes ($100m), new Banjo-Kazooie ($50m), Crash Bandicoot: Titans/Mind over Mutant/Crash 4 remakes ($100m), new Crash Bandicoot ($80m). Total $430m, 10 games.
**August**: New Minecraft project ($100m), new StarCraft ($150m). Total $250m, 2 games.
Overall: 31 projects, 53 individual games, total budget $5.385 billion. One major Xbox title every 10–12 days for an entire year.
Total Scope (12 months)
31 projects → 53 games
Total budget: $5.385 billion
Remakes: 10 bundles (≈32 games) – $1.375B
New games: 21 titles – $4.01B
Studios Required
25–35 studios
21 dedicated to new AAA games
1–2 for remake bundles + outsourcing for smaller titles
Shared QA/art/localization teams
Why did Xbox choose the multiplatform open ecosystem strategy instead of keeping the traditional "hardware platform holder—exclusive games" approach? Phil Spencer had the answer to that question from the start, but no one paid attention to his word, which proved true:
Phil Spencer decided for Xbox to become a multiplatform publisher with Game Pass as its main service, rather than continuing with the "hardware platform holder—exclusive games" model, which was unsustainable because most gamers have built their digital libraries on PlayStation and Steam and will not leave their digital libraries to join a new ecosystem and start from scratch even if Xbox produces stellar quality exclusive games.
Sony makes money from PC sales, which are pure profit. Shuhei Yoshida has stated that bringing first-party games to PC is like "printing money," implying that Sony makes pure profit even with a small number of sales on Steam, because the cost of porting all of these games is minimal, resulting in a high profit margin for each sale on Steam.
Despite the PlayStation fandom's pure fantasy narrative and wishful thinking about keeping all their exclusives on the PS5, the truth is that console sales alone are insufficient to generate the expected revenue and profit. The PS5 users who purchase all of these exclusives are simply insufficient in terms of sales volume.
PlayStation console sales have peaked, and Sony is dissatisfied with their inability to generate more revenue and profits, so they are porting all of their games to PC in order to boost sales and profits by selling more digital copies to Steam's massive 150 million users. The current PS5 sales, both in hardware and software, are not exceeding the PS4 era, indicating that the market is stagnant; however, AAA's development costs have more than doubled, resulting in a lower profit margin because the number of sales remains the same as the PS4, but the budget for these games is two times larger.
What about Nintendo, then? Why doesn't Nintendo feel the need to boost their game sales by bringing them to PC, preferring to keep them Switch exclusive?
Nintendo does not generate more sales or revenue than Sony or Xbox, but it does generate more profit because it produces low-budget games that sell well, resulting in a high profit margin. Nintendo does not create AAA games to keep costs low. Also, Nintendo doesn't even rely on AAA games because most third-party games can't even run on the weak hardware of the Switch. Nintendo is making most of the money from first-party games, unlike Sony, which makes most of the money from third-party sales.
Nintendo does not port its games to PC because it creates low-budget but high-quality platformer and RPG games aimed at families and children, and its games generate huge profit margins of 5-7 million sales due to low development costs. Even with 2-3 million sales, Nintendo still makes a profit, unlike Sony, which produces high-budget AAA cinematic games that require higher sales rates to be successful and profitable. The budget for Pokémon ZA was only $20 million, whereas Spider-Man 2 was $300 million.
Sony and Nintendo have fundamentally different business strategies. Sony is well-known for producing "AAA cinematic games" on extremely large budgets, which is the basis for their branding. Those who advocate for Sony to take the "Nintendo route of console exclusivity" actually mean that Sony will be forced to abandon AAA productions and low development costs in favor of making AA games like Stellar Blade or Astro Bot, which can be profitable even with moderate sales of only 2-3 million on PS5. However, with Stellar Blade's limited budget, it is impossible to produce blockbuster games such as The Last of Us, God of War, and Intergalactic. Sony must decide whether to continue with its high-budget blockbuster game strategy or to scale back production by creating AA games.
Naughty Dog, along with Insomniac, is one of the largest single-player studios, with over 400 employees each, but it's clear that the failed live service project wasted time and resources and threw off its production schedule. It has been confirmed that Naughty Dog's next release after The Last of Us Part 2 was supposed to be Faction, an online multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe, so Naughty Dog was primarily focusing its resources on that type of game until they realized it would fail and Sony canceled the project. Even some Naughty Dog employees have stated that they are "uncomfortable" with producing live service games because they specialize in single-player AAA titles. If Naughty Dog had fully focused its resources and 400-person workforce on Intergalactic and The Last of Us Part 3 from the start, both games would most likely have been released between 2025 and 2027. Its most recent game, LoU Part 2, was released in 2020, giving it a 5-year window until 2025 to fully develop and release one AAA title.
The typical "Game Pass makes bad games" cliche. Game Pass is a subscription service, and its success is determined by how much engagement it can generate in order to increase the number of subscribers willing to pay for the content it provides. High-quality games imply high-quality content, which may increase engagement and overall value of the service, attracting more subscribers and increasing revenue. This is the standard business model for any subscription service: spend on content, engage with it, and grow the subscription. Netflix, the world's leading streaming service with over 300 million subscribers, spends $17 billion per year on original shows and films to keep engagement high and subscriptions growing.
However, Netflix has been chastised for its "quantity over quality" strategy, which entails spending a lot of money to produce large amounts of low-quality content. Other subscription services, such as HBO and Apple TV, take a more premium approach, producing fewer, high-budget, high-quality prestige series and films, resulting in a library of high-quality content for subscribers.
The true question is whether Game Pass should follow Netflix's or HBO's strategy. Personally, I prefer the "HBO way" of producing less but better content. I don't want 75 day-one annual releases of low-quality indie games; instead, I'd like 25-30 day-one games that are AAA/AAA productions with an emphasis on quality and good production values, which translates to 2-3 day-one games per month to maintain engagement. To round out the lineup, I'd like to add 8-10 more high-quality indies like Hollow Knight: Silksong. I want games like Hellblade 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Clair Obscur, Yakuza games, South of Midnight, Doom Dark Ages, Indiana Jones, the upcoming Gears, Blade, and so on.
