-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Amazon FR lists Horizon Zero Dawn for PC, published by Sony
- Thread starter Deleted member 8196
- Start date
Sony isn't porting any games to PC to get people to buy a PlayStation 5. That strategy makes no sense.
The entire reason Sony would be porting any games to PC is the exact same strategy as Microsoft; recognising that PC committed gamers are not buying into the PlayStation ecosystem, not sustainable customers, and a poor source of long term hardware investment. They are, however, a potentially good investment when you appeal to their platform of choice.
As I said in the other thread on this topic, Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo don't make a huge amount of money off you buying their hardware. Consoles often sell either at a loss or break even. They seem expensive to you, but to the company they bring in little revenue. Platform holders want you not only to buy the hardware, but more importantly invest in the hardware. Platform holders make a cut of every single game sold on the platform. Not just first party output, but third party output too. This is where the bulk of revenue comes from; people investing in the platform ecosystem, regularly buying software, registering to subscription services, as a sustainable source of income. The reason we see exclusive, first party games is not just to bring in that revenue, but sway people to the platform. Sony don't want you to invest in the Xbox ecosystem, they want you to invest in PlayStation, and if games like The Last of Us, Horizon, and God of War tip the scales in their favour that justifies investing in their production.
The problem is the PC ecosystem, which has no single platform holder, is abstract by nature, and conceptually and functionally distant from consoles. PCs, as a technological device and gaming platform, provide a far richer, more complex experience and set of software offerings to consoles. This isn't a lesser/superior argument, so much as understanding why people who game on PC are so stubborn at shifting; consoles do not, and cannot, offer the same versatility, flexibility, and usability as a PC. People who've committed to the PC ecosystem are likely doing so for a multitude of reasons, not just video games, and that makes it incredibly challenging to have them uproot and shift their gaming priority to a console that cannot do half the shit that a PC can.
Microsoft realised this. People on PC, who have gamed on PC most of their life, love PC as a platform and what it offers, are terrible sources of sustainable revenue for consoles. They might buy an Xbox, but they're only doing it for a very small handful of exclusives that interest them and then...that's it. And that's a bad investment, because the sustainable revenue isn't there. These customers might have purchased your hardware, but they bring in very little annual revenue, because they're not buying third party games on the platform and, in a lot of cases, not subscribing to your services either.
So a company like Microsoft has to weigh up the revenue options in this scenario, and it basically comes down to two different numbers.
1) Annual revenue from PC gamers who have purchased an Xbox, and felt the incentive to do so because of exclusives, but only purchase exclusives due to PC being their primary platform.
and 2) Potential annual revenue from PC gamers who want to play Xbox exclusives, but won't or cannot buy an Xbox for these titles.
Porting games to PC loses some revenue from PC gamers who do buy the Xbox hardware. But again, the revenue from hardware purchases is very low and generally insignificant. So, in the case of Microsoft, if their data suggests that the loss of hardware revenue from porting games to PC is less than the gained revenue from new customers then...the solution is obvious; port the games to PC, continue to nab the customers that would have otherwise bought the hardware but are now still buying the exclusives on PC, and gain the new audience of PC gamers who weren't ever going to buy an Xbox at all.
The challenge in these situations is how you get a maximum cut of revenue. Microsoft initially committed to the Windows storefront which naturally meant their PC ports net 100% of revenue, rather than paying Steam, Epic, or whatever a cut using their storefronts. But that's changed now, with Microsoft releasing their games on Steam as well. And honestly, it's probably because even with paying Valve a cut of revenue the quantity of people buying the games on PC is still high enough to justify the percentile loss.
I'm not necessarily suggesting Sony will go exactly down this path or they don't have major reservations, so much as a game like Horizon being a test of this market. Horizon is a couple of years old at this point, it's already super cheap with the DLC, the PlayStation 4 is trailing off in the generation, and so anybody who desperately wanted Horizon has already bought the hardware and played it. It's a super late port to see how many people are willing to either double dip on PC, or never owned a PlayStation but really wanted to play the game.
Hypothetically, Horizon for PC sells extremely well. This sends a clear message to Sony that there is a large market for their exclusives outside of the PlayStation ecosystem. It's one thing to port games to Xbox, where you're robbing your own ecosystem of its draw in favour of a direct competitor, but PC is completely different. If the incentive is there, the market proven, and the revenue loss gauged as insignificant, I'd put money on more and more Sony published ports coming to PC, even if they're not necessarily day and date.
