An analysis of the sales results of Sony’s games on the PC platform indicates that the fact that these games appear on the PC months and years later hurts them the most.
We have heard unconfirmed information that Sony will no longer launch its single-player hits from PlayStation on PC. And she was mentioned as one of the possible reasons for that weak sales of PC versions of Sony games.
But why do these games sell poorly on PC and are acclaimed hits on PlayStation? An interesting insight into this is provided by the analytical company Newzoo.
According to data available to them on the sales of Sony’s single-player games, PC players make an average of just 13% of the total audience that buys Sony games in the first three months after their launch. On the other hand, in the case of high-budget multiplatform titles that come to PC and consoles simultaneously, the PC audience has a share of as much as 44% of the total players.
Conclusion? On PC people would buy Sony games more if they were released at the same time as the PlayStation versions.
However, this would then be a problem for Sony as there would be some overlap in the audience that could choose to buy the game on PC and PlayStation. For every customer who decides to buy a Sony game on PC, Sony does not get all the revenue from the sale like on PlayStation, but they give up up to 30% of the commission, which goes to Valve and Epic.
Newzoo reveals that PC players’ interest in PlayStation games has waned over the years, with the exception of Ghost of Tsushima. The share of the PC audience in the total number of players within the first three months of sales of Sony games was as follows:
- Horizon Zero Dawn – 16% share of PC players
- God of War – 14% share of PC players
- Marvel’s Spider-Man – 14%
- Ghost of Tsushima – 11%
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – 8%
- Horizon Forbidden West – 7%
- God of War Ragnarok – 6%
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – 5%