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PlayStation’s Focus Has Shifted From Game Sales to Actual Play Time, Sony Says

CLW

Gold Member
We Are Doomed Reaction GIF


The CRASH is coming and it’s coming HARD!
 

feynoob

Member
Eh....the upcoming showcase will probably suggest otherwise.
Sony is moving towards diversifying their business model.

PC ports
Gaas model
Subscription model
and now engagement model

The industry isnt growing that much, because it hit their ceiling. Covid gave the illusion of success. And now they are left with the reality of increasing their profits in other ways.
 

Jaybe

Member
The actual quote from Sony seems more of an acknowledgment of playtime increasing around certain long lasting crossgen titles, which we know are Fortnite, Apex, etc

“The business model up to and including the PlayStation 3 was focused on increasing the number of software units sold in relation to newly sold hardware for each console generation,” said SIE chairman Hiroki Totoki. “After a transition period during the PS4 generation, the PS5 model has shifted to one where playtime on the platform has increased due to expansion of the user community beyond console generations.”
 
As long it does not become like mobile games where it feels impossilbe to find anything worthwhile in the endless deserts of p2w garbage, I am fine with whales sponsoring my own playtime. If those gamers want to pay by the hour again like on slot machines, just for useless cosmetics and coins and lootboxes and all that shit, okay. I don't have to. So far.
 

Felessan

Member
It's only natural
I would expect that Sony now get around half of it's gaming revenue from GAAS titles and it'll be even more at year end
And engagement is a core metric for GAAS as there are no real sales
 

Topher

Gold Member
Sony is moving towards diversifying their business model.

PC ports
Gaas model
Subscription model
and now engagement model

The industry isnt growing that much, because it hit their ceiling. Covid gave the illusion of success. And now they are left with the reality of increasing their profits in other ways.

Diversifying doesn't mean abandoning single player games though.
 

rm082e

Member
Given what happened to destiny this kind of shocks me.

Destiny just kind of sucks at being a GAAS. I tried playing it with friends for a while and I just never got any enjoyment out of it. Also the expansions being a year or more apart and costing $30 at launch just felt wrong. It's too much money for not enough content, and the game loop isn't satisfying enough to make them feel worth while. Bungie should have moved on from Destiny 2 several years ago and done a new IP, then come back to Destiny 3 a few years later once the player base had enough time to develop an apatite for it again.

As much as I don't like that Fortnite has become this black hole of money/time/interest in the industry, I've spent about 120 hours over the last few years playing with my Son who was way into it*. Their approach to the battlepass system makes a lot of sense. It only costs $8, and if you get to level 100 (40-ish hours of play?) they give you enough digital currency back that you have enough to pay for the next battlepass, plus a little extra to buy some stuff from the shop. It's true that you have to get the rewards from the battlepass during that season or you lose them. That can make it feel like a chore, but I'd argue the alternative of just leaving them available forever removes any sense of urgency to play, which makes it easier for players to fall off the game.

*I wouldn't have touched Fortnite if it wasn't a way for me to hang out with my kid.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Imagine if movie theaters stopped caring about how many tickets they sold but how long people are watching the movie or going to see it again.

Sound stupid? Yes, because it’s stupid there and in games.

Sell good products without insane budgets. It’s just that simple.
Movie theaters literally care more about how much popcorn and soda is sold than tickets because that is where they make their money. You actually gave a great analogy for why game sales arr less important than engagement.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
No capitalism like gaming capitalism, now its not even enough to just buy our shit, you now has to devote all your time to our shit as well
 
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sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
And there goes any hope I had left for Sony to learn from MS gamepass bs. Why would they want to compete in the race to the bottom against a three trillion dollar company that can just eat the losses for years on end? Meh.
 

midnightAI

Member
I am oberserving their decisions these past years.
Someone who has been full SP games following gaas model? PC ports? worring about MAU? Making PSN account mandatory?
And I only play single player games and don't see anything to worry about, whether that's first party or second party (I do play third party also but I'm talking about Sony games here)

Is it slow so far, yeh, but so was PS4, the heavy hitters came second half of the gen so I expect the same this gen and I can certainly wait a couple of weeks to find out some of them.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
And there goes any hope I had left for Sony to learn from MS gamepass bs. Why would they want to compete in the race to the bottom against a three trillion dollar company that can just eat the losses for years on end? Meh.

Interestingly enough, GAAS is what prevented GamePass from ever growing too large. Players having their "one game" means having access to hundreds is meaningless.
 

feynoob

Member
Diversifying doesn't mean abandoning single player games though.
The thing about mess is that you cant see it until its too late.

They will do their SP games, until the other sector makes too much money.

Hell divers 2 sold 12m. Now imagine that game with tons of mtx like cod.
 
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ReyBrujo

Member
Like it or not *aaS is the future. Gaming is one of the last mass activities where you still install a software in your own computer, literally everything else is done via a browser nowadays.
 

feynoob

Member
And I only play single player games and don't see anything to worry about, whether that's first party or second party (I do play third party also but I'm talking about Sony games here)

Is it slow so far, yeh, but so was PS4, the heavy hitters came second half of the gen so I expect the same this gen and I can certainly wait a couple of weeks to find out some of them.
I wonder what is the next phase is. Current franchise is getting old.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™

GAAS is completely dominating PS5.
 

Topher

Gold Member
The thing about mess is that you cant see it until its too late.

They will do their SP games, until the other sector makes too much money.

Hell divers 2 sold 12m. Now imagine that game with tons of mtx like cod.

They *should* make SP games as long as SP games continue to make money. If they don't then they are consciously abandoning their core and leaving a shitton of money on the table.

Bet you still liked Starfield more you fucking sexy beast of a man

I filled in the blanks for you
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Movie theaters literally care more about how much popcorn and soda is sold than tickets because that is where they make their money. You actually gave a great analogy for why game sales arr less important than engagement.
200w.gif
 

aclar00

Member
Fail!!! Sony needs to fail in order to heal and see the light! All hail SP (w/o mtx) for life!

Lol...shit my engagement is down and GaaS, unfortunately, will make it go down further... talk about causing limp dick.
 

midnightAI

Member
This is a load of horseshit.

All of these companies are soon going to learn when their revenues plummet due to turning their back on their core customers.
Again, this only holds true if they abandon single player games, and there is no evidence of that (we know this from the Insomniac leak)

Having single player, multiplayer and GAAS is not a bad thing.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
The only way you can judge the success of a company is by how much stuff they sell. The ONLY way. Companies that invent metrics that somehow always indicate they are doing great are actually heading down the road of total failure.
Herman Hulst is going to go down as the PS' Mattrick, mark my words.
 

rm082e

Member
Interestingly enough, GAAS is what prevented GamePass from ever growing too large. Players having their "one game" means having access to hundreds is meaningless.

Yeah, that seems spot on.

This has me wondering what those stats looked like in 2016 when they were designing and then making decisions on Game Pass. Fortnite Season 1 launched around the same time as Game Pass, but CoD, Minecraft, Rocket League, and GTA Online were already huge. If they could see a big chunk of playtime across their console was already being spent on just a few games, and most of those games weren't going to be on Game Pass, I would think someone might have raised their hand and asked what impact that would have on their plans.
 
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