The entire reason Sony would be porting any games to PC is the exact same strategy as Microsoft; recognising that PC committed gamers are not buying into the PlayStation ecosystem, not sustainable customers, and a poor source of long term hardware investment. They are, however, a potentially good investment when you appeal to their platform of choice.
As I said in the other thread on this topic, Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo don't make a huge amount of money off you buying their hardware. Consoles often sell either at a loss or break even. They seem expensive to you, but to the company they bring in little revenue. Platform holders want you not only to buy the hardware, but more importantly invest in the hardware. Platform holders make a cut of every single game sold on the platform. Not just first party output, but third party output too. This is where the bulk of revenue comes from; people investing in the platform ecosystem, regularly buying software, registering to subscription services, as a sustainable source of income. The reason we see exclusive, first party games is not just to bring in that revenue, but sway people to the platform. Sony don't want you to invest in the Xbox ecosystem, they want you to invest in PlayStation, and if games like The Last of Us, Horizon, and God of War tip the scales in their favour that justifies investing in their production.
The problem is the PC ecosystem, which has no single platform holder, is abstract by nature, and conceptually and functionally distant from consoles. PCs, as a technological device and gaming platform, provide a far richer, more complex experience and set of software offerings to consoles. This isn't a lesser/superior argument, so much as understanding why people who game on PC are so stubborn at shifting; consoles do not, and cannot, offer the same versatility, flexibility, and usability as a PC. People who've committed to the PC ecosystem are likely doing so for a multitude of reasons, not just video games, and that makes it incredibly challenging to have them uproot and shift their gaming priority to a console that cannot do half the shit that a PC can.
Microsoft realised this. People on PC, who have gamed on PC most of their life, love PC as a platform and what it offers, are terrible sources of sustainable revenue for consoles. They might buy an Xbox, but they're only doing it for a very small handful of exclusives that interest them and then...that's it. And that's a bad investment, because the sustainable revenue isn't there. These customers might have purchased your hardware, but they bring in very little annual revenue, because they're not buying third party games on the platform and, in a lot of cases, not subscribing to your services either.
So a company like Microsoft has to weigh up the revenue options in this scenario, and it basically comes down to two different numbers.
1) Annual revenue from PC gamers who have purchased an Xbox, and felt the incentive to do so because of exclusives, but only purchase exclusives due to PC being their primary platform.
and 2) Potential annual revenue from PC gamers who want to play Xbox exclusives, but won't or cannot buy an Xbox for these titles.
Porting games to PC loses some revenue from PC gamers who do buy the Xbox hardware. But again, the revenue from hardware purchases is very low and generally insignificant. So, in the case of Microsoft, if their data suggests that the loss of hardware revenue from porting games to PC is less than the gained revenue from new customers then...the solution is obvious; port the games to PC, continue to nab the customers that would have otherwise bought the hardware but are now still buying the exclusives on PC, and gain the new audience of PC gamers who weren't ever going to buy an Xbox at all.
The challenge in these situations is how you get a maximum cut of revenue. Microsoft initially committed to the Windows storefront which naturally meant their PC ports net 100% of revenue, rather than paying Steam, Epic, or whatever a cut using their storefronts. But that's changed now, with Microsoft releasing their games on Steam as well. And honestly, it's probably because even with paying Valve a cut of revenue the quantity of people buying the games on PC is still high enough to justify the percentile loss.
I'm not necessarily suggesting Sony will go exactly down this path or they don't have major reservations, so much as a game like Horizon being a test of this market. Horizon is a couple of years old at this point, it's already super cheap with the DLC, the PlayStation 4 is trailing off in the generation, and so anybody who desperately wanted Horizon has already bought the hardware and played it. It's a super late port to see how many people are willing to either double dip on PC, or never owned a PlayStation but really wanted to play the game.
Hypothetically, Horizon for PC sells extremely well. This sends a clear message to Sony that there is a large market for their exclusives outside of the PlayStation ecosystem. It's one thing to port games to Xbox, where you're robbing your own ecosystem of its draw in favour of a direct competitor, but PC is completely different. If the incentive is there, the market proven, and the revenue loss gauged as insignificant, I'd put money on more and more Sony published ports coming to PC, even if they're not necessarily day and date.
^^^ right here.
Also meeting customers where they are, and having PSN as part of those games, can encourage the PC audiences specific to each service provider, to also explore other PS related services. Playing between local and cloud / curated subs etc seems an easy thing to target along the way
Would've preferred Sony test the waters by publishing Bloodborne on PC, especially given the huge FROM fanbase here, but if this is what it takes, I'm hoping PC players support HZD if it ever does come to our platform. The game has never really interested me so I'm on the fence, but man I'd love to ensure that games like Bloodborne, TLoU, GoW, and Dreams follow suit.