Call of Duty is a scam at the moment. A generic live service game with annual releases that lack any quality standards. I hope Microsoft forces Activision to change its strategy and abandon the annual release in favor of producing one Call of Duty title every three years, giving the studios enough budget and time to create a high-quality game with a good story mode, similar to Cyberpunk 2077. Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders have completely dominated the FPS genre this year, and it's a good thing that Call of Duty is falling behind, because losing money is the only way for Activision to realize it needs to focus on making quality games once more.
Sony lacks the manpower to produce more than 1-2 games per year due to a lack of studios, so it is outsourcing projects and working with third-party studios to create more second-party games. Stellar Blade, Bloodborne, The Order 1886, and even the first Death Stranding (which is not a second-part game anymore) are all second-party games created by other studios, but Sony owns the intellectual property and publishing rights. Given its number of AAA studios, Sony is unable to produce more than one AAA single-player game per year, as shown below.
1) Naughty Dog. 2) Santa Monica. 3) Sucker Punch. 4) Insomniac 5) Guerrilla Games. 6) Bend Studio. 7) Team Asobi (though it's an AA, not a AAA studio).
Sony has only six AAA studios that specialize in single-player games. Sony made the mistake of forcing many of these studios to produce some of its 12 live service games, which disrupted the production schedule by shifting their focus from single-player to live service games. Even if all AAA studios focused on single-player projects, with an average 5-year development time, Sony could only produce 1-1.5 single-player AAA games per year because it doesn't have enough studios. Sony could aim to have at least 10 AAA studios to release two games annually, each with a five-year development cycle. To strengthen its lineup of single-player AAA titles, it might consider acquiring studios like Kojima Productions, Don't Nod, Remedy, Shift Up, and Quantic Dream.
I'm just pointing out that the entire PS Square article fails to mention the fact that the next Stellar Blade 2 will be a multiplatform game from the beginning. The next question is why PS Square does not mention the multiplatform aspect. That's because it wants to keep the "exclusives are successful" narrative that the entire PlayStation fandom is built on.
It's so funny that the PS Square editorial team tries to hide or ignore the fact that the next Stellar Blade 2 will be a multiplatform game from the start. The PlayStation media and fandom are so fixated on the "we need more exclusives" narrative that they refuse to accept the fact that all PS5 exclusives, with the exception of Spider-Man 2, have failed to sell more than 4 million units. Stellar Blade, Astro Bot, Rise of Ronin, Death Stranding 2, FF 16, and Rebirth have all failed to generate significant sales as PS5 exclusives. Even major AAA first-party games owned by Sony have been ported to PC to increase revenue and sales, as PlayStation exclusive sales are insufficient and do not generate the revenue and profit that Sony expects.
I get that PS5 is your main and favorite platform, and you want to be a monopoly after the "death" of Xbox as a hardware platform holder. But the market evolves and won't leave Sony and Nintendo without any alternatives. The rise of the hybrid consoles challenges the very foundation of hardware platform holders with closed ecosystems and exclusive games like Nintendo and PlayStation. In the end, there will be only one winner that will dominate the whole gaming market.
1) I did not state that Steam Machine specifically uses DLSS. I just mentioned that DLSS/FSR are superior upscalers on PC compared to PS5. Steam Machine will use FSR and a frame generator that are superior to the PS5's current upscalers.
2) "Free online access to play what exactly?" Are you joking me? Assume you have the option of buying and playing EA FC or Call of Duty on the PS5 or Steam Machine. You will pay the full price of $80 on the PS5, and you will also have to pay for online access, whereas on the Steam Machine, you can buy these same games for less money with free online access.
3) Developers will eventually optimize their games based on the Steam Machine's specific hardware, just as they do with the Steam Deck. Valve even offers development tools to help developers optimize their games for Steam OS across all hardware devices. Valve provides a verification approval system for games that run smoothly on Steam Deck. The same verification system will be available on Steam Machine for games optimized for specific hardware.
4) "Isn't the supposed allure of this device that it can play games not on PS5?"
No, this is not the reason hybrid consoles exist. This is simply your own unfounded assumption. The goal of hybrid consoles like Steam Machine and PC handhelds like Steam Deck is to deliver all of the benefits of superior PC services in a console format, whether it's a home console under your TV or a portable console. Hybrid consoles provide the "console experience" by utilizing the appropriate hardware size and optimized software such as Steam OS and gaming Windows for console use. Traditional consoles, such as the PS5 and Switch 2, were previously the only devices suitable for the console experience, but this is changing with the rise of hybrid consoles, which combine the console market with the PC platform.
5) Physical games are on the decline, and digital sales now account for more than 70% of total sales, including PS5. We don't really need a disc drive because the majority of gamers prefer digital, so physical games cater to a small group of old gamers who are not considered a significant part of the current market trend.
They are no longer relevant because the vast majority of consumers now prefer digital sales and subscription services. Subscriptions are replacing even the ownership model itself. The film and music industries have fully embraced the subscription model. The same thing will happen in gaming, with services such as Game Pass and cloud subscriptions.
The retail market is already niche and dying, with no future. Nobody cares about collecting or trading when you can simply get access to games through cheaper digital sales and subscription services.
Black Friday is irrelevant. Take a look at the facts: digital sales account for more than 70% of total PS5 sales, and that figure will only rise until physical sales become obsolete or cease to exist.
1) The Steam Machine has similar hardware power to the PS5, but its biggest advantage is that it uses upscalers like FSR/DLSS and frame generators, which are not available on the PS5, and offers a smooth experience. The lack of an upscaler on the PS5 forces the user to choose between two bad options: quality or performance mode, which either sacrifices graphic quality or reduces FPS. PCs do not have these issues because upscaler technology has managed to maintain both high visual image quality and a smooth FPS experience.
