As PC gamers, we have had ample motive to gripe concerning the tradition of console exclusivity for a while—these video games are operating on {hardware} that is usually a smidge outdated by the point it hits the cabinets, but we won’t get our grubby little mitts on them?
Granted, there’s loads of causes as to why a dev group would need to optimise one thing for a particular loadout—the PC’s breadth of potential compatibility points are a whole nightmare, particularly as video games get greater in scope.
PlayStation has been a specific ache level over the previous few years, with some genuinely wonderful video games like Ultimate Fantasy 7 Remake, 2018’s God of Battle, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man taking their candy time to mosey on over to Steam. Traits have continued with Rebirth, God of Battle: Ragnarök, and Spider-Man 2 respectively.
However fear not, honest keyboard warrior—it looks as if the tide is essentially 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 recreation exceed $200 million,” Layden says, “Exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel. It reduces your addressable market. Significantly while you’re on this planet of dwell service gaming or free-to-play. One other platform is simply one other approach of opening the funnel, getting extra folks in.”
Layden’s reasoning right here—that console exclusivity primarily hurts dwell 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% % of these folks won’t ever spend a nickel … It’s important to enhance your odds by cracking the funnel open”, he is not essentially flawed.
The current wave of dwell service video games has adopted a really related sample to the wave of MMORPGs in 2010-2020. As I identified final yr, the issue continues to be very a lot the identical: A giant factor turns into well-liked, corporations need to make their very own model of the large factor, spend a bunch of cash to take action, then watch it collapse underneath its personal weight. The gaming ecosystem can solely assist just a few of those giants earlier than the entire thing buckles and breaks.
Whereas a dwell service golden goose continues to be being chased by many builders, it is truly actually onerous 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 all the way down to its fairer premium forex system, however the wider participant pool does not damage.
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 if you happen to’re spending $250 million, you need to have the ability to promote it to as many individuals as attainable, even when it is simply 10% extra.” He notes that whereas the console person 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 largely simply additional proof to stack onto the pile that—no, PC gaming is not lifeless. It is also trigger to cross my fingers even more durable that we’ll finally see the tip of those year-long waits—although whether or not we’ll see extra day-one releases like Helldivers 2 is one other query fully. The status of “Solely on PlayStation” video games continues to be an enormous a part of the corporate’s technique, so we may simply be taking a look at a shorter window, fairly than a closed one.