PlayStation: Can They Thrive on 30% Only?

[@De1usionsofGrandeur]

Simple helldivers isnt made by sony... it is made by a 3rd parry dev studio cause most likly sonys own studios didnt have the skillset

[@sandman45981]

Yeah I don't how he missed this. The only studio that have with live service experience is Bungie that the acquired. Also let not forget they don't want Marathon to be released on Xbox. Who knows if they will get their way with the mishaps at Bungie.

[@De1usionsofGrandeur]

@sandman45981 I heard somehow that part of the contract to buy bungie was that all their games remained multiplat. Not sure if that's true or not

[@sandman45981]

@De1usionsofGrandeur I believe that is true. Due to Bungie not meeting certain goals, Playstation can come in and take over. Making choices like not having games be multiplatform. Still would benefit them to keep it multiplatform and just use the excuse of the deal with Bungie.

[@De1usionsofGrandeur]

@@sandman45981 I think their next game is still slated to be fully multiplat. Which a bunch of the sony fanboys are crying over. Seeems they are never happy they are getting xbox games now and they still seem to find things to cry over

[@JohnFenix-117]

Playstation is Beyond Fucked, date and date to PC coming soon, These idiots will keep championing console sales though lol

[@PrimoRocker]

Yeah, any company that does day and date on another platform is a failure. Lol, remember you said that.

[@zerosam5541]

Live service games being exclusive is stupid beucase they are losing out on money on other platforms

[@AlvinWillistonDavis]

I keep saying Sony are not getting 30% from the biggest games on the platform, in the Activision acquisition Phil explained that Sony was not getting that amount and the deal he was offering Sony was way better and getting closer to their original number, additionally the money they make from the micro transactions etc is way less than the 30%, you should take that into account when making those calculations because 30% is a decent amount and might allow them to just have the platform as a central source of revenue. But if they're getting 15% as I think they are then you can see why they're driving for more live service games, they see the money they are not getting.

[@prohdusah]

Reality will hit them when diminishing returns hit them like a brick. While these companies are fighting for their investors they are competing for our time.

[@juniorcorporan3399]

The title screams XBOOOT! 😂😂😂

[@86lanzo]

If 100% of their own games + 30% of 3rd party games isn't enough, to the point they have to put their games on pc to generate more revenue.. Then no just getting 30% from 3rd party isn't enough.. Given the Sony active user situation.

[@jasonallen3189]

Something else to keep a eye on. In Europe they are going to court over platform holders charging 30%. So if they rule in favor of that to be cut. Even say 80/20 that will really hurt Sony and if and i doubt it does but 90/10. That would crush Sony. It’s been told devs are tired of Apple Store and google store and consoles charging them 30%. Look into Europe’s push to change this in court in 2025 and 2026. It will be a while before a ruling but that will forever change consoles. Maybe not mobile phones but for sure PS.

[@nervusbreakdown]

Sony has been trying to be Halo for years and still has zero wins. They made that monster about the single-player machine vs. xbox is a live service machine. I mean, the service when it first came out is called Xbox live!

[@heideknight7782]

The problem with the live service games is that they can either become a huge success (Marvel Rivals) or fail badly (Suicide Squad, Skull and Bones, XDefiant, Concord). When they are successful they are like a money printing machine (Marvel Rivals made $130 million in its first month). I believe this was the strategy of Sony, they wanted to try out 12 different live service games and if only a couple of them would have been successful they would be happy by that ratio. But maybe they regarded the risk of this strategy as being too high now, because it consumed too much man power for other projects needed for, e.g., single player games (is my assumption). So the only other option that exists now for Playstation to get the money for all the AAA single player game projects (according to Hermen Hulst) is to make PC ports, remakes and remasters.

[@StickyfingerBandits]

Number 1. People keep talking like Sony can actually make a live service game that people want to play and pay recurrently is hilarious. Number 2. Live service gaming has peaked, game companies that have missed the train need to except that and move on.

[@lawlessx9]

Its hard to believe that ship has sailed when marvel rivals just happened.