2) Unlike the PlayStation, which requires payment for such a basic feature, the hybrid consoles provide free online access.
3) The "plug and play" functionality exists because Steam OS and gaming windows were designed to provide the exact "console experience" within hybrid consoles, combining PC-level stores and services with console user experience. You do not need a mouse or keyboard to use Steam OS and gaming windows. We've already seen how Steam OS and Windows gaming work with Steam Deck and XBOX ROG Ally. Steam OS is already regarded as superior to PSN, boasting a better user interface and more features. It even provides free game guides, unlike PlayStation, which requires payment.
4) The developers will eventually optimize all games, just as they do for the Steam Deck and other PC handhelds. Steam Machine, like Steam Deck, will provide verification for games that are optimized for its system. Upscalers and frame generation will suffice to provide a seamless experience while preserving image quality and frame rate.
5) Games include full controller support, just like the Steam PC classic version and Steam Deck. You clearly do not know what you are talking about. All the games that can be played with a controller on PS5 can also be played on Steam
6) Physical sales are no longer viable for the vast majority of casual audiences. The true selling point of Steam Machine is that it offers cheaper games through sales and game keys, and if Valve integrates Game Pass into Steam OS, it will provide the ultimate combination of day-one releases and low-cost game purchases via Steam sales, game key stores, and Game Pass for third-party games. It is already much cheaper to purchase third-party games on Steam or day one on Game Pass than to pay $80 for each game on the PS5. Sony will be forced to lower its prices if it faces price competition from the new hybrid consoles like Steam Machine and next-gen Xbox.
The hybrid PC-console Steam Machine has nearly the same hardware power as the base PS5, but it offers lower prices for game purchases due to its open ecosystem, as opposed to the closed ecosystem of the PS, in which Sony keeps the price high to generate massive revenue from a 30% revenue cut on every sale. With hybrid consoles, you won't have to pay $80 for every third-party game you buy on PS5 when you can get these same games for less through Steam sales, game keys, and day one on Game Pass on the Steam Machine and next-generation Xbox.
PC gaming ecosystem was consistently superior in terms of hardware, services, and game pricing. Increased freedom thanks to the open ecosystem, which includes multiple stores such as Steam, Game Pass, Epic Store, and game key stores. The only "benefit" of traditional consoles was their small size to fit under your TV and their "plug and play" casual usage, but with the development of hybrid PC-consoles that combine PC services with the console experience, the overall console market will merge with the PC gaming market, and the PC will be the dominant platform with a single open ecosystem.
Xbox should remake the entire Halo trilogy, along with Reach and 4, bundling them all together in a massive collection available on Game Pass. They should also add Halo 5 to Game Pass while focusing on developing Halo 7. Infinite was a missed opportunity—it had a strong story mode, but it failed as a live service project at its core.
Once again, there’s no comparison. Most AAA productions follow a standard five-year development cycle with an average budget of 150-200 billion. And I’m specifically referring to single-player AAA games. The GTA development, on the other hand, is a far more ambitious project, spanning nearly a decade of work to include massive content aimed at sustaining engagement for years.
Naughty Dog's scheduling was disrupted because too much time was spent on the failed live service project that ended up being canceled. If they had focused solely on the next Last of Us Part 3 from the start, it could have been completed and released by 2024-2025. However, this is not Naughty Dog's fault, but rather Sony's misguided strategy of forcing their single-player studio to develop live service games in the first place.
How do these clarifications even address the main point of my argument? The entire argument revolves around the fact that you can't compare Naughty Dog's games with GTA, as the latter is a live service game, and its budget includes all the content for its entire lifecycle. It doesn't matter whether it's 1 or 2 billion; that's not the point of the discussion. We don't know the exact budget for the next GTA, but rumors and estimates suggest it could be between $1 billion and $2 billion.
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
I checked your data, and it appears to confirm my claim that these are total units sold across PS4 and PS5. There is no specific and separate data for the PS5 and PS4, allowing for a direct comparison between the two generations. Despite the transition to the current generation of PS5, PS4 remains an active platform that generates revenue for Sony year after year.
There is nothing new here that we didn't already know. We do know that the peak years for the console market in terms of hardware size were the PS2/Xbox era, when game development costs were relatively low in comparison to modern games. So there has been stagnation since the PS4/Xbox One era, and the only reason platform holders' revenue has increased is due to game price increases and the introduction of subscription services and microtransactions as a new source of digital revenue.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/video-game-consoles-are-doomed-right-opinion
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
And there is information about the Halo 3 budget, which was $60 million at the time and was considered a large budget for 2007.
"The total cost to Microsoft for “Halo 3”: a little more than $60 million. Development costs will probably be just above $30 million, given an elite team of 300 full-time artists and programmers working for three years on the game at Bungie, the internal Microsoft studio that created the games, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. Bonuses to key developers and artists will probably add $25 million to the tab, Pachter said. Though about $15 million to $20 million in television marketing will be spent promoting the game, the majority will be footed by marketing partners such as Pepsi, Burger King and Pontiac that want to ride the “Halo 3” hype."
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-sep-24-fi-halo24-story.html#:~:text=The%20total%20cost%20to%20Microsoft%20for%20%E2%80%9CHalo,$25%20million%20to%20the%20tab%2C%20Pachter%20said.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
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Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
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Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@Artois2
I don't need to provide any evidence other than Phil Spencer's statement about how Xbox lost the "console war" during the PS4/Xbox One era, as well as his overall assessment of the console market's stagnation.
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/457086/phil-spencer-we-lost-the-worst-generation-to-lose-in-the-xbox-one-generation/
https://app2top.com/news/phil-spencer-the-gaming-industry-is-stagnating-the-growth-of-game-budgets-is-dangerous-for-exclusives-egs-and-other-stores-may-appear-on-xbox-264802.html
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
"PS5 shipments are around 2m behind the PS4 launch alignment, and the PS4 completely collapsed in its 7th year. GTA VI will launch in the first month of the PS5's 7th year. It only needs to stop a sharp decline; it won't need to increase sales at all."
