Analysis & Speculation: The Future Plans of PlayStation on PC
Sony/PlayStation deciding not to go forward with the plan to require a PSN account to play Helldivers 2 on Steam is reminiscent of a previous event in which a miscommunication lead to a decision to reverse course for one game as an exception to the policy going forward. That game was Horizon Forbidden West.
In a 2020 interview with the Washington Post’s Launcher, Jim Ryan, the former head of PlayStation who recently retired, said that Sony had “an upgrade path for PS4 users to get the PS5 version [of the Horizon Forbidden West game] for free.” It was then later revealed that PS5 versions of games with the improved graphics, textures, resolutions, frame rates, & new features such as haptic feedback, 3D audio, adaptive triggers, and ray tracing would come with a $10 upgrade from the PS4 versions to the PS5 versions.
This was met with mass fan protest as it seemed that Jim Ryan had forgotten the promise he made, a year before. In response to this outcry, On September 4th, 2021, Jim Ryan posted an update on the PlayStation blog stating:
“Thursday was to be a celebration of Horizon Forbidden West and the amazing team at Guerrilla working to deliver it on February 18, 2022. However, it’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our pre-order kickoff missed the mark.
Last year we made a commitment to deliver free upgrades for our cross-gen launch titles, which included Horizon Forbidden West. While the pandemic’s profound impact pushed Forbidden West out of the launch window we initially envisioned, we will stand by our offer: Players who purchase Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version for free.
I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7, and any other exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.”
– Jim Ryan, [Former] President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment
This previous situation sets a precedent that may be similar to the policy going forward with PlayStation on PC. It is likely that Helldivers 2 will be the exception to the rule in that all future multiplayer games and multiplayer modes on Steam will require a PSN Account while single player games might not have this requirement. For example, while the PC version of the highly acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima may not require a PSN to play the main story, the incredible multiplayer modes will likely still require a PSN. Additionally, Concord is likely to be the 1st New PlayStation game to require you to have a PSN Account to play it at Launch and that will be the standard going forward.
While it is possible that Sony/PlayStation may remove PSN Requirements for all of their future games on PC, it is not likely.
It is important to understand that doing things to “Please The Shareholders” is NOT a bad thing, in principal. What matters is HOW companies seek to please the shareholders. While signing up for a PSN Account is mostly trivial for consumers, as it is free and only takes a few minutes to complete, it is not as trivial to Sony, since these are important metrics that they can use to more easily track MAUs (Monthly Active Users), to present during their financial reports. If MAUs are going up then Sony investors will buy more stock and more people will become new investors for the first time. This means more money that PlayStation can use to make even more games than they would have been able to, more resources to make games higher quality, and more investment in studios to keep talented developers and gain new ones.
Going forward, it is likely that future games on PC that require a PSN will have their data compared internally at Sony/PlayStation to Helldivers 2 to provide the company with better information to make future decisions.
In the near future, Sony/PlayStation is likely to continue selling multiplayer games day 1 on PC & Steam while staggering the releases of Single Player Narrative Driven Games by 1-2+ years between their consoles and PC. That staggered release is likely to correlate to when games are added to the PS+ Game Catalog and over the internet streaming of games to computers, phones, tablets, and TVs which is also available in the PS+ Subscription.
PlayStation will continue to invest in creating some specific games intended to release on Mobile Phones, starting with the upcoming game from Neon Koi [Formerly Savage Games]. These games, while intended for phones, are also likely to release on PC and PlayStation Console Day 1. While PlayStation intends to expand into creating AAA Mobile & Cloud Based Games, this will be an additive experience to the core of PlayStation Console gaming, which is & will continue to be the main focus of the Sony/PlayStation Leadership, as expressed in their following statement:
“As we assured you before, with our plans to bring select titles to PC, our efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PS5 community, nor our passion to keep making amazing Single Player Narrative Driven Experiences. Our mobile games will be similarly additive.”
It’s possible that Sony/PlayStation may return to creating a new handheld console especially with Nintendo’s next handheld hybrid console on the horizon and Microsoft also hinting at the idea.
Further in the future, it is likely that Sony/PlayStation will create their own PC Store & Launcher and that will eventually be the only place that PC players, that refuse to buy a console, will be able to play PlayStation games or it will have its own staggered release window of 1-2 years from Console to PC and 1-2 additional years from their PC Store to Steam.
When the Sony/Playstation PC Store and Launcher is created it will require those who buy and play games to have a PSN Account and pay for the PS+ Subscription for online gaming like everyone else. PS+ Will not be required for Single Player/Offline Games but will be required for over the internet multiplayer and streaming. The new PlayStation Store/Launcher/Streaming Service/App will likely be ubiquitous on every platform and will be a service that will allow consumers to Buy Content OR Stream Games, Music, Movies, TV Shows, & Anime to any device.
Sony may attempt to acquire Epic Games, which they own a portion of already. This would give them the foundations to transform that PC Store into this new app and allow them to own Unreal Engine which would be a massive boost of income, as many developers use it. On the other hand, they may choose to create this service on their own. Either way, it is likely that Movies will first release in theaters after which they will go into this service to be purchased or streamed and video games will release on console and then 1-2 years later they will release on this new service that will allow purchase to PC or streaming to any device. TV Shows, Anime, and Music will also be added to this service to be the ultimate hub of Sony/Playstation content. This would be even more appealing to consumers if Sony manages to acquire Paramount or acquires any other companies in the future.