[@StickyfingerBandits]

@@lawlessx9 People aren't playing rivals for it's robust live service features, people are just dealing with it because its not as invasive as the rest. If Rivals had any competition in the same space, that had no monetization it would be a different story.

[@juniormynos9457]

According to Jim Ryan playstation needed CoD 30%. So they good as long as COD stays there

[@VGFightSchool]

development cost have gone up about 100%. That 30% fee ain't cutting it, bro.

[@davemounts1086]

Sony has always had awesome online games. Some of them, I guess you could categorize as live service, which would be socom mag even uncharted and had awesome online killzone . Ps4 is the generation where they went away from online service games.

[@cluckbent6466]

now they suck. they need to bring back multiplayer. And not just free to play. we need regular team deathmatch multiplayer like kz and socom.

[@leafstormblaze9449]

When nintendo brings out the switch 2 they are really gonna be feeling sometbing because a lot of the Japanese games will be able to launch on it meaning people will buy a switch 2 in japan for stuff like wilds and metaphor instead of ps5 cause they prefer mobile gaming more.

[@aryferreira2375]

Because Sony didnt made Helldiver... Is a Sony IP but they where expecting to fail that why they outsorce to a another 3rd pary Studio

[@rellis5723]

Idk why sony don't launch they live service game with a good single player game. Same way halo did with halo single player and multi-player

[@fvjtfjnx6535]

Sony needs to make the horizon live service game a PS6 release title that doesn't need PS+. Preinstalled on the PS6. Make seasonal upgrade, once a month weekend xp boosts, PvP zones etc. it's not hard. Then soak up the microtransactions only. Both PS+ and buying it are barriers. Tie it to the brand and the machine itself. Otherwise you will not get sufficient attach rate.

[@rvons2]

I also don't think they should pull 100% out from LS. But they should pull back from it significantly from what they had planned. They wanted increase their % of LS games in their portfolio. And that's just not what they do best. They are not Riot Games or EA. You should focus in what you are good at. And they cancelling many of these LS is moving in the right direction. Games like Helldivers are more the exception not the rule. I also think a Horizon Multiplayer is a great idea and they are sticking with that one. And obviously the Sony LS games should be on PC day one. The console time exclusivity works only for the singleplayer ones. There is a difference.

[@GoldLBS]

They need live service but they can't bank on one. They need 2 or 3. Xbox has 6 or more. They had at least 3 before ABK. Single player game dev costs are 150+mil. There aren't enough people buying PlayStation games. Astro bot, the so called GOTY didn't even hit 2 mil. Why would PlayStation continue single player when PlayStation fans rather play cod or fortnite? So they need a live service game that can help fund single player in case those games fail. Do you really think MP horizon is a good idea? I don't...

[@VGFightSchool]

So here's a question. Where are they to find revenue to make up for the increasing development cost? About 4x - 6x is the comparison of Ghost of Tsushima to Spider-Man 2.

[@rvons2]

​@@VGFightSchool This is not a question only to Sony. I think all publishers are going to try to deal with this. It's not only the cost of singleplayer games, that is rising. BO6 cost 700M to make and Concord 400M allegedly. Xbox is also having to deal with this. PlayStation as a platform can deal with this, since they can get 30% of the sales of all games running there. For all games regardless if they succeed or not. And for all publishers. It's best to get 30% from all publishers than 70% of only 1 publisher, yourself. That is a constant stream of revenue, making Sony the largest company in gaming revenue. Xbox in the other hand is leaving hardware basically behind, as you can see in the console sales. And since live-services on PC do not share revenue to the Xbox app, since they mostly are not there. Xbox gets only 30% of the games they own. Not of the rest, since their console is selling less every time.

[@VGFightSchool]

@@rvons2 I didn't ask about Xbox. How is PlayStation supposed to deal with rising cost of development for single player games? I'm curious of your response.

