I'm acutely aware of how anti-consumer it is, but I always found it strange they ever started putting singleplayer games on PC.

Yes, it's some revenue for the game itself, filtered through Valve's 30% cut. But from what I gather, most of the reason the console offering works is because people who've finished God of War will learn about some new forever F2P game, and decide to play it on that same PlayStation, thus getting all the microtransaction revenue. None of that environmental connection really happens on PC.

That especially hurts because the cost and risk for singleplayer games hasn't always been great. Sure, we look positively at Hollow Knight: Silksong, but that often ignores the 95 other indie failures for every Silksong. At the least, a publisher like Sony that's put out enough big hits can pull that failure rate down, but they'll still put out stinkers; and the whole "environmental buy-in" helps to pay for that failure rate.

But, if people can get their well-produced games anywhere, the insular cycle encouraging people to get PlayStations kind of falls apart. Not many people will buy them specifically to play FortNite (though they will, in the end). It was good for PC consumers for a time, but I feel like PC releases were very much motivated by short-term profit. You can also see how, since singleplayer games fit in a longer-term industry plan, it may explain why we don't see many of them anymore.

I wonder how much of this is related to the posturing from the new lead of Xbox about returning to exclusivity over there.

We were so close to one of the dumbest things in gaming for decades finally going away.

(Also, nothing Sony does from here on out will surprise me in its stupidity after they shuttered Bluepoint.)

Sony turned so anti-consumer due to their PS4 dominance that even with a fairly modest digital library of games I still bailed to PC when the PS5 came around.

but I don't know how that squares with incoming PC ports for Death Stranding 2 and the sequel to Kena.

These publishing contracts have been signed years ago. So that’s not evidence of the contrary. Sony could be in a stage now where they do not take on new PC projects.

Refusing to release titles to the PC isn't going to make me run out and purchase a console. There are tons of games on PC. My backlog is long enough that I can live happily without whatever kind of bullshit Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox are trying to peddle. Assuming I did care about a specific title, and it's being gate locked by console exclusivity, I'll fucking pirate it. Sony, Microslop, and Nintendo can all get fucked.

Welp, looks like I'll need to get myself a PS5 then.

Said no cunt ever

Their loss. Stupid move.

I've owned exactly 0 playstations. The last new(ish) system I had was an N64. Could afford a laptop that could play games but also do schoolwork or have a console, so stuck with computers ever since.

The only time I've played Sony based games is when they're on PC. So... guess Sony is losing my money. I know it's not much, but interesting to get rid of the small revenue stream in hopes to get people back on console but I guess I don't understand how fishing for whales is the winning task.

They're going to learn that the days when publishers could strongarm gamers are over. There are too many games on too many alternatives, so it's too easy for gamers, faced with unnecessary hoops through which they're required to jump, to just say, "Well fuck that then - I'll play something else."

Its REALLY easy to just not buy their shit then.

Sony: "Exclusivity will increase sales!"

Customers: "I can't afford your exclusivity"

I like playing Sony games on PC from time to time but it they don't release anything more on PC that is OK too, I have plenty of other stuff to play anyway.

My guess is they're watching the PC parts supply issues due to AI and have decided they will use their institutional weight to also hoard parts to push consoles back to the forefront since it's harder to pirate on consoles and easier to resell the same game on new console generations.

Sony is and has been a big institutional player and I would not be at all surprised to see them moving on hoarding parts themselves: for AI, for consumer electronics, for game consoles. They've been practically waiting for a way to kill the PC industry and take the profits from it.

Is this just because they are like while we pump the number you have to pay for a PS (because of ram plus premium) and they are like, lets milk them while we have a sacrificial goat?

The only way this makes sense is if Sony feels they've cornered enough of the market to be able to recoup the enormous costs of AAA development. I don't see how that's possible without a huge price increase of the console and games.

The PS5 Pro is way overpriced and the regular PS5 doesn’t really have many exclusives over PS4 so it’s not a big surprise they can’t move consoles

This makes a lot of sense if the next Xbox is just a glorified PC. Right now Sony releases some of their games to PC, but never to Xbox. Multiplayer titles really are the ones that make no sense being exclusive because you need that extended network effect