The projected lifetime sales of the PS5 are estimated at 112–114 million units based on its current pace, compared to the PS4’s total of 117 million. Analysts also predict the PS5 could sell around 105 million units by 2029, which is considered an optimistic scenario given the higher prices.
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/462378/analyst-predicts-ps5-to-sell-1069m-by-2029-including-128m-for-ps5-pro/
Even if I agree with your overoptimistic scenario that GTA will boost hardware sales and PS5 will reach or even slightly exceed PS4 total sales, it does not change the fact that the console market is stagnant, which simply means that the user base is the same as the previous generation and console game sales are not higher than the previous generation.
Sony's record revenue and profits are not due to an increase in the number of games sold in its ecosystem but rather to price increases on its subscription service, microtransactions, and an overall price increase across all games, whether first-party or third-party. Sony controls the price system on its closed ecosystem to keep the price high while taking a 30% revenue cut for PSN sales, which is why it makes so much money, implying that Sony is simply "milking" its own user base, which is not significantly larger than the previous generation. In other words, the fact that Sony makes more money from the same existing user base, which is the same from the PS4 era, indicates that the market is stagnant; it does not grow in terms of new users or increased game sales, so Sony decided to simply increase revenue per user to boost profits with price increases. It's the same with Game Pass, whose subscription growth has peaked and whose user base isn't expanding to generate more revenue, so Microsoft has decided to simply increase revenue per user through price increases to force existing subscribers to pay more.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
"I'll be sure to let everyone in the industry know what Jeff Grubb said so they can know the benchmark for their game. Regardless if it cost $1b for CoD or $20m for a Returnal."
Budgets do indicate the level of success, which is why Jeff Grubb is correct about blockbuster AAA games that cost more than $200 million to develop. Returnal and Astro Bot are not AAA games; rather, they are AA productions with relatively low budgets that do not require massive sales to be profitable. Spiderman, God of War, Horizon, and Last of Us all have budgets of $200 million or more, and Sony expects at least $7 million in sales to break even and begin generating profit.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Had a Total Budget of $315 Million
https://gamingbolt.com/marvels-spider-man-2-had-a-total-budget-of-315-million
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
"Halo was able to generate these kinds of sales despite having a very low development budget
Source please"
best selling halo game of all time
https://www.accio.com/business/best-selling-halo-game-of-all-time
Halo: A Sales History
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/87043/halo-a-sales-history/
"Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 achieved spectacular sales for a system with lifetime sales of 24 million; over 33% of the userbase bought Halo 2. Halo 3 continued the growth Halo 2 achieved, starting out on a base of 11.8 with sales slowing around the 30 million mark. It's important to note that whilst Halo 3's attach rate is just under 20% now, it was around 33% on its 2nd birthday. Halo Wars performed well for an RTS on a console, so its relatively low sales don't indicate any sort of fatigue or decline in the series. Neither does Halo 3: ODST, as a game that started out as an expansion pack, and was priced at a controversial $60, it will still manage over 6 million lifetime, and has an outside shot of overtaking Halo: Combat Evolved ."
"Please provide a source that states the primary source of revenue is Mtx. CoD normally sells 10m+ in its first quarter, that's close to $1b on the sticker price alone."
Majority of PC Gaming Revenue Reportedly Comes from Microtransactions
https://gamerant.com/most-pc-gaming-revenue-microtransactions-earnings/
"The PC gaming industry saw a whopping $24.4 billion spent on game microtransactions in 2024 alone, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Roblox, and Fortnite leading the pack for earning the most via the in-game purchases. This number doesn't include DLC, which saw its own gains, rising 0.8% from 2023 to earn $5.3 billion in 2024. "
Activision Blizzard earned $1.2 billion from microtransactions in just 3 months
https://www.dexerto.com/business/activision-blizzard-earned-1-2-billion-from-microtransactions-in-just-3-months-1690091/
"During Activision Blizzard’s Q3 2021 earnings call, the company revealed that they earned a whopping $1.2 billion from just microtransactions in three months. This means that, from July to September 2021, their games pulled in that much money from just downloadable, additional content.
Activision Blizzard pull in $1.2 billion from Warzone and other titles’ microtransactions"
Call Of Duty Mobile Passes $1.5 Billion From Microtransaction Sales
The popular mobile game has reached a new revenue record.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-mobile-passes-1-5-billion-from-microtransaction-sales/1100-6500961/
Activision made a record $5.1 billion from microtransactions in 2021
Activision-Blizzard reported a new record all-time high of $5.1 billion in microtransaction and subscription revenue in 2021.
2021 was Activision-Blizzard's best year ever. The company delivered all-time highs in net revenues ($8.804 billion), operating income ($3.62 billion), and a whopping $2.7 billion in net income. Last year also delivered a bounty in microtransaction cash.
The company generated a staggering $5.1 billion from in-game purchases across its live service titles, which includes DLC, World of Warcraft subscriptions, and of course lootboxes and cosmetics. These purchases made up 61% of Activision-Blizzard's total $8.354 billion net bookings.
Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/84421/activision-made-record-5-1-billion-from-microtransactions-in-2021/index.html
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@Megabeenz
Of course, you are free not to like XBOX IPs, even if you fail to provide any rational reason for your vehement rejection of all XBOX games, despite the fact that you have clearly never tried to play the majority of them. It appears that you are biased against XBOX based on emotional reasoning, which is a weak reason to be against the XBOX game in the first place.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@Megabeenz
Xbox doesn't produce only Doom and Gears; even if you're disappointed in these games for whatever reason, there is still a variety of first-party games that are completely different from Doom and Gears. Avowed, South of Midnight, Hellblade, Forza, Starfield, Outer World, Indiana Jones, etc.—all these games have received positive reviews from Metacritic and are objectively good games for the average gamer. It seems that you just try to downgrade Xbox games to justify your own choice of abandoning the Xbox console and joining PlayStation.
