VAMatt on 09 September 2017
My thinking is that it will do pretty well, but not like it has on PC. I see three main reasons for it underperforming on consoles, relative to PC.
- Many people will already be playing it on PC. This means that a fair number of the possible console buyers will already have the game on PC. While the overlap in the playerbase between PC and console is not huge, it is significant enough to tamp down sales a bit.
- While I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about PUBG that makes me think this way, I tend to think that it is the type of game that appeals more to PC gamers than the console crowd. This, if I'm correct, is the primary reason I think it will not be as big of a deal on consoles.
- The other biggie - it is exclusive, at least for a whole, to XB1. That means that only about 1/3 of console owners have the ability to play it. Even if it comes to PS4 several months later, it is likely that much of the hype will have died down by then.
On the other hand, there are some factors in its favor. I can think of two big ones:
- The game is a huge phenomenon right now. That may spur tons of console players to pick it up, even if they ordinarily would not. I don't play on PC, and I wouldn't normally pick up a game like this. As a general rule, I don't buy games that are PvP only. But, I'm so curious about PUBG that I'll likely buy it when it launches on console. Maybe there are many more gamers like me.
- The lack of XB exclusives has been talked to death on this site. But, that means that PUBG faces less competition than it may if it launched at another time (this assumes that it actually launches this fall, which is far from guaranteed, IMO).
There's also the fact that it appears to be a very good game. Good games sell well, generally speaking, especially when they're shooters.
So, what do you think?
