PlayStation's CEO drastically underestimates the Steam crowd's patience, thinks PC gamers will buy a PS5 for exclusive sequels
May. 30, 2024Hermen Hulst wants you to play Spider-Man 1 on PC, and then buy a PS5 for Spider-Man 2
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Most PlayStation exclusives won’t be released on PC on launch day because the publisher thinks PC gamers will buy a PS5 for upcoming exclusive sequels after playing the originals on their personal computer, which might be underestimating that crowd’s patience a tad.
PlayStation has been bringing several of its biggest exclusives to PC years after their initial release, with the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, and much more making the transition. PlayStation has now officially explained what we all expected: this strategy is a bid to court PC gamers over to PS5, using exclusive sequels likeGod of War Ragnarokand Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as bait.
“We’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing sequels on the PlayStation platform,” he continued. “We have high hopes that we’re actually able to bring new players into PlayStation at large but into PlayStation platforms specifically - actually, the same goals for the work that we do with extending our great properties onto other media such as television series and film, for example, as you have seen with the Last of Us on HBO or Gran Turismo the film.”
Hulst’s thinking makes logical sense, but he’s also dealing with a crowd that largelyheld off on buying the Kingdom Hearts games for three whole yearswhen they were locked behind theEpic GamesStore. I’m sure some PC players will in fact drop $500 to play the inevitable Ghost of Tsushima 2 early, for instance, after enjoyingthe first samurai romp’s port. But expecting that en masse might be a slight miscalculation, especially since this strategy is now out in the open.
God of War Ragnarok is reportedly the next exclusive migrating to the platform, and we might hear more about the port at PlayStation’s State of Play show airing later today.
PS5 is Sony’s most profitable console generation ever after just three years, beating PS4 by over $36 billion in sales.
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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
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