By the way, you no longer need an XBOX to play XBOX games because all games are now multiplatform and can be purchased on your PS5. The only benefit that you truly lost by selling your Xbox is that you don't have access to Game Pass, which has all those games on day one, and now you're forced to pay full price on PS5.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
"Please post a link to this source or tell me where I can find this information."
Callisto Protocol Reportedly Sold 7 Million Copies But Was Still Considered A Failure
https://tech4gamers.com/callisto-protocol-7-million-sales-still-a-disappointment/
10 million units sold is the new benchmark for success in AAA - Jeff Grubb
AAA Games Reportedly Require 10M Sales To Be Profitable For Big Publishers
https://twistedvoxel.com/aaa-games-require-10m-sales-profitable-big-publishers/
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
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Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@PuppetMaster
"It's a simple reason: they're not interesting or fun for me, just like I'm not interested in some games/franchises, including from Sony themselves."
Halo, Gears, Forza, Age of Empires, Hellblade 2, South of Midnight, Avowed, Fable, Blade, Indiana Jones, Doom, Keeper, Outer World etc.
It seems wild to me that you just casually decided to ignore all those franchises and the different kinds of games because they don't seem to even attract your interest, but I accept that your worldview seems to be different than mine.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@Artois2
He accomplished it. However, the entire XBOX team attempted to conceal the transition to become a multiplatform publisher because it knew it couldn't simply admit that it had stopped being a hardware platform holder without facing backlash from the hardcore XBOX fan base, which couldn't adapt to the new reality at the time. So Xbox attempted to communicate the transition in a more modest manner, but Nadella intervened and forced them to adapt quickly, pressured by shareholders to increase profit, and this is where we are now.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@MrPeanutbutterz
I understand what you mean, but my entire hypothetical lineup for Game Pass day on releases is based on the assumption that Game Pass's current revenue will rise from $5 billion to $9-10 billion following the recent price increase, allowing it to increase content spending while maintaining a higher profit margin. Let me explain.
I read that 70% of 35 million subscribers have Ultimate Game Pass. This is 25 million subscribers for Ultimate. Assuming Game Pass loses 5 million, the remaining 20 million will pay $360 per year, which is $7.5 billion in revenue. You could add another $2 billion from lower tiers for a total of $9-10 billion in revenue with the price hikes. This is double the revenue from 2024, in which Game Pass had reported 35 million subs and $5 billion in revenue.
If Game Pass boosts its revenue from $5 billion to $9 billion after the price hikes, Xbox would have the funds to invest more in annual day-one AAA releases.
Even if you believe my hypothetical scenario is exaggerated, I fully expect Microsoft to release at least one AAA game per month, for a total of 12-15 AAA day one releases out of the total 75 day one annual releases promised following the price increase.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@16BitHero
This is not true at all. Many PC gamers, including myself, do not own a console and instead buy all of their games from Steam. Sony generates an additional 2-3 million sales per game on Steam from PC gamers who do not own PS5s and have no other way to access first-party games besides Steam.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
The 10 million sales milestone is widely regarded as the pinnacle of modern AAA game success. Halo was able to generate these kinds of sales despite having a very low development budget, so it was a huge success, equivalent to making 15-20 million sales today.
Call of Duty is a live service, and its primary source of revenue is microtransactions across all platforms, which is why it generates $1 billion in revenue each year. Do you really believe that Call of Duty's $300-400 million budget is based solely on full-price sales to recoup all that investment? I recommend reading more about the live service revenue model.
"Except the PS5 will likely sell more than the PS4 eventually, as its sales are not dropping off and it will sell more consistently at the end of its lifecycle, especially with the release of GTAVI."
This is completely wishful thinking, based on the assumption that the GTA VI release will increase hardware sales by 70% or something crazy like that. According to current data on PS5 sales pacing, the PS5 will compete with PS4 sales but will not outsell them in total lifetime sales, implying that the PS5 will remain stagnant in comparison to the PS4 era.
We'll have to wait and see how GTA VI affects hardware sales for the PS5 Your current assumptions appear to overestimate the hardware boost associated with the GTA VI release.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@N1ghtW1ng
No, I am not. Do you have any valid arguments, or are you just flaming with no reason?
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@Whyarewestillhere
The only way for Sony to achieve the same profit margin as Nintendo, but with higher budget games, is if all of the PS5 exclusives sell 6-7 million units on average during their initial release window. However, the average number of PS5 exclusives sold is only 2-3 million, as evidenced by games such as Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy 16/Rebirth, Astro Bot, Death Stranding 2, Rise of Ronin, and so on. We'll just have to wait and see how many sales Ghost of Yotei generates in its first year as a PS5 exclusive before it is ported to PC.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
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Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, and Miles Morales were cross-gen titles. Spider-Man 2 and Ghost of Yotei were the only PS5 exclusives that allowed you to accurately estimate the PS5 dynamic market. The main difference between Yotei and Spider-Man 2 is that Yotei, like Tsushima, had a $60 million development budget and was able to recoup all of its costs with only 3 million sales, whereas Spider-Man 2 had a $300 million budget and Sony expected 8 million sales just to break even before turning a profit.
As previously stated, the term "console stagnation" refers to the fact that each generation of console does not outgrow the previous one, implying that the entire console market has reached its peak in terms of hardware sales and user engagement. This is not my personal opinion, but that of many analysts and Phil Spencer himself, based on fundamental data on hardware and software sales, as well as a comparison of game budgets for each generation. Even Take-Two's CEO recently stated that the current gaming trend favors mobile and PC growth, with consoles trailing further behind.
"Take-Two CEO says consoles aren’t going away, but gaming is moving toward PCs"
<Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that although consoles are not going away, gaming is moving towards PCs.
Zelnick said that the gaming industry is shifting to more open systems rather than closed.
