Console exclusives coming to PC

[JDR13]

It seems to work well for that port. Can't wait to try it out.

Ghost of Tsushima is now the biggest single-player PlayStation release on PC

Ghost of Tsushima managed to surpass the peak number of concurrent players of God of War, meaning that it's now the biggest single-player PlayStation release on PC.

www.dsogaming.com

Geez, look at those numbers for Helldivers 2.

It's sad how underappreciated Days Gone is, but I don't think it was properly promoted.

Is that for all regions? If so, I'd be curious to see a breakdown of where Tsushima sold most. I suspect the setting and dual-language voice acting gave it a boost in Asian regions and total sales.

 

[Redglyph]

Geez, look at those numbers for Helldivers 2.

It's sad how underappreciated Days Gone is, but I don't think it was properly promoted.

Is that for all regions? If so, I'd be curious to see a breakdown of where Tsushima sold most. I suspect the setting and dual-language voice acting gave it a boost in Asian regions and total sales.

I'm not sure what site this is, but I assumed it was global. On Steam, it's currently #2 or 3 top-seller in several regions, but it's only #25 in the most played list (though above Helldivers 2). We'll see how it does in a few weeks.

Days Gone is really good; didn't it have any success when it was out?

 

[JDR13]

Days Gone is really good; didn't it have any success when it was out?

Not enough for a sequel unfortunately.

 

[Redglyph]

Not enough for a sequel unfortunately.

That's too bad.

Heh. I've read on the studio's Wikipedia page that Jeff Ross (game director) and John Garvin (game writer) left the studio in 2020, and it doesn't look like the ambiance was top-notch.

Bend Studio's first original intellectual property (IP) after Syphon Filter was Days Gone, released in April 2019 for the PlayStation 4. Garvin and the game's director, Jeff Ross, left the studio by December 2020. However, Garvin claims the company fired him for having "a disruptive personality". Bend Studio has distanced itself from Garvin after his complaint on Twitter where he blamed "woke" reviewers for the middling critical reception of Days Gone. As of June 2021, the studio is working on a new IP that builds on the open-world systems from Days Gone. On June 7, 2022, Bend Studio unveiled their new logo.

and about the game sales:

Ross claimed that the game sold over eight million copies, yet was treated as a "disappointment" by local studio management. This was in response to the announcement that Ghost of Tsushima, another SIE first-party game (developed by Sucker Punch Productions), had sold over eight million copies. The sales numbers provided by Ross were disputed as they were based on a PlayStation Trophy data tracking site. Ross went on to say that whilst at Bend Studio he saw Days Gone sell over five million copies, the tracking site at the time suggested 5.8 million copies sold.

 

[Couchpotato]

Yeah sorry to say this but fuck Sony almost as bad as Microsoft.

In what world is more then five million sales considered a failure?

It's the same crap excuse every Japanese game publishers uses.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah sorry to say this but fuck Sony almost as bad as Microsoft.

Not even close. At least Sony publishes plenty of masterpieces. Even if they sometimes screw up, with Days Gone and Bloodborne. By not providing sequels or ports (BB )
But otherwise, solid game after solid game. Which is much more than I can say for Microsoft .... Hellblade? Pentiment? ... And a few others 15 years ago on the xbox360.

 

[JDR13]

Well, Microsoft actually has quite a few quality titles, but they only got them from purchasing other studios.

 

[Couchpotato]

My Sony fanboy radar is beeping loudly right now with these comments.

 

[JDR13]

Posting for the sake of posting as usual today, eh?

 

[JDR13]

Heh. I've read on the studio's Wikipedia page that Jeff Ross (game director) and John Garvin (game writer) left the studio in 2020, and it doesn't look like the ambiance was top-notch.

It makes you wonder if there's any truth to some of the things they said. The aggregate critic score for Days Gone is only 71% which is almost suspiciously low. Anyone who's played it knows it's much better than that. Fwiw, the user-score on Metacritic is 8.5/10, and it's 92% positive on Steam.