[@rvons2]

@@VGFightSchool By consolidating itself as the main console for grown ups. Since Xbox is basically focusing on becoming a publisher and having less and less hardware sales. PC is growing faster, but there is more competition there. Console will be mostly left out by 2 players, PS and Nintendo having 2 different player bases. They just need to keep doing what they were doing.

[@jamesdavid2893]

Personally I'm more interested in the ftc settlement regrading genshin impact, that's more interesting.

[@TheDarkAdventure]

Where do I get the top played games chart?

[@VGFightSchool]

Matt Piscatella on his bluesky/Linked in page

[@TheDarkAdventure]

@VGFightSchool thank you. 🙏🏾

[@thabangme6808]

I disagree that PlayStation needs live-service. Their business model from the beginning was to get 3rd party studios to sell games on their platform. The 1st party narrative only came into prominence in the PS4 era. I don't understand why this shift occurred, as most of the memorable games on the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 were 3rd party, and that's where the bulk of the money comes from. 1st party games are a good way of promoting your platform and showcasing how games run on it, but the money has always been in 3rd party games. With the increasing popularity of PC gaming, PlayStation 3rd party exclusives are becoming a thing of the past. Why would a company like Capcom release games exclusively on PlayStation when they have reported that PC is their largest market? Honestly, PlayStation needs to wind down the high-budget AAA games and start looking at AA games that have lower development times and defined tools for their studios. One thing I've noticed is that the first game in a series should cost more than the second due to initial development costs, but what's happening is that the second game starts to cost more in development, which is unheard of. The first game should be where you develop and prove the tech works. In the second game, you refine the tools made for the first game instead of reinventing the tools again for the sequel, and it should be quicker to release the second game since the tools already exist. In the PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360 era, this was common practice, which is why certain gameplay mechanics never drastically changed. AA games with great mechanics are the future, like 'Lies of P.' Chasing after live-service is a stroke of luck, nothing more.

[@Gen_X_Gamer_79]

Kinda hard to down scale to AA. When the narrative is AAA or bust. Sony does need Live Service stop fooling yourself. They lost their COD perks that paid for the high development of their AAA games. What they should have done is released Factions, Twisted Metal, & Spider-Man Multiplayer. Then worked on improving the games like Sea of Thieves. I also think royalties is why Spider Man online was cancelled.

[@VGFightSchool]

The shift occurred because their customers did NOT buy enough copies of their games. Rather, everyone else's games were selling like hotcake.

[@fvjtfjnx6535]

​​@@VGFightSchool Maybe now would be a good time to revisit and re show the article from Zamina Kahn the playstation lifestyle shareholders restructuring and Kaizen one. It is now bearing fruit with the cancellations of more live service games and the split up of Bungie.

[@kayc7442]

It's partly because in those eras the graphic enhancements were minimal. Now when they release the sequel they try to enhance the graphics as much as possible

[@EmperorDxD]

Sony doe need like 2 or 3 live service but they have nothing Microsoft has a few

[@imo098765]

Sony has one of the biggest live service games, its called Gran Turismo. Its just not a name people go to as doing great when it always sells

[@EmperorDxD]

@@imo098765 no it does not do well Sony themselves admitted that game flopped

[@cluckbent6466]

@@imo098765 😂

[@barrybigplums]

Sony has some good dead franchises - socom live service would do well

[@Clintondmb]

PlayStation has always had poor attach rates.

[@rellis5723]

Sony themselves can't make a good live service game. They always do good with a company who Didn't start with them. Destiny 2 and helldivers 2 aren't games who are made first party. Destiny 2 was already established and helldivers 2 is a 3rd party company. Every other first party games they made 2020 after has failed

[@patriot639]

Yeah. I bought a PS5, but they have produced NO games worth buying. Where are our Xenosagas? Our Innocent Life? Where are our Breath of Fire: Dragon's Quarter? There hasn't really been a decent final fantasy game since X-2 in my opinion. They are not producing the kinds of games I'm interested in.

[@Tobbybrown06]

yikes woke mortal kombat no wonrder you love xbox it is the home for the woke.

[@VGFightSchool]

Hahaha! I'm supposed to pretend that this is a real comment?