| VideoGameAccountant said: First, I want to point out there is a difference between current results and future prospects and I think a lot of people are mixing this up. The PS5 is selling well now, but the question is, will it continue to sell in the future. My point is that Sony sees something we don't so they delayed the game to port it down to the PS4. And consider all the points you mentioned. With all that in mind, why would Sony not keep it a PS5 exclusive. It would clearly do well and adds another reason for PS4 owners to upgrade. It adds no benefit because now they have to delay the game to make it work on the PS4, and PS4 owners don't have to buy a new PS5. On ROI, first, it doesn't make sense with what you just told me. PS5s are selling at a faster pace and with higher software sales. They also are priced $10 higher. So something is off if that's the case. Second, even so, ROI isn't as relevant when you are a hardware manufacturing. First party software is designed to sell hardware. Sony invested a lot of money making the PS5, so they want it to sell and that's where the software comes in. In this case, Sony is taking an exclusive game, delaying it, and porting it down (which will increase cost). So consider this: if the return of delaying the game (cost), pushing the game out of a preferred selling time, and losing a potential PS5 sale is better than keeping it a PS5 exclusive, then something is wrong with the future prospects of the PS5. |
Why are you assuming they delayed the game solely to down port? A lot of these games were slated to be released in 2021. COVID19 has thrown a lot of development cycles off, and if some of these games like HFW started development on the PS4, why throw all that work away? Even with GoW, after the launch in 2018, Santa Monica started working on DLC before shelving it for being "too ambitious." That would explain why the next God of War is cross gen. Do you not see this as a viable reason why its PS4/PS5? It's the most logical one when you consider the timelines of GTS, HZD & GOW. Sony could also anticipate the majority of the market would buy the PS5 version of these games along with their PS5 despite the PS4 version. After all, the mass market doesn't care about these topics as much as hardcore gamers like us do. Or they could have a ton of PS5 bundles with GT7, HFW, or God of War.
You're assuming Sony sees something negative in the future prospects of the PS5 and has issued cross generation games as a result. What exactly is going to make the PS5 stop selling well in 2022? Outside of Game Pass disrupting the console market, there's nothing to support your argument, and that includes publicly available data/projections. Sony is aiming for the PS5 to sell the most units ever, for any year in Playstation history in 2022, which would be 23+ Million. One thing you're forgetting about ROI is the digital revenue from sources like the PSN store, subscriptions, MTX, that could still bring in billions of profit from the PS4 in 2022/2023.
Let me ask you this, what's more likely based on what we know, Sony "forcing" a cross gen version because the PS5 has a negative future outlook, or the games started on the PS4 and the developers decided to make a PS5 version? I'm disappointed in cross generation as much as the next guy but I'm not going to start jumping to some wild conclusions because of it.
Last edited by PotentHerbs - on 06 June 2021
