It’s been a tumultuous day for PS5, underpinned by a PS Plus price increase and confirmation that Sony’s cancelling PC ports of its single player games.
While the company hasn’t made a statement, word comes by way of Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, reporting on an internal town hall led by PS Studios chief Hermen Hulst.
Schreier was the first person to report on Sony’s plans earlier this year, but this effectively confirms the story and ties a bow around it. We doubt the platform holder will address it publicly, unless asked directly by shareholders or during a rare media interview.
So with the story effectively confirmed, I figured we could use another poll on the topic: is this the right decision for Sony and PS5?
First I think it’s important to underline exactly what’s happening here: Sony will continue to release live service games like Marathon and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on PC, as well as select second-party projects like Kena: Scars of Kosmora.
Its decision here will primarily affect single player first-party games, like the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, for example. A PC port of Ghost of Yotei was apparently recently cancelled in line with this new initiative.
The cost of making games has been escalating, and Sony’s push into PC was seen as a way to recoup some development costs, extend the lifespan of its games, and reach new audiences unlikely to ever buy a console.
But sales have generally been poor, especially once the novelty of its first batch of ports wore off. PC sales represented less than 2.5% of PlayStation’s revenue in the last fiscal year.
PC players may argue that porting these games to storefronts like Steam years later impacted their overall appeal, but Sony’s view is that launching these games day one would have materially impacted the appeal of its own ecosystem.
Sony makes the bulk of its revenue from software and microtransaction sales within the PS Store, and a recent Circana report indicated that exclusives are the number one factor consumers consider when selecting a piece of hardware.
In our previous poll on the topic, approximately 71% of you agreed with Sony’s decision to scale back its PC porting programme.
But where do you stand on the subject now the story has effectively been confirmed? Has your opinion changed, or are you even more certain of its decision now Hermen Hulst has laid it all out? Let us know below.
