Helldivers 2 didn't just hit the ground running; it strapped on a jetpack and launched itself into space! It's like it crashed through the doors like the Kool-Aid Man at a parched party! Selling 12 million copies in 12 weeks? That's like scoring a critical hit on the gaming industry's high score leaderboard while everyone else is still stuck in character creation. PlayStation, you've got a new MVP in your lineup, and it's dribbling sales figures like a pro basketball player on a court made of cash!

The kind of success they needed looking at the upcoming portfolio this year.

Looking at the live service game landscape, it's not the kind of success you can replicate too often so Sony better be grateful of what they got going there.

PC players also were the majority of this registered new force so it kinda goes to say how massively important Sony PC strategy can be.

Gonna put a lot of pressure on Sony to put more and more of their big IP day 1 on PC since a big reason for these sales is coming from the PC.

Good news for Sony sure, but I don't think it's great news for the Playstation itself per se. It shows there's a massive market for their content if they're willing to treat PC as an equal platform and not something that gets a token port 2 years later, but that means the business suits are going to start asking why they don't have more day 1 PC content. 

I would say all their other games released on Steam could have sold much better as well with a day one release on PC. Hype doesn't last forever and a game released a year or so after the initial release doesn't really do it for most anymore. That's one reason why their other games didn't sell so much on Steam considering how popular they are.

Sure, they aren't GaaS games and also not to be played with friends which is very important for most successful games on Steam but if Sony wants to grow their IPs even more, they should release day one on PC.

Day and Date on PC might help them in the short term, but in the long run, they will end up losing market share like Xbox. 

Impressive.

Putting games day and date on PC is what ruined the sales of Xbox. In the US the sales of Xbox were close to the sales of the PS4 until the release of games day and date on PC. If Sony do that they will kill the PlayStation

I think that may be the future strategies for Sony & Microsoft with the way the industry is moving and development times/costs continue to accelerate.

PS/XB have traditionally used the razor and blades strategy where hardware is initially sold at a loss with regular price cuts in order to increase the install base and get as many people invested in their ecosystems to sell higher profit margin software, accessories & subscriptions but I think that strategy may soon be a thing of the past.

I think hardware will still be a major pillar of their gaming businesses but it will be at higher prices with a focus on selling at a profit day 1 and shift focus to maximizing software sales and subscriptions by offering them on as many devices as possible. Sony will probably be slower and less aggressive in this transition since PlayStation sells a lot more than Xbox but I don’t think they will be far behind.

Will this impact hardware sales? Probably, but would it be better for Sony & Microsoft to sell ~90m & ~40m instead of ~115m & ~55m if their hardware is sold at higher profit margins and their software/subscriptions are on mobile/PC in addition to their consoles? I’m not sure but we may soon find out.

But why would subscription services take off on PC/mobile even more so than consoles?

We've already seen Microsoft try to leverage GamePass in a similar manner and look at how that turned out for them. PC players don't even want to link a PSN account yet alone use another storefront other than Steam. 

I didn’t say they would take off more on PC/mobile than on consoles, I’m saying being on consoles+PC+mobile is potentially better than just being on consoles.

I’m not sure what you’re insinuating, is Game Pass not successful on PC?