As PC gamers, we have had ample cause to gripe concerning the tradition of console exclusivity for a while—these video games are working on {hardware} that is usually a smidge outdated by the point it hits the cabinets, but we will not get our grubby little mitts on them?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 particular 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 specific ache level over the previous few years, with some genuinely wonderful video games like Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, 2018’s God of Struggle, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man taking their candy time to mosey on over to Steam. Traits have continued with Rebirth, God of Struggle: Ragnarök, and Spider-Man 2 respectively.
However fear not, truthful keyboard warrior—it looks like the tide is basically turning in line with each PlayStation’s present president, and now its former one too. That is in line 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 reside service gaming or free-to-play. One other platform is simply one other method of opening the funnel, getting extra folks in.”
Layden’s reasoning right here—that console exclusivity primarily hurts reside 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 … It’s important to enhance your odds by cracking the funnel open”, he isn’t essentially mistaken.
The current wave of reside service video games has adopted a really comparable sample to the wave of MMORPGs in 2010-2020. As I identified final 12 months, the issue remains to be very a lot the identical: A giant factor turns into well-liked, firms 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 a couple of of those giants earlier than the entire thing buckles and breaks.
Whereas a reside service golden goose remains to be being chased by many builders, it is really actually arduous 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 foreign money system, however the wider participant pool would not damage.
As for single-player titles, Layden says there’s grounds to learn there too: “For single-player video games it is not 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 doable, 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 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 tougher that we’ll ultimately 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 remains to be an enormous a part of the corporate’s technique, so we might simply be a shorter window, moderately than a closed one.
