[PCGamer] Former Sony exec finally says the quiet part out loud: putting PlayStation games on PC is 'almost like printing money'

[thesmokingman]

Of course, the game is already made, its just minimal porting and distribution costs.

Takes me back to the early days of Mantle and devs in their basement lol. We're here at this point in the ease of porting due to Mantle and AMD.

 

[xu^]

I have no idea about this just a gut feeling but I feel piracy is much much lower than it was 10-15 years ago. Could be wrong.

id say very likely, i and many of my friends used to torrent the latest releases in the early 2000s, none of us would bat an eye in guilt lol, none of us have downloaded pirated games for at least the last 15-20 years or longer, all of us have a large steam collection, not sure why it seemed to go out of favour, but with things like Steams regular big sales and able to get stuff from 50%-90% off , why wouldn't you buy them now.

 

[Vayra86]

Pretty sure there was an interview with someone at guerilla about Lego horizon and they were asked about Killzone. Said it was done.

Its as done as there being no budget for a new sequel at this point.

If Sony drops a bag of money and says mek Killzone pls, Guerilla will simply put it in a blender again. Its no different than CDPR not making another Cyberpunk. yeah right. You're dreaming if you think a franchise that has built up mindshare is going to be gone.

I have no idea about this just a gut feeling but I feel piracy is much much lower than it was 10-15 years ago. Could be wrong.

It absolutely is... and yet, there are still thousands of seeders for anything with a little bit of exposure.

The gaming industry was never really fighting a battle against piracy. Its an imagined enemy. If your game can't float with a few % pirating it, you never had a real product to begin with.

I think MS ironically is the only software company that truly understood piracy right from the get-go. Look at how they've dealt with Windows licensing. On the one hand, they tell you to buy a license, on the other, there's a whole world of easy to get licenses at an infinite number of storefronts and they don't really chase down illegal licenses either, especially not among the actual userbase. Their approach is similar to Steam. Low barrier of entry and a very weak 'drm'. The real money is in people using said application; the market penetration, reach, is what carries it, enabling MS/Valve to do all the things they want for a massive userbase. Its hard to fail that way.

Sony and numerous other publishers for games never understood this, or they consider their time and content too valuable to give it away, some twisted moral high ground for a corporate entity that will use every opportunity to bend the rules to their favor themselves. Misguided enforcement of principles that really don't matter jack shit. Even today, with their PSN enforcement... they still didn't get it. The amount of lost sales there... pfew.

Like so many things 'grey' in this world... live and let live. Everyone benefits.

id say very likely, i and many of my friends used to torrent the latest releases in the early 2000s, none of us would bat an eye in guilt lol, none of us have downloaded pirated games for at least the last 15-20 years or longer, all of us have a large steam collection, not sure why it seemed to go out of favour, but with things like Steams regular big sales and able to get stuff from 50%-90% off , why wouldn't you buy them now.

Its really the very same thing as the reason we used to pirate much more... 'the deal has changed'.
Digital distribution has done a similar thing for music. The ease of access is a big selling point. Its a bit like having food delivered to your door: sure we can make it ourselves much cheaper, but that takes effort. We're willing to pay to be lazy. Pirating games takes effort, more so than clicking install after clicking 'buy'. If you think of it, this is really a sign of markets working like they should: Offer a better deal, and we are willing to pay just fine. Offer something that looks like extortion, and we'll just pirate your shit, and then uninstall it anyway. The 'deal' is so much more than just the game/content, or its price.

And all of this, in a nutshell, is why PC gaming never dies, and consoles were really just juggling that reality for decades, but with cross platform play, fragmented user bases and numerous platforms running the same content, they can no longer avoid it. Consoles going x86 was really the writing on the wall: there are no real consoles anymore. They're just a shittier PC you can't upgrade.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

i would think that with the console hardware being so much more similar to pc hardware these days, porting games from console to pc and vise versa would be easier than it once was.

 

[Assimilator]

i would think that with the console hardware being so much more similar to pc hardware these days, porting games from console to pc and vise versa would be easier than it once was.

It is. Which is why it never ceases to boggle the mind how they are able to f**k these ports up.

