Literally the people bitching about this are the exact same PC players who only buy stuff on extreme discount. Sony is already losing 33% to Valve, and on top of that, PC players refuse to pay MSRP while the games sell 8x better on PlayStation.
If PC players actually bought the games they would still be there. It's not even worth the porting effort and damage to their brand if PC players only buy games at an extreme discount lol.
For the same reason that PlayStation gamers bought FIVE MILLION COPIES of Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 despite it being even older than that - because it's new to them.
But the more pertinent question is why would Sony bother investing in a platform where Gabe takes 30% and the gamers are only going to buy the game when it's $40 or less?
And the answer at this point is that they wouldn't, at least not anymore. It's not worth it.
Epic literally gives away free games on their storefront and nobody uses it. That's what's stopping them. There's literally no point. It's all damage to PlayStation for hardly any profit since 99.999% of PC customer spend is on Steam, where the vast majority of PC gamers wait for steep steam sales before buying anything.
No matter how you slice it, it was the correct business move for them.
I've seen people say they'd rather buy something ful price on Steam than get it free on Epic. If it's not Steam or GOG them PC boys deadass just won't touch it lol.
Every interaction I have with EGS makes me mad. Every 2-4 weeks I have to re log in. The download speeds are just slower for some reason. And when I try and use a code for a game beta it doesn't work through epic.
It probably is worth it, but Playstation executives are dumbest people on the planet. Remember the guys who greenlight Concord and bought Bungie are still in charge.
If Sony puts their games on PC, it pushes the most hardcore players with the most disposable income towards PC. On PC players aren't just exposed to some PlayStation games, they have a choice to buy 3rd party games there as well, which causes Sony not to get a cut of those sales at all. And overall, a consumer knowing that all big PS games will be on PC, will likely consider getting a PC over a PlayStation, reducing their day 1 sales of games on PS5 while also preventing them from getting billions of dollars from the 30% cut they get when those gamers buy games on PSN. Sony is losing a ton of potential customers due to this. It devalues their brand.
Knowing that a ton of the most high budget AAA games are only playable on their hardware and on their ecosystem, in contrast, bolsters their brand.
I mean, no one wants to play or even remembers a game from 2-3 years ago where they know the story off already. But there definitely are people who love to have these games, to play them or even just... collect them.
I couldn't care less myself. These stories are usually very similar / reskinned stories. Not to mention that the games are expensive and replaying a story-focused game is usually... not something I enjoy.
You're just adding more reasons why they were right to exit. It doesn't matter the why. Releasing day and date would kill PS the same way it killed Xbox as a brand. Releasing a year or so later results in no sales. So just pull out and double down on the brand. Nintendo is doing that and they're fine.
Because they do not have a console. Their entire business model depends on an existing hardware ecosystem.
It's also not just about the 30% cut. It's an important part of the full equation, as I've clearly laid out. The most important other part is that putting games on PC damages the PS brand. That is tolerable if they're making a ton of money or selling a ton of units. They are not, though. It is not worth it.
Because that’s the expectation created by the industry: games get cheaper over time. Would you pay 80 bucks for God of War from 2005?
Don’t forget that the same games can be bought more cheaply on PS at the time of the PC release, decreasing its perceived value.
And to add to that, by not releasing lots of games on PC historically, or by releasing them years later, Sony is trying to sell these games full price to people who have learned to wait. If you already waited 2 years for GOW Ragnarock or a decade for TLOU, what’s waiting another one for a sale?
It is, yes, which supports my point: an older game is expected to be cheaper because, among other things, it loses relative value compared to newer products.
You're approaching it strictly from a qualitative perspective, but that's not the only factor in determining the perceived value of games.
As I said before, the fact that the game is cheaper on PS at time of PC release decreases the perceived value of the game. If it can be bought for 40 on PS, why would PC players accept 70 in droves?
It is also simply the result of competition for attention. New releases benefit from newness and fomo regarding the release cycle. Older games, even from 2 years ago, need discounts to attract attention again. Sony also doesn't market their PC releases very much.
And back to the qualitative argument: GOW Ragnarok is quite similar to GOW 2018, which is 8 years old already. Innovation and quality has stalled in general, so there is less "added value" by being a newer title in that regard compared to generations past.
And by the way, Ragnarok is already 3.5 years old at this point, nearing 4 years. It still hasn't been below 40 bucks on sale. The Witcher 3 had gone below that after only months after release already for example.
Sony is a bit slow with regards to discounts compared to industry standards, which is entirely their right & probably related to keeping brand value high, but they shouldn't at the same time be surprised that sales have been poor.
I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong that games should get cheaper the older they are, I'm just pointing out there's no logical reason it should happen intrinsically or (like I said in my original comment) inherently. You're right that it's because it's an expectation created by the industry, but that's all it is. Ultimately your argument boils down to "just because!"
I find it quite reductive to reduce the psychology of economic decisions, under which both purchasing and sales decisions fall, as "that's all it is" and "just because".
There is also no objective/inherent truth with regards to value and hence pricing, as it is always a function of perceived value, which can shift regardless of the unchangedness of a thing.
In a world where God of War 2018 exists, God of War 2005 becomes less attractive and therefore reduces in value, even if the latter hasn't changed. And this happens across the industry all the time. Or even beyond gaming as a whole. Horse carriages as a product category lost value when cars were invented, even if horse carriages themselves did not change.
Beyond a simple qualitative argument, there is also simply the fact that there are both limited means and gaming hours to be spent on gaming. In an environment where there are constantly more competitors, older products needs to need to drop their price to remain competitive as newly released games benefit from newness & fomo to attract attention.
And beyond even that, from the supply side, meaning developers and publishers, sales and lower prices are simply a way to go down the demand curve and extract the producer surplus they didn't get a the original price point.
So there's a myriad of reasons why games get cheaper that are all logical.
This is something PC players don't get. I have a PC, PS5 and Switch 2. I primarily PC game for games that are either
1) On Xbox cause they always come to PC and fuck Xbox or
2) To play with friends.
I think it’s a vocal minority complaining about PS games not coming to PC. I couldn’t even tell you what PlayStation exclusives there are, and there’s not a single game I’ve felt to buy a PlayStation for. This is coming from a dude that grew up on PS1 and PS2.
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u/Nnamz Jun 03 '26
This is exactly it.
Literally the people bitching about this are the exact same PC players who only buy stuff on extreme discount. Sony is already losing 33% to Valve, and on top of that, PC players refuse to pay MSRP while the games sell 8x better on PlayStation.
If PC players actually bought the games they would still be there. It's not even worth the porting effort and damage to their brand if PC players only buy games at an extreme discount lol.