Gaming companies like Microsoft’s Xbox have hinted at more PC-based consoles in the future.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@TrollOfWar
Yeah, I agree with that. Sony should simply stick to their current branding of creating high-budget blockbuster games, but the problem is that these games are not selling well enough as console exclusives to justify the high-risk investment of millions of dollars, so Sony is forced to maximize sales by bringing their games to PC, which will generate additional revenue and profit that console users cannot.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SeaDaVie
It's good cherry-picking to choose some random stats that don't show the actual problem of console stagnation. It's just copium.
If you compare the PS5 and PS4 generations side by side, you can see that PS5 sales will not even surpass PS4 total sales at their current rate. All PS5 exclusives have moderate sales of 3-4 million each before porting to PC, with the exception of Spider-Man 2, which sold 12 million copies but it had an insane $300 million production budget, compared to the first Spider-Man (2018), which was only $100 million. This is 3 times the cost of the first games.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
Personally, I believe Microsoft made the correct decision by pursuing a multiplatform strategy, but they should invest more in Game Pass to significantly increase the value of the content in order to justify the recent price increase. I'd rather have 30-40 AA/AAA high-quality games than 75 low-quality indie slop releases on the first day.
I've created this scenario for a fantastic lineup of day-one games that can truly make Game Pass the dominant platform:
Overall: 31 projects, 53 individual games, total budget $5.385 billion. One major Xbox title every 10–12 days for an entire year.
Total Scope (12 months)
31 projects → 53 games
Total budget: $5.385 billion
Remakes: 10 bundles (≈32 games) – $1.375B
New games: 21 titles – $4.01B
Studios Required
25–35 studios
21 dedicated to new AAA games
1–2 for remake bundles + outsourcing for smaller titles
Shared QA/art/localization teams
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
Why did Xbox choose the multiplatform open ecosystem strategy instead of keeping the traditional "hardware platform holder—exclusive games" approach? Phil Spencer had the answer to that question from the start, but no one paid attention to his word, which proved true:
Phil Spencer decided for Xbox to become a multiplatform publisher with Game Pass as its main service, rather than continuing with the "hardware platform holder—exclusive games" model, which was unsustainable because most gamers have built their digital libraries on PlayStation and Steam and will not leave their digital libraries to join a new ecosystem and start from scratch even if Xbox produces stellar quality exclusive games.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
Sony makes money from PC sales, which are pure profit. Shuhei Yoshida has stated that bringing first-party games to PC is like "printing money," implying that Sony makes pure profit even with a small number of sales on Steam, because the cost of porting all of these games is minimal, resulting in a high profit margin for each sale on Steam.
Despite the PlayStation fandom's pure fantasy narrative and wishful thinking about keeping all their exclusives on the PS5, the truth is that console sales alone are insufficient to generate the expected revenue and profit. The PS5 users who purchase all of these exclusives are simply insufficient in terms of sales volume.
PlayStation console sales have peaked, and Sony is dissatisfied with their inability to generate more revenue and profits, so they are porting all of their games to PC in order to boost sales and profits by selling more digital copies to Steam's massive 150 million users. The current PS5 sales, both in hardware and software, are not exceeding the PS4 era, indicating that the market is stagnant; however, AAA's development costs have more than doubled, resulting in a lower profit margin because the number of sales remains the same as the PS4, but the budget for these games is two times larger.
What about Nintendo, then? Why doesn't Nintendo feel the need to boost their game sales by bringing them to PC, preferring to keep them Switch exclusive?
Nintendo does not generate more sales or revenue than Sony or Xbox, but it does generate more profit because it produces low-budget games that sell well, resulting in a high profit margin. Nintendo does not create AAA games to keep costs low. Also, Nintendo doesn't even rely on AAA games because most third-party games can't even run on the weak hardware of the Switch. Nintendo is making most of the money from first-party games, unlike Sony, which makes most of the money from third-party sales.
Nintendo does not port its games to PC because it creates low-budget but high-quality platformer and RPG games aimed at families and children, and its games generate huge profit margins of 5-7 million sales due to low development costs. Even with 2-3 million sales, Nintendo still makes a profit, unlike Sony, which produces high-budget AAA cinematic games that require higher sales rates to be successful and profitable. The budget for Pokémon ZA was only $20 million, whereas Spider-Man 2 was $300 million.
Sony and Nintendo have fundamentally different business strategies. Sony is well-known for producing "AAA cinematic games" on extremely large budgets, which is the basis for their branding. Those who advocate for Sony to take the "Nintendo route of console exclusivity" actually mean that Sony will be forced to abandon AAA productions and low development costs in favor of making AA games like Stellar Blade or Astro Bot, which can be profitable even with moderate sales of only 2-3 million on PS5. However, with Stellar Blade's limited budget, it is impossible to produce blockbuster games such as The Last of Us, God of War, and Intergalactic. Sony must decide whether to continue with its high-budget blockbuster game strategy or to scale back production by creating AA games.
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
@twitchtvpat
Naughty Dog, along with Insomniac, is one of the largest single-player studios, with over 400 employees each, but it's clear that the failed live service project wasted time and resources and threw off its production schedule. It has been confirmed that Naughty Dog's next release after The Last of Us Part 2 was supposed to be Faction, an online multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe, so Naughty Dog was primarily focusing its resources on that type of game until they realized it would fail and Sony canceled the project. Even some Naughty Dog employees have stated that they are "uncomfortable" with producing live service games because they specialize in single-player AAA titles. If Naughty Dog had fully focused its resources and 400-person workforce on Intergalactic and The Last of Us Part 3 from the start, both games would most likely have been released between 2025 and 2027. Its most recent game, LoU Part 2, was released in 2020, giving it a 5-year window until 2025 to fully develop and release one AAA title.