 

[alwayssts]

I remember fighting the good fight all over the corners of the internet like it was yesterday, trying to get this to happen, explaining it literally was free money and no reason not to do it; PS audience only so big. While it appears obvious now, I personally believe Sony was hesitant bc if you look at them as a company, they're very protective. Not just of IP, but also of proprietary standards and/or quality control.
I made it my mission to explain that the PC community were in-fact not competition, but rather that the PS community was only so large with so many sales to be had; that the PC community could not only lead to more sales without threatening their ecosystem, but perhaps reinvigorate some properties (and first-run sales of sequels on their platform) if given features/upgrades our community appreciates.

While I was hoping they would eventually understand, their eventual response exceeded my expectations.

I'll always see it a victory, although I know many others spoke up about it and clamored for it as well, and thank Shou for making it happen.
I'm also thankful for many other things that man has done, even in recent past. For instance he was also instrumental in co-opting Stellar Blade.
As a fan of Korean entertainment, that meant more to me than you can ever know. Not only to see a mainline console game from a Korean studio, but the cooperation (with people like Keiichi Okabe).
Very cool guy, and ofc we'll always have moments of levity from him as well. He is one of the few execs that truly understands and/or understood the greater picture and the community, imo. Flowers.

The most interesting part of the PC equation will always be the acquisition of both Blue Point and Nixxes, which showed both foresight and that they are not screwing around; they know what's up.

Both of them are for obvious reasons, but let me explain it to you like you're an assimilator. Surely no pun intended.

Blue Point are *the* premiere remake studio. Shadow of the Colossus, Demon Souls. Surely more to come. This puts less strain on the original studios (and leaves them to create more original IP) while knowing they can trust a group of individuals that will honor every conceivable detail of the original work, while updating it to modern standards with exceptional quality. They do not need to farm it out and worry, like say Square/Nintendo have/do for some of their properties; they know that they can keep feeding them old classics and it will return them with either monetary gains and/or prestige. If need-be, they are an excellent support studio, such as helping with God of War: Ragnarok. This aligns so incredibly well with Sony, and you love to love it.

Then we have Nixxes. They are *the* premiere PC port studio, generally making the most out of the superior hardware. This one is perhaps slightly more interesting; for similar-but-different reasons. While some think of them for things like working with Crystal D on things like the newer Tomb Raider franchise on PC (a staple of most-everyone's benchmark routine at one point or another), their use to a company like Sony goes so much further beyond that. While a tech-wise studio like Insomniac can jump from working on a property like Ratchet & Clank to Spiderman, and then perhaps back, a studio like Nixxes can further develop/expand their engine, tools, and featureset; test and create the boundaries porting one title as the original studio begins work on the next. This potential sharing of technology not only helps expand what's possible technologically for sequels and further iteration on the current platform, but also the next. You've seen this with Ratchet, you've seen this with Spiderman, you've seen this with Horizon, you've seen (and will see this) with Ghosts of (Tsushima), and now we're waiting on The Last of Us Part II; which surely will be a much-better experience than what originally launched on PC wrt the earlier entry in the franchise (no offense to Iron Galaxy). All of these properties can be expected to be of even higher quality in their further PS iterations, be it on the PS5 or beyond, thanks to Nixxes.

I'm not a blind follower of any company, and Sony has made some questionable decisions at different points, but with regards to bringing their IP to PC and how they're going about it, I think they've set themselves up for greatness. Not only to expand their properties, but also to create a cycle of technology that can translate to better experiences for players on both platforms.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I'm waiting for their realization using IBM Cell CPU for the PS3 was a mistake.

 

[chrcoluk]

I doubt it is such simple.

It is for the executives that make the decisions. We then either get poor ports, or better quality ports where perhaps is a realisation some effort is required, but even then its far cheaper than the overall game development costs.

 

[Space Lynx]

I want dark cloud again, or a legend of Lagia remake or something.

Sony could do so much more. Not more Horizon game they keep wanting to become some major game franchise when no one cares.