 

[Zloth]

Put another on the list:

Stellar Blade studio is now 'considering' a PC release, and a sequel too

We called it back in 2022.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[JDR13]

Put another on the list:

Stellar Blade studio is now 'considering' a PC release, and a sequel too

We called it back in 2022.

www.pcgamer.com

I've never heard of that one, but the more exclusives that get ported, the better.

*Edit* It has a 9.2 user-score on Metacritic.

 

[Redglyph]

Interesting article on Sony Interactive Entertainment's new CEOs and their respective strategies. It's written by Joost van Dreunen, the author of One Up.

PlayStation's two princes

Change in leadership suggest strategic shift

superjoost.substack.com

EDIT: It's funny to see that the Californian HQ is split now, since it was the product of a restructuration in 2016 that integrated Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Entertainment Network (respectively console business and digital media service).

 

[danutz_plusplus]

God of War Ragnarök will require a PSN account to play on PC

Here we go again.

www.pcgamer.com

Yeah, seems Sony were fully of shit in their gradual encroachment on whether to require PSN or not.
Here's a full singleplayer game that seems like it will require PSN. It's not clear if it really will require, as in you cannot play without it, or if it's just an artifact of steam's page not allowing for more granularity.
We shall see.
Not much of a big deal for me, I guess. And if they eventually publish Bloodborne for PC, in a solid state, I'll connect to whatever the fuck network they want me to. I guess that's my price?

Anyway, they're really stupid. In this case there's no debate about whether they need to publish two versions, with or without multiplayer. This is just singleplayer, and they're fucking stupid to require it. Meaning it again won't sell in 100+ countries. God damn these smooth-brained decisions.

 

[Redglyph]

They confirm in their FAQ on Steam that the PSN account is required, which is completely silly for an SP-only game.

They're used to the console market and were apparently quite ignorant of the PC market, which lead to those country mistakes. But their insisting to require PSN for SP games despite all the problems is not reassuring. Unfortunately, people will buy the game anyway, so they'll just think it's fine and continue with all their upcoming PC games.

If at least their website was working correctly. I couldn't get it to finish the account creation when I tested, and there is absolutely no support for that kind of problem - for any kind of problem. It's a big no-go for me.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Unfortunately, people will buy the game anyway, so they'll just think it's fine and continue with all their upcoming PC games.

And they're also gonna have no idea what they're losing by not selling it in those 100+ countries. So ignorance is bliss.
I already have a PSN account I very rarely use (haven't booted up my PS5 since Last of Us 2 ages ago), so I'll probably have no issue. But it's unfortunate. I really want them to get as many sales from PC, to motivate them to keep bringing them on.
Maybe one day we'll also get day one releases also on PC.

 

[Redglyph]

And they're also gonna have no idea what they're losing by not selling it in those 100+ countries. So ignorance is bliss.

I doubt that's a significant part of the market, but from what I understood, they're working on it. Also, Japanese video game companies sell more locally than European and North American companies, or at least it used to be the case not long ago (~80 % vs ~50 %), so it's a different mindset.

Yes, it makes sense for them to get an interest in the PC market if they want to survive. Consoles are saturating, so they'll have to find something else to keep growing.

 

[JDR13]

What do they even gain from doing this with a single-player game?

I hope they don't implement it in their existing ports.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

What do they even gain from doing this with a single-player game?

I hope they don't implement it in their existing ports.

The rumors are that they are either inflating their PSN numbers, or that they want to get at the metadata on their customers that gets collected by PSN?
No idea what else it could be.

 

[Redglyph]

I was wondering the same. I can sort of understand why they do that for multiplayer games, but it looks more scheming if they generalize to all games (which is obviously where this new co-CEO is heading).

Perhaps it's an attempt to lure PC players into buying their other games or the console by immersing them in the same community.