Re: 'Terrible' Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 European Sales Are a Devastating 63% Below Battlefield 6
@Bionic-Spencer
The typical "Game Pass makes bad games" cliche. Game Pass is a subscription service, and its success is determined by how much engagement it can generate in order to increase the number of subscribers willing to pay for the content it provides. High-quality games imply high-quality content, which may increase engagement and overall value of the service, attracting more subscribers and increasing revenue. This is the standard business model for any subscription service: spend on content, engage with it, and grow the subscription. Netflix, the world's leading streaming service with over 300 million subscribers, spends $17 billion per year on original shows and films to keep engagement high and subscriptions growing.
However, Netflix has been chastised for its "quantity over quality" strategy, which entails spending a lot of money to produce large amounts of low-quality content. Other subscription services, such as HBO and Apple TV, take a more premium approach, producing fewer, high-budget, high-quality prestige series and films, resulting in a library of high-quality content for subscribers.
The true question is whether Game Pass should follow Netflix's or HBO's strategy. Personally, I prefer the "HBO way" of producing less but better content. I don't want 75 day-one annual releases of low-quality indie games; instead, I'd like 25-30 day-one games that are AAA/AAA productions with an emphasis on quality and good production values, which translates to 2-3 day-one games per month to maintain engagement. To round out the lineup, I'd like to add 8-10 more high-quality indies like Hollow Knight: Silksong. I want games like Hellblade 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Clair Obscur, Yakuza games, South of Midnight, Doom Dark Ages, Indiana Jones, the upcoming Gears, Blade, and so on.
Re: 'Terrible' Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 European Sales Are a Devastating 63% Below Battlefield 6
Call of Duty is a scam at the moment. A generic live service game with annual releases that lack any quality standards. I hope Microsoft forces Activision to change its strategy and abandon the annual release in favor of producing one Call of Duty title every three years, giving the studios enough budget and time to create a high-quality game with a good story mode, similar to Cyberpunk 2077. Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders have completely dominated the FPS genre this year, and it's a good thing that Call of Duty is falling behind, because losing money is the only way for Activision to realize it needs to focus on making quality games once more.
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
Sony lacks the manpower to produce more than 1-2 games per year due to a lack of studios, so it is outsourcing projects and working with third-party studios to create more second-party games. Stellar Blade, Bloodborne, The Order 1886, and even the first Death Stranding (which is not a second-part game anymore) are all second-party games created by other studios, but Sony owns the intellectual property and publishing rights. Given its number of AAA studios, Sony is unable to produce more than one AAA single-player game per year, as shown below.
1) Naughty Dog.
2) Santa Monica.
3) Sucker Punch.
4) Insomniac
5) Guerrilla Games.
6) Bend Studio.
7) Team Asobi (though it's an AA, not a AAA studio).
Sony has only six AAA studios that specialize in single-player games. Sony made the mistake of forcing many of these studios to produce some of its 12 live service games, which disrupted the production schedule by shifting their focus from single-player to live service games. Even if all AAA studios focused on single-player projects, with an average 5-year development time, Sony could only produce 1-1.5 single-player AAA games per year because it doesn't have enough studios. Sony could aim to have at least 10 AAA studios to release two games annually, each with a five-year development cycle. To strengthen its lineup of single-player AAA titles, it might consider acquiring studios like Kojima Productions, Don't Nod, Remedy, Shift Up, and Quantic Dream.
Re: Stellar Blade Fans Rejoice: Developer Shift Up Now Recruiting for 'Next Work' in the Series
@Oram77
I'm just pointing out that the entire PS Square article fails to mention the fact that the next Stellar Blade 2 will be a multiplatform game from the beginning. The next question is why PS Square does not mention the multiplatform aspect. That's because it wants to keep the "exclusives are successful" narrative that the entire PlayStation fandom is built on.
Re: Stellar Blade Fans Rejoice: Developer Shift Up Now Recruiting for 'Next Work' in the Series
It's so funny that the PS Square editorial team tries to hide or ignore the fact that the next Stellar Blade 2 will be a multiplatform game from the start. The PlayStation media and fandom are so fixated on the "we need more exclusives" narrative that they refuse to accept the fact that all PS5 exclusives, with the exception of Spider-Man 2, have failed to sell more than 4 million units. Stellar Blade, Astro Bot, Rise of Ronin, Death Stranding 2, FF 16, and Rebirth have all failed to generate significant sales as PS5 exclusives. Even major AAA first-party games owned by Sony have been ported to PC to increase revenue and sales, as PlayStation exclusive sales are insufficient and do not generate the revenue and profit that Sony expects.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@add286
I get that PS5 is your main and favorite platform, and you want to be a monopoly after the "death" of Xbox as a hardware platform holder. But the market evolves and won't leave Sony and Nintendo without any alternatives. The rise of the hybrid consoles challenges the very foundation of hardware platform holders with closed ecosystems and exclusive games like Nintendo and PlayStation. In the end, there will be only one winner that will dominate the whole gaming market.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@truerbluer
1) I did not state that Steam Machine specifically uses DLSS. I just mentioned that DLSS/FSR are superior upscalers on PC compared to PS5. Steam Machine will use FSR and a frame generator that are superior to the PS5's current upscalers.
2) "Free online access to play what exactly?" Are you joking me? Assume you have the option of buying and playing EA FC or Call of Duty on the PS5 or Steam Machine. You will pay the full price of $80 on the PS5, and you will also have to pay for online access, whereas on the Steam Machine, you can buy these same games for less money with free online access.
3) Developers will eventually optimize their games based on the Steam Machine's specific hardware, just as they do with the Steam Deck. Valve even offers development tools to help developers optimize their games for Steam OS across all hardware devices. Valve provides a verification approval system for games that run smoothly on Steam Deck. The same verification system will be available on Steam Machine for games optimized for specific hardware.
4) "Isn't the supposed allure of this device that it can play games not on PS5?"