I was not a fan of Horizon personally, I get why people like it. Just doesn't work for me, no idea why.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Wow, didn't realize there was so much beef with the Horizon series out there...

 

[dirtyferret]

I'm glad they are putting PS games on the PC but to be honest none of exclusives have ever appealed to me.

 

[Vayra86]

I was not a fan of Horizon personally, I get why people like it. Just doesn't work for me, no idea why.

Didn't really grab me either. Combat was ok. The open world wasn't all that interesting though. Too theme parkey

 

[Space Lynx]

Didn't really grab me either. Combat was ok. The open world wasn't all that interesting though. Too theme parkey

i played 2 hrs total and had to DNF (did not finish)

in other news, i expect this thread to be shut down soon as there is an official thread now

Former Sony Exec Views First-party PS5 to PC Porting as "Almost Like Printing Money"

Last month, Shuhei Yoshida announced his retirement from Sony Interactive Entertainment. His career at the company started back in 1986, and by 1993 he became involved with the corporation's nascent PlayStation division. The Japanese industry veteran has gone on a press appearance blitz over the...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Just for a different perspective: Recently played through and really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn.

I enjoyed the plot and core narrative surrounding the state of the world. The more contemporary conspiracy plot was less interesting but still serviceable.

Graphics (non-remaster) were very pretty and ran well on my 980Ti Steambox.

I thought Alloy was a fun, non-traditional strong female protagonist. She didn't just do the man's personality but gender bent thing that a lot of female videogame characters do and was pretty well realized.

The dino combat was an enormous amount of fun for me because it really did reward some prep work and a bit of thinking on the feet before engaging a more powerful enemy (at least until the higher levels where the difficulty curve flattened quite a bit). Setting traps, having to peel armor off of enemies, and the ability to pick off enemy weapons (and sometimes use them) was a real treat. The standard human enemies and encampments were pretty boring however.

Overall thought it was a great game and definitely worth playing, but I can see that if you play a bunch of 3rd person open world games all the time HZD would have a tough time setting itself apart from the pack outside of its style and primary narrative.

 

[Space Lynx]

Just for a different perspective: Recently played through and really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn.

I enjoyed the plot and core narrative surrounding the state of the world. The more contemporary conspiracy plot was less interesting but still serviceable.

Graphics (non-remaster) were very pretty and ran well on my 980Ti Steambox.

I thought Alloy was a fun, non-traditional strong female protagonist. She didn't just do the man's personality but gender bent thing that a lot of female videogame characters do and was pretty well realized.

The dino combat was an enormous amount of fun for me because it really did reward some prep work and a bit of thinking on the feet before engaging a more powerful enemy (at least until the higher levels where the difficulty curve flattened quite a bit). Setting traps, having to peel armor off of enemies, and the ability to pick off enemy weapons (and sometimes use them) was a real treat. The standard human enemies and encampments were pretty boring however.

Overall thought it was a great game and definitely worth playing, but I can see that if you play a bunch of 3rd person open world games all the time HZD would have a tough time setting itself apart from the pack outside of its style and primary narrative.

don't get me wrong, very happy others enjoyed it and that the industry got a new IP that was successful.

Takes me back to the early days of Mantle and devs in their basement lol. We're here at this point in the ease of porting due to Mantle and AMD.

yep AMD doesn't get enough credit for a lot of things. SteamOS/Linux open source support for so many years also comes to mind, look what that blossomed into.

 

[Vayra86]

Just for a different perspective: Recently played through and really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn.

I enjoyed the plot and core narrative surrounding the state of the world. The more contemporary conspiracy plot was less interesting but still serviceable.

Graphics (non-remaster) were very pretty and ran well on my 980Ti Steambox.

I thought Alloy was a fun, non-traditional strong female protagonist. She didn't just do the man's personality but gender bent thing that a lot of female videogame characters do and was pretty well realized.

The dino combat was an enormous amount of fun for me because it really did reward some prep work and a bit of thinking on the feet before engaging a more powerful enemy (at least until the higher levels where the difficulty curve flattened quite a bit). Setting traps, having to peel armor off of enemies, and the ability to pick off enemy weapons (and sometimes use them) was a real treat. The standard human enemies and encampments were pretty boring however.