Good read. Agreed. I've had similar thoughts. Do you think these moves from Sony are in reaction to the direction Microsoft is going, or this has always been the plan. Because I feel Microsoft recently has been gaining more traction among pc gamers with things like game pass, play anywhere, and quality ports. Perhaps Sony is taking note?
Exactly. The whole mantra of "don't sell a platform, sell a service" is becoming more and more of a reality and the stuff you're mentioning is precisely why companies are broadening their horizons (PUN ABSOLUTELY INTENDED). Even if the games are sold on Steam or Epic, having some kind of PSN integration opens the PC market into using the service for other options, which could include game streaming, movie rentals, etc.
Honestly no idea, but I'm sure the data from Microsoft has influenced Sony. It only makes sense. To be fair, platform holders are notoriously stubborn in branching out, for obvious reasons; concern of losing their ecosystem and their market. And even when they do there's a rigid, archaic approach. Microsoft peddled the whole "we're back in the PC game!" thing for years and delivered absolutely jack shit of value. GFWL was fucking garbage, ports were ass, inconsistent support, etc. And even with their more committed approach now they still rigidly stuck to Windows storefront, which was shit around the time Quantum Break was ported across (I remember that being one of the first from the current gen?).
But now we're through the teething pains it's all mostly okay. Still issues here and there, but it works for most part, and Steam support is even more approachable. I don't know what the data says, but if Microsoft are continuing to double down on PC the evidence must surely be there that it's worth it, because they don't seem to be slowing down. Sony, intentional or not, must see value in this.
Good thing all them Xbox games are coming to Steam.
I'm hoping Steam as well but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony partners with Epic.
I yearn for the day that games aren't held hostage by 30fps720p boxes, but until that day I will unfortunately keep buying them. I'd love to play Bloodborne again at a frame rate that doesn't make me want to puke.
Those will come eventually I suspect. And the console will mean something to people who prefer the console experience. Sony/Microsoft putting game son PC is to catch people who prefer the PC experience. Different markets, same ecosystems (PSN/Gamepass etc). It's all about getting as many people into your ecosystem as possible.
In the near future, having exclusives and ecosystems tried to a singular console box will be seen as archaic.
Could say the same thing for Xbox then but people will still buy it.
I expect all of Sony's exclusives to hit PC at some point but PS5 will probably still sell.
Great idea. They absolutely should port all the first party exclusives to PC, and stay off Xbox. Retain and cultivate an existing console ecosystem with incentives over Microsoft as a direct competitor, net revenue from the PC ecosystem that is never going to shift to PlayStation, and draw PC gamers into live/cloud service models like PSN via cross platform content delivery.
Here's the trick; think of realistic and beneficial business models and the purpose of software exclusivity outside of childish pissing contests of who has the fanciest exclusives for online lists wars and the reasoning suddenly makes a lot of sense.
sony is definitely testing the pc waters. once they see how well this game sells they will be licking their chops. only a matter of time time till us pc nerds get best of all worlds.
This is a beautiful post.
I think Microsoft's initial efforts on PC gaming were hamstrung by other parts of the company. It was always treated as an addendum to something else, usually the console side of things, but the Windows Store had to be the Windows team trying to force everything onto the Universal Windows Platform to try and get that off the ground.
But hey, they're finally at the point where they're porting seventh gen classics on Steam, which Sega had figured out in 2014.
Last edited:
I will buy Horizon on whatever launcher they choose assuming its exclusive. I am personally not bothered by using multiple launchers. I just hope it sells an insane number and pushes Sony to put more 1st party games on PC where they can be played in a much better state.
Death Stranding will be at Steam day 1, and QD games are only timed exclusives, so I doubt the choice is "EGS or nothing"
BTW, long time ago Amazon France also listed Bloodborne for PC
uk.ign.com
lol
Amazon France Lists Bloodborne for PC - IGN
Amazon France is up to its old tricks again, possibly leaking the existence of Bloodborne on PC.
lol
I don't think it will be EGS only, but none of those games you mention are published by Sony on these platforms.
Typically retail listing leaks would hold little weight, but this PC port is corroborated by Jason from Kotaku and also the guy that leaked the existence of Death Standings PC port.BTW, long time ago Amazon France also listed Bloodborne for PC
Amazon France Lists Bloodborne for PC - IGN
Amazon France is up to its old tricks again, possibly leaking the existence of Bloodborne on PC.
lol
Also that Bloodborne listing was near release, so it can be attributed to a copy/paste error or mishandling when making the PS4 listing. Adding a new listing for Horizons so long after release is strange.