No, this is not the reason hybrid consoles exist. This is simply your own unfounded assumption. The goal of hybrid consoles like Steam Machine and PC handhelds like Steam Deck is to deliver all of the benefits of superior PC services in a console format, whether it's a home console under your TV or a portable console. Hybrid consoles provide the "console experience" by utilizing the appropriate hardware size and optimized software such as Steam OS and gaming Windows for console use. Traditional consoles, such as the PS5 and Switch 2, were previously the only devices suitable for the console experience, but this is changing with the rise of hybrid consoles, which combine the console market with the PC platform.
5) Physical games are on the decline, and digital sales now account for more than 70% of total sales, including PS5. We don't really need a disc drive because the majority of gamers prefer digital, so physical games cater to a small group of old gamers who are not considered a significant part of the current market trend.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@ButterySmooth30FPS
They are no longer relevant because the vast majority of consumers now prefer digital sales and subscription services. Subscriptions are replacing even the ownership model itself. The film and music industries have fully embraced the subscription model. The same thing will happen in gaming, with services such as Game Pass and cloud subscriptions.
The retail market is already niche and dying, with no future. Nobody cares about collecting or trading when you can simply get access to games through cheaper digital sales and subscription services.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
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Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@ButterySmooth30FPS
Black Friday is irrelevant. Take a look at the facts: digital sales account for more than 70% of total PS5 sales, and that figure will only rise until physical sales become obsolete or cease to exist.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@truerbluer
1) The Steam Machine has similar hardware power to the PS5, but its biggest advantage is that it uses upscalers like FSR/DLSS and frame generators, which are not available on the PS5, and offers a smooth experience. The lack of an upscaler on the PS5 forces the user to choose between two bad options: quality or performance mode, which either sacrifices graphic quality or reduces FPS. PCs do not have these issues because upscaler technology has managed to maintain both high visual image quality and a smooth FPS experience.
2) Unlike the PlayStation, which requires payment for such a basic feature, the hybrid consoles provide free online access.
3) The "plug and play" functionality exists because Steam OS and gaming windows were designed to provide the exact "console experience" within hybrid consoles, combining PC-level stores and services with console user experience. You do not need a mouse or keyboard to use Steam OS and gaming windows. We've already seen how Steam OS and Windows gaming work with Steam Deck and XBOX ROG Ally. Steam OS is already regarded as superior to PSN, boasting a better user interface and more features. It even provides free game guides, unlike PlayStation, which requires payment.
4) The developers will eventually optimize all games, just as they do for the Steam Deck and other PC handhelds. Steam Machine, like Steam Deck, will provide verification for games that are optimized for its system. Upscalers and frame generation will suffice to provide a seamless experience while preserving image quality and frame rate.
5) Games include full controller support, just like the Steam PC classic version and Steam Deck. You clearly do not know what you are talking about. All the games that can be played with a controller on PS5 can also be played on Steam
6) Physical sales are no longer viable for the vast majority of casual audiences. The true selling point of Steam Machine is that it offers cheaper games through sales and game keys, and if Valve integrates Game Pass into Steam OS, it will provide the ultimate combination of day-one releases and low-cost game purchases via Steam sales, game key stores, and Game Pass for third-party games. It is already much cheaper to purchase third-party games on Steam or day one on Game Pass than to pay $80 for each game on the PS5. Sony will be forced to lower its prices if it faces price competition from the new hybrid consoles like Steam Machine and next-gen Xbox.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
The hybrid PC-console Steam Machine has nearly the same hardware power as the base PS5, but it offers lower prices for game purchases due to its open ecosystem, as opposed to the closed ecosystem of the PS, in which Sony keeps the price high to generate massive revenue from a 30% revenue cut on every sale. With hybrid consoles, you won't have to pay $80 for every third-party game you buy on PS5 when you can get these same games for less through Steam sales, game keys, and day one on Game Pass on the Steam Machine and next-generation Xbox.
PC gaming ecosystem was consistently superior in terms of hardware, services, and game pricing. Increased freedom thanks to the open ecosystem, which includes multiple stores such as Steam, Game Pass, Epic Store, and game key stores. The only "benefit" of traditional consoles was their small size to fit under your TV and their "plug and play" casual usage, but with the development of hybrid PC-consoles that combine PC services with the console experience, the overall console market will merge with the PC gaming market, and the PC will be the dominant platform with a single open ecosystem.
Re: Halo Infinite Is in Fact Finite, Dev Focusing on Campaign Evolved for PS5
Xbox should remake the entire Halo trilogy, along with Reach and 4, bundling them all together in a massive collection available on Game Pass. They should also add Halo 5 to Game Pass while focusing on developing Halo 7. Infinite was a missed opportunity—it had a strong story mode, but it failed as a live service project at its core.
Re: PS5's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Draws Closer with Naughty Dog Recruitment Drive
@REALAIS
I know the second game was commercially weaker, but Naughty Dog needs to finish the trilogy with a third and final installment.
Re: PS5's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Draws Closer with Naughty Dog Recruitment Drive
@REALAIS
Once again, there’s no comparison. Most AAA productions follow a standard five-year development cycle with an average budget of 150-200 billion. And I’m specifically referring to single-player AAA games. The GTA development, on the other hand, is a far more ambitious project, spanning nearly a decade of work to include massive content aimed at sustaining engagement for years.
Naughty Dog's scheduling was disrupted because too much time was spent on the failed live service project that ended up being canceled. If they had focused solely on the next Last of Us Part 3 from the start, it could have been completed and released by 2024-2025. However, this is not Naughty Dog's fault, but rather Sony's misguided strategy of forcing their single-player studio to develop live service games in the first place.
Re: PS5's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Draws Closer with Naughty Dog Recruitment Drive
@REALAIS
lol
How do these clarifications even address the main point of my argument? The entire argument revolves around the fact that you can't compare Naughty Dog's games with GTA, as the latter is a live service game, and its budget includes all the content for its entire lifecycle. It doesn't matter whether it's 1 or 2 billion; that's not the point of the discussion. We don't know the exact budget for the next GTA, but rumors and estimates suggest it could be between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Re: The Best BioWare Can Do on N7 Day Is Insist Mass Effect PS5 Is Still in Dev
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