As things currently stand on PC, Steam acts as a near monopoly. PC Players seem to be ideologically entrapped because Steam is extremely useful and feature rich. It acts as a benevolent monopoly but it is a monopoly nonetheless. Due to just how consumer friendly and fantastic it is as a platform, PC Players are happy under the rule of a King. They unironically believe that exclusivity is bad and anti-consumer because they don’t understand that exclusive content is the mechanism that provides the ability to have competition in an industry.
Competition is the opposite of monopoly. Companies compete in several different ways including in Price, Quality, and Ease of Use but one of the strongest driving forces in competition is exclusive content or features.
Companies in every industry compete by offering exclusive content or features for example:
🔵Disney VS Warner Brothers | Mickey Mouse VS Bugs Bunny
🔵Marvel VS DC | Spiderman/Avengers VS Superman/Batman/Justice League
🔵LEGO VS MEGA VS PLAYMOBIL
🔵Hasbro VS Mattel | GI JOE VS Barbie
Even Technology and Household Appliance companies compete by offering exclusive features: Vacuums, Toasters, Fridges, Microwaves, TVs etc have multiple companies that manufacture these products and have exclusive features like special options, only found with that specific brand.
Individuals do not go to McDonald’s and expect to be able to buy a Whopper nor do they go to Burger King and expect to be able to buy a Big Mac.
Everyone instinctively understands these things at a base level but PC Players are blinded by sentiment. They believe that having video games everywhere under one platform is pro-consumer and exclusive content is anti-consumer but the opposite is the case. Exclusive content makes competition possible and competition prevents stagnation in an industry. Stagnation due to lack of competition is when products do not improve in quality or ease of use and increase in price over time. Competition prevents stagnation and provides pricing options to consumers. It improves the quality and ease of use of products over time.
One of the main reasons PC Players oppose the console mentality is because they have gotten used to playing games online for free. However, free online gaming is unsustainable in the future. Server Buildings/Data Centers are the literal most expensive buildings in the entire world to build and maintain. They are massive installations the size of your local Walmart but they are filled from wall to wall and ground to ceiling with nothing but computers.
Even studios that don’t pay to use these massive buildings have to invest immense amounts of money to build their own servers. Data Centers/Server Buildings consume more electricity than any other thing in the entire world. The cost of one of these in terms of power consumption, maintenance, physical and digital security, Cooling requirements, engineers, etc 24/7 is exponentially greater than anything else. While companies do not currently charge PC players for online services directly, they still pass off the costs in other ways indirectly. However, this indirect way of payment will still become unsustainable in the long term especially with the advent of AI, Self Driving Cars, Autonomous Robots, and next gen internet speeds (6G, Wifi 8 etc) The price to build more of these installations to meet demand and maintain them is growing at an exponential rate.
Eventually, everyone will have to pay a monthly subscription for both the ability to access the internet and the ability to get server held content from the internet, this includes streaming movies, shows, etc and playing server based multiplayer games. The only online multiplayer option that will continue to be free on PC will be peer to peer multiplayer. However, as technology improves, at an exponential rate, I do not believe most PC players will accept the massive variance in quality between peer to peer multiplayer and server based multiplayer.
On the bright side, we may get to a point when energy consumption and internet access is so cheap that it would be all but free due to the mass expansion of solar and nuclear energy but that is unlikely to happen faster than the currently growing demand for these things. There will likely be a period of increased energy and internet expense that will last a considerable amount of time before solar energy drives costs down to nearly nothing.
In the far future, Sony may attempt to create their own Operating System to compete with Windows and manufacture their own PC, a “Work&PlayStation 6” if you will. A less modular computer, like Apple’s MACs, with all the components of the PlayStation 6 or 7 but with extra specs to allow for PC related tasks like animation, rendering, game development, movie production, art, calculation, simulation, writing, spreadsheets, etc.
Despite the turmoil that the video game industry has faced recently, there is light at the end of the tunnel. PlayStation still has over 20+ Unannounced 1st Party Games in development, not including the dozens of 2nd & 3rd Party Exclusives. Sony/PlayStation, Microsoft/Xbox, & Nintendo/Switch are all on track to have their best game showcases in years. Both Microsoft and PlayStation have TONS of unannounced games in development or previously announced games that have yet to show gameplay. Sony is likely to announce a mid gen upgrade called PS5 Pro this year and Nintendo may announce their next gen console this year or early next year.
The BEST Video Games in a console generation always come after the halfway point through that generation. For example, the PS4 launched in November of 2013. Uncharted 4 didn’t release until 2016, Horizon Zero Dawn until 2017, God of War & Spider-Man until 2018, and Ghost of Tsushima until 2020. We are now in the second half of the PS5’s life cycle and there are still a ton of games that have been in development for years that have yet to be announced that are getting ready to be shown.
The Future of Video Games is Bright!
Sources:
https://t.co/oOZiTQvlau