Overall thought it was a great game and definitely worth playing, but I can see that if you play a bunch of 3rd person open world games all the time HZD would have a tough time setting itself apart from the pack outside of its style and primary narrative.

Well, fwiw, I did play through the whole game, and I totally recognize what you're saying too, especially regarding Aloy. She's her own being. Makes it doubly strange why they had to adjust her so much for the second part.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

What Shuhei Yoshida perhaps does not understand is that the reason many play on PC is... that they don't get to boss us around. I play games however I want, the way I want, on the computer I've built, on my terms. With the controller I want, with the frame rate I want, with the quality level I want.

The controller issue is actually of extreme importance to me, it's actually going as far as being an accessibility and comfort issue, consoles enforce their official accessories so they can profit from them, but on my PC I actually own several types of controllers for my PC, latest acquisition was a USB controller styled after a MD/Genesis controller, I also have a Super Famicom style controller, two American NES style controllers, a Switch Pro controller, DualSense, Xbox One/Series controller, etc. - even an old Windows 9x era SideWinder controller, I pick whatever I feel like.

Console game censorship is the single biggest reason why I play on PC, actually, but no plans on going there.



Just need to drop this here, it's my favorite article of all time

PC gaming has "around a 93-95% piracy rate" claims Ubisoft CEO

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been speaking to GamesIndustry International about Ubi's reasons for embracing the free to play model. He says free to play games are more cost effective to create because typical PC releases are so heavily pirated. He claims that "only about five to seven per...

www.pcgamer.com

That absolutely kills me. An Ubisoft exec complaining about piracy. The company that requires Uplay for single player games, and has it down regularly enough to be a joke, wants to lecture us about piracy. They release the Assassin's Creed garbage, where you have to buy an XP booster in a single player game priced at AAA standards, and then presume to tell us Free to Play is easier because of our piracy. Jesus bloody Crisco. The morale argument that they can go suck a buffet of phalluses makes itself.

I'm not sure whether to thank you for reminding me, or ask that you never show that little nugget again in polite company. That said, I guess this is why Sony is charting a new course and Tencent is looking to gobble up the remains of Ubisoft.

 

[Vayra86]

That absolutely kills me. An Ubisoft exec complaining about piracy. The company that requires Uplay for single player games, and has it down regularly enough to be a joke, wants to lecture us about piracy. They release the Assassin's Creed garbage, where you have to buy an XP booster in a single player game priced at AAA standards, and then presume to tell us Free to Play is easier because of our piracy. Jesus bloody Crisco. The morale argument that they can go suck a buffet of phalluses makes itself.

I'm not sure whether to thank you for reminding me, or ask that you never show that little nugget again in polite company. That said, I guess this is why Sony is charting a new course and Tencent is looking to gobble up the remains of Ubisoft.

When I look at Ubisoft's gaming history and the comical blurbs coming out of Yves' mouth I just can't stop laughing.

Its like a string of strategical fuckups, complete and utter misfires of the same caliber as say, Microsoft pushing Kinect for their Xboxes. Ubisoft and MS are like the cool kids that completely fail to read the room, every single time.

I mean, here's someone who wants to sell you product, telling you that almost every single potential customer is a thief and thus will be treated as such. Thanks man, now you've won me over. It stems from a completely misguided arrogance that somehow we're here to keep Ubisoft afloat, instead of Ubisoft having to deliver products we want to buy. And this attitude echoes inside their games with the monetary schemes, the lacking quality of their services and the way the player is treated as a result of that. The whole world moved away from Pay to win, but Ubisoft deems it great to include a shitty XP booster in single player games, which is a huge gameplay/immersion killer... on top of a string of DLCs, a high base game price, and a constant barrage of 'club rewards' that need to incentivize you to buy something else on top of all that. Suffice to say I haven't touched any Assassins' Creeds for quite a while now..

 

[Space Lynx]

Sony fails to read the room a lot of times these days too. Although, I may be wrong about that. I always thought the playstation portable device would be a flop, but apparently it sells really well from what I read. So yeah, wth do I know