As PC gamers, we have had ample purpose to gripe in regards to the tradition of console exclusivity for a while—these video games are operating on {hardware} that is usually a smidge outdated by the point it hits the cabinets, but we will not get our grubby little mitts on them?
Granted, there’s loads of causes as to why a dev crew would need to optimise one thing for a selected loadout—the PC’s breadth of potential compatibility points are an entire nightmare, particularly as video games get larger in scope.
PlayStation has been a selected ache level over the previous few years, with some genuinely wonderful video games like Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, 2018’s God of Conflict, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man taking their candy time to mosey on over to Steam. Developments have continued with Rebirth, God of Conflict: Ragnarök, and Spider-Man 2 respectively.
However fear not, truthful keyboard warrior—it looks like the tide is basically turning in keeping with each PlayStation’s present president, and now its former one too. That is in keeping with an interview with ex-head honcho Shawn Layden, courtesy of GamesBeat.
“When your prices for a sport exceed $200 million,” Layden says, “Exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel. It reduces your addressable market. Notably while you’re on the earth of stay service gaming or free-to-play. One other platform is simply one other manner of opening the funnel, getting extra folks in.”
Layden’s reasoning right here—that console exclusivity primarily hurts stay service video games—is a smidge company, particularly contemplating lots of the PlayStation exclusives I have been drooling over are single-player. Nonetheless, when he notes that “in a free-to-play world, as we all know, 95% p.c of these folks won’t ever spend a nickel … You must enhance your odds by cracking the funnel open”, he is not essentially unsuitable.
The current wave of stay service video games has adopted a really comparable sample to the wave of MMORPGs in 2010-2020. As I identified final yr, the issue remains to be very a lot the identical: An enormous factor turns into standard, corporations need to make their very own model of the massive factor, spend a bunch of cash to take action, then watch it collapse underneath its personal weight. The gaming ecosystem can solely assist a number of of those giants earlier than the entire thing buckles and breaks.
Whereas a stay service golden goose remains to be being chased by many builders, it is truly actually exhausting to get one off the bottom. Layden provides: “Helldivers 2 has proven that for PlayStation, popping out on PC on the similar time. Once more, you get that funnel wider. You get extra folks in.” I do suppose a part of Helldivers 2’s success is right down to its fairer premium forex system, however the wider participant pool would not harm.
As for single-player titles, Layden says there’s grounds to learn there too: “For single-player video games it isn’t the identical exigency. However in the event you’re spending $250 million, you need to have the ability to promote it to as many individuals as doable, even when it is simply 10% extra.” He notes that whereas the console consumer base has elevated its uncooked spending over time, “I have a look at that and see that we’re simply taking extra money from the identical folks.”
That is principally simply additional proof to stack onto the pile that—no, PC gaming is not useless. It is also trigger to cross my fingers even more durable that we’ll finally see the top of those year-long waits—although whether or not we’ll see extra day-one releases like Helldivers 2 is one other query totally. The status of “Solely on PlayStation” video games remains to be an enormous a part of the corporate’s technique, so we may simply be a shorter window, quite than a closed one.
