I certainly expect Sony to do more Day 1 PC releases on GAAS titles as they've already stated. But not expecting to be seeing single player blockbusters dropping day one for probably at least another 5 years, when the PS6 generation is underway. Helldivers 2 is one case, but Sony's bread and butter driving their profit and revenue is their platform, and the cut they're getting by selling their first party titles on there plus the revenue they're getting from the Playstation Store + Subs. Keeping some form of exclusivity is all about protecting the walled garden + userbase within it (I'm not stating this as a positive so much as it's a part of their business), not to convince PC only gamers to come to Playstation. If they're going day one PC on everything then they have to be sure that the number of sales they're getting on PC is offsetting the loss of console users, and there will certainly be a loss on that front.
How much is up to Sony to figure out but as soon as they start putting titles on there day 1, while I wouldn't expect a fall off like Xbox, there will certainly be large impacts that will not just impact the trajectory of their current situation, it will have permanent long lasting effects on their business. Some positive obviously, as we've seen with Helldivers, others negative. Sony would need to be prepared to potentially transition from being primarily a platform and being just as much a publisher. And they don't have the studios and pipeline currently to operate more primarily as a publisher considering the small number of releases they've had the past few years. So the question becomes how many console users are never going to PC, no matter what, and for the console users who would transition to PC with a move like this, were they the users who were spending hundreds of dollars annually or were they only buying a handful of exclusives.
These aren't decisions to be taken lightly and with a multi billion dollar business, it's not something I'd going all in on solely off Helldivers. Titles like Concord, Marathon, and more will be important to see. There's also several levers to pull here, whether it's shortening the window, more competitive pricing on PC, etc. This will help paint the picture of what they should ultimately do. And I'm sure development of PS6 is already underway so whatever they do can't short change their next console too much, where they get the ability to lock in however many users for X amount of years. Then there's just the current economic environment to consider. A part of Sony's issues are impacted by the current environment and their inability to cut hardware costs for example, or high interest rates. Is that a temporary thing as inflation remains sticky or the new normal? And then they have to consider how Nintendo's new console will impact things. In the past the Switch has been seen more as complimentary (sans Japan where it has eaten Playstation's lunch), but the Switch 2 could change things and shake that equation as well.
