"It's almost like printing money": Former Sony exec says PC ports of PlayStation games are too valuable to ignore

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Releasing PlayStation's big games on PC via platforms like Steam is "almost like printing money," says former Sony Interactive Studios president and indie initiative boss Shuhei Yoshida.

Yoshida says he advocated for PC releases of first-party titles when he was president, but Sony wasn't keen on the idea at the time. However, after testing the waters with a few ports – which, technical issues aside, unsurprisingly found success on PC – and, not to mention, the massive simultaneous launch of Helldivers 2, the company has come around and learned to acknowledge the value of PC gaming.

"Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular," Yoshida says. "The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation."

The immediate financial value of such ports is also undeniable. "It also adds additional income, because porting to PC is way cheaper than creating an original title," Yoshida adds. "So, it’s almost like printing money. And that helps us to invest in new titles now that the cost of games has increased."

PC is increasingly being seen as a growth market in a world where the console market hit maturity many years ago. This is especially true in Asia markets. Yoshida points to the prevalence of PC gaming in China, which has "a huge PC game market" but only "a growing but very small console market." The explosive success of Black Myth: Wukong, which sold the majority of its copies on Steam and in China, is a topical example.

Longtime Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently told GamesRadar+ that "there are more players than ever playing on PC, including in Japan," agreeing with the platform's growing importance.

Sony's Shuhei Yoshida has chimed in on Sony Exclusives on PC after his retirement in January, and not only has it been a tremendous success, it seems it's not going to be ignored anytime soon. His comments of seeing growth in the already huge PC market while the console market matured many years ago seems to be in agreement with Monster Hunter's Producer as well. We can now put the tired rhetoric that Sony makes no money on PC games, PC gamers never buy games, and the PC game market is shrinking to rest. Who would have ever guessed it was Vitriol all along?

How cute, a PC is teh best kind of thread, haven't seen one of these in a while 🤣

And like a like a kid who's forced to meet his mother's new boyfriend, You're the very first one to slink from the shadows to Seethe..

True. GoW is available on GoG. Somebody should make a list of Sony games available on Steam or GOG. Upcoming, as well.

Dat projection bro.

Watch I can do it too, Laslo is sad that his parents won't buy him the newest graphics card to play his indies on at 240fps so he made this thread to feel better about him/herself 🤣

Well yeah. Why wouldn't Sony put games on PC?

But where do they sell the most, on PC or console?

We keep hearing PC is only growing, has the most gamers etc, but Sony's games still sell more on PS. Take Spiderman for instance, sold over 20 million on PS, sells 1.5 million on PC. And as you may or may not know there are 132 million active users a month on PC, the PS4 only got 117 million sales and yet sold like 10x as many copies.

Hermits talk it up all the time and the sales never stack up.

So, you're happy with Sony going third party now, what changed?

So they've finally realised that porting PS5 games to the PC is a better strategy than porting PS5 games to the PS5?

Helldivers 2?

I mean yeah.

P.C. platform hasn't exactly matched or been the highest seller with various releases, however all for giving more people a chance to check out a game they usually wouldn't, at least selling ok is more than worth the expense of a porting job. The talk was always "it's not worth it" but it kinda is. As of 2024 Monster Hunter World has sold roughly 7 million copies on P.C. alone, which far exceeded Capcoms expectations, P.C. was MHWs second highest selling platform for the game.

Works the otherway round however. League of Legends would do well on console, as would many other P.C. titles, basically all of Valves first party being on Switch 2 & PlayStation 5 would legit print money.

They're just too stubborn and lazy to do it.

Cows are opposed to games appearing on more platforms.

Damn.... Ice cold!

I agree that it'd be stupid to not support PC.

"The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation."

Why would they do that? You gonna release a game that PC gamers love, then not release the sequel on PC? Shuhei Yoshida is evil?

Most cows are corporate boot lickers.... They'd rather see you purchase proprietary hardware with proprietary games and have their studios close than see all gamers of all kinds simply have access to everything.

In a way it's not their fault... That's how the industry has operated, but now you have 1% of difference in game libraries and gaming budgets have run amok making development a greater risk than ever before.

A pro gamer minded person would see this as an opportunity to stop gouging us unnecessarily and give us access to support good studios... A corporate boot licker would be someone still wanting you to purchase an unnecessary 500 dollar piece of plastic so you can play 3 games. They need to know their corporation of choice is appeased rather than their fellow gamers.

@howmakewood: Congrats you found 1.

@TheEroica: I'm happy you came in to console him 🤭

This goes against our resident analyst who claims otherwise.🤭

Yup, the only one that launched at the same time on both plats

Nice Pun! All I offer is warm hugs and blessings from on high... Bless you child.

Yep, I've seen people tricked into buying Peer To Peer Nintendo or Sony online subscriptions.

Like, I'm a PC gamer, I'm used to spending a lot on gaming. But at least I can always clearly point to where my money is going.

Spending a monthly fee is a big no-no for me.

Yoshida points to the prevalence of PC gaming in China, which has "a huge PC game market" but only "a growing but very small console market." The explosive success of Black Myth: Wukong, which sold the majority of its copies on Steam and in China, is a topical example.

That sucks for China, they seem to have difficulty making consoles. There's probably no great way Sony could port these to the Tomahawk F1 so they are forced to bring it to PCs for China.

@R4gn4r0k: same... I spent years paying for subs... At one time I had all three companies going. Console gaming was costing me an extra 150 bucks a year just to use the features I paid for with the game. Some folks glaze over this and pass it off as no big deal, but it's dead money.

Ms putting Xbox studios games on playstation and pc is like printing money.

Sales and profits baby...sales and profits

Just to highlight the absurdity of paying for online gaming on consoles which the majority keeps missing. If you pay for a game, you have to pay to play online. If you don't pay for a game, online is free. The setup is literally punishing gamers who buy games.😂

I feel as though this has been going on a lot:

More and more I feel people were driven towards free to play games, towards online games or mobile games that have in-store purchases rather than an upfront cost.

Instead of spending upwards of 70-100 for a (often broken) offline experience.

It's part in a bigger whole, but I feel it shines badly on our traditional model of paying for our games.

We pretty much knew this was Sony's stance since 2020, it'd only be news if they changed their staggered release strategy at this point.

That's entirely true. Many of the millennial gamers grew up with a competitive mindset with all of the Nintendo vs Genesis commercials that were basically brainwashing. People have proven that a lot of them just don't adapt well or have no logical reasoning and critical thinking skills, so those people just get stuck in an old war that doesn't affect them in the slightest and this shifts to new parties but the concept for them stays the same.

It's a lot like sports in a sense--this giant nebulous company/team that doesn't know I exist has to win because other people said so.

@DragonfireXZ95: War, sports, religion, video games... You're always being recruited to a side.

People just feel comfortable with the whole 'it's us versus them' mindset.

But yeah it's extremely silly. I wasn't doing it back with Sega vs Nintendo and I'm not doing it now.

I wish the world was less about side picking but oh well, it is what it is.