Well, Im not saying Horizon is not coming to PC, just pointing that Amazon France in the past they listed games like Bloodborne. From what I know, the HZD listing is not from this week, is old, before the Jason corroboration.
Also amazon listed Street Fighter V for Xbox one time ago...
And was never released. So, I don't trust amazon. I trust more Jason from Kotaku than this listing....(which is already removed, like the bloodborne one)
Agreed, but most people will agree to that.
It's when a game that was all ready to be released on Steam is taken out just for EGS that people get angry about.
Even though I already played through it on ps4 and I said to myself that I won't get the PC version, I'm slowly just thinking that I would enjoy a replay at 60fps....
People who think Sony is using the port to advertise PS5 or Horizon 5 is still stuck in the oudated mindset that the console war is still determined by who sold the most consoles, have 0 knowledge on PC gaming landscape or they are in denial. It is like saying camera maker releasing a camera app on a smartphone is to make people buy their digital camera.
The war is shifting to ecosystem based, and PC gaming is a very large untapped market for Sony and Microsoft to shift into, especially considering that they have their console fans locked tightly into their ecosystem already. They have no need to worry their console audience will go anywhere because their purchased digital games library are tied to their Playstation or Xbox.
Even if Sony port every games over, the console owners ain't going to give up their digital Playstation library for a PC, or afford one. They will continue buying the next Playstation to maintain the contents
Keep the games coming Sony, there is money to make on PC. The more games are available on as many platforms as possible, the better.
Many cannot and will not escape this line of thinking, sadly.
I don't think you should be afraid, there have been multiple threads about this, and Jason is known to have really good sources. I just hope everyone enjoys the game as much as I did.
I completed HZD on Pro and it looked stunning so while not expecting the maxed PC port to look much better I'd still buy it just to support the idea of play what you want where you want.
Do we know a release date?
Do we know a release date?
well said. the argument that horizon on PC would get people to buy a ps5 for the sequel is laughable. sony just wants to dip their toes in the PC market (with a years old game, for now), that's it.
Movie streaming services like Netflix/Hulu/Disney+ etc are available on all devices and put as few artificial barriers for the user as possible. Obviously for games there are a lot more technical and logistical obstacles before that becomes reality, nevertheless I think the situation where a potential player is forced to spend hundreds of dollars before being able to access the game they want to play will become a thing of the past (particularly when they already have access to local hardware with plenty of computing power and adequate input devices).
We were getting announcements seemingly every couple days regarding games going to EGS for 12 months.
It's been very quiet. I don't even remember the last time we had an announcement.
If Sony's smart they're looking at what Microsoft's doing. They saw the numbers an old game like Halo managed and decided that's what they want.
Creating yet another PC launcher for old single player games sounds like an awful idea.
Most people who owns a PS4 don't even buy the exclusives anyway. Some people just prefer to play on consoles.
PDXcon in October? The next Mars game beta was gonna be EGS exclusive.
I think they had a Game Awards sizzle reel, but I don't recall any major new gets.
More recently, that new Bearded Ladies game released there, with very little fanfare.
Not long to go to see what Epic's threatening us with this time.
EatChildren's post is brilliant. Great read.
Ultimately it's also another area where Sony probably don't want to get left behind, or lose market and mindshare to Microsoft. Nintendo very much operate at their own speed and in their own bubble, but I don't think that works or is ideal for Sony, and we've seen them react quickly before to situations that makes them appear like outliers. If there's money on the PC table, it doesn't make any sense for Sony to leave Microsoft a free run at it.
Ultimately it's also another area where Sony probably don't want to get left behind, or lose market and mindshare to Microsoft. Nintendo very much operate at their own speed and in their own bubble, but I don't think that works or is ideal for Sony, and we've seen them react quickly before to situations that makes them appear like outliers. If there's money on the PC table, it doesn't make any sense for Sony to leave Microsoft a free run at it.
People will always want consoles, some people never will. I have a beast of a PC, work in the PC gaming industry, but I love consoles. Some of my other colleagues wouldn't dream of owning a console.
Sony gets sales, potential MAUs from playstation network if you have to sign in (which I would imagine you will). It'sa win win for sony and all customers.
You are right. The console doesn't mean anything to me, and I would never buy one either. But I will buy pretty much every Sony exclusive game on PC.
Wait, so that means Sony stands to gain additional revenue from you, and those like you?
Inconceivable!