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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart peaks at less than 9k concurrent players on Steam, third worst PC launch for PlayStation game

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I wonder what nixxes is doing next. im guessing spiderman 2 will be ported within months because clearly this 2-3 year delay is not working.

There’s probably some truth to this. Maybe no different than Epic games exclusivity, and how people pretty much move on by the time they’re released on Steam.

That new release buzz simply isn’t there for two year old ports.
 
Good. Learn to stop releasing sub par ports with full price.

This seems like one of the better ports recently.

It’s a great port too and benefits so much from m+kb controls. I’m surprised this flopped but Sony also doesn’t market these releases at all. They announced it at the pre show for TGA and then just dropped it on Steam a few weeks later.

Returnal didn't sell well on PS5 either.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
And for whatever reason LBP and Dreams never made it to PC. The platform with by far the biggest pool of community creators and both series are dead now because they were only on PS. Sony would rather port R&C and Returnal.
 
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Holammer

Member
Wasn't it established that concurrent players aren't a reliable metric? I vaguely recall Sony confirming that Uncharted 4 did well on PC despite low concurrent players.

Also, those Returnal numbers hurt my soul. The game is a fucking blast and one of the best new Sony IPs in years. Is it because the protagonist is a middle-age not-so-attractive white woman?

Also, people who cry about open-world and cinematic-driven games will cry for a long time. Look at the top-sellers. When Sony does try different stuff, you ignore it and keep buying the same shit over and over again. No wonder they keep churning out those games; that's what people want.
Release concurrent numbers are important just like first day ticket sales are important to movies.
By the looks if it Uncharted got nearly 15k user reviews, a rough estimate suggests that's about 550-800k sales in 10'ish months. Not good, could be worse. I and many others argue they fucked up by not releasing the Trilogy first. There are people that never touched a Playstation before and they lack the necessary interest & context to jump straight to the fourth game. Imagine if the bookstore refuses to sell the first three Harry Potter books to you and insist you start reading Goblet of Fire.
This problem applies to R&C too, they could have alleviated it by releasing a cheap port of the 2016 R&C reboot first and let it set the stage for Rift Apart.

I played Returnal (50.3h) and it's good, but it's not 60 smackeroonies good. Especially when you have absolute corkers like Hades and Risk of Rain 2 which others already mentioned. Two games where each sold somewhere in the 6-8 million range on PC.
 

Spyxos

Member
Pc is not exactly known for 3D platformers. The people who want to play such games tend to play them on consoles. I never expected many players on Pc for Ratchen & Clank. I don't think many Pc players have even heard of the series.

In addition, how old is it now 2 years? The price is too high for that.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
It’s not 9k sold games it’s 9k people playing the game at the exact same time. Actual sales figures are way way higher.
9k is really bad regardless.

We know how these CCU numbers translate to sales.

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playstation-steamdb.jpg


Days Gone's 27k CCUs translated to 850k in a year. Just $22 million in revenue. 9k would mean sales of 300k in a year and just $7 million in revenue.

the fact that nixxes worked on this for 8 months after shipping miles in december last year, probably means it will lose sony money. nixxes is not a big studio but seeing as how their big studios cost $50 million a year to run, this studio is probably $15 million.
 

Filben

Member
60EUR for a 2 years old game isn't usually a good deal for PC players.

Edit:
Also, contrary to popular believe because of all the PC exclusive quality settings and tech talks which only affects a small fraction of all pc gamers, most have very modest hardware and are into other genres than 3rd person action adventure. Just look at what games are mainly being played on Steam.
 
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SegaShack

Member
They've been making the same title with slight modifications for 20 years now. I loved this series but have no need to buy another game after the PS3 era. It's too samey.
 
For the love of God, port Bloodborne. In this post-Elden Ring world, Souls-likes are mainstream. Sony can simultaneously re-release Bloodborne for PC and PS5 and market it as "From the creators of Elden Ring" to get the new Souls-like fans interested.
 
Sounds like it's not even worth it for Sony to bring their games to PC if barely anyone is interested in buying them there.

TBF The PS5 version barely sold over a mill IIRC. Can't imagine they greenlit the port without projecting that 2-300k was the best case.

For the love of God, port Bloodborne. In this post-Elden Ring world, Souls-likes are mainstream. Sony can simultaneously re-release Bloodborne for PC and PS5 and market it as "From the creators of Elden Ring" to get the new Souls-like fans interested.

Demons Souls Remake is what you are gonna get.
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
only above Returnal (6,691 CCU) and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (610 CCU).
I don't even know who's playing Ratchet & Clank; it's a miracle that it's being played so much. But I can't wrap my head around why Returnal and Sackboy initially reached such a limited audience. Steam players are literally committing a crime. I highly recommend both games; they are fantastic(especially Returnal)!
 

Fess

Member
9k is really bad regardless.

We know how these CCU numbers translate to sales.

unknown.png


playstation-steamdb.jpg


Days Gone's 27k CCUs translated to 850k in a year. Just $22 million in revenue. 9k would mean sales of 300k in a year and just $7 million in revenue.

the fact that nixxes worked on this for 8 months after shipping miles in december last year, probably means it will lose sony money. nixxes is not a big studio but seeing as how their big studios cost $50 million a year to run, this studio is probably $15 million.
Yeah but like I said it’s expected when it’s a late release. Sony knows this. They’re mostly using PC releases as PR for their IPs and studios now, hoping they’ll lure more people into their console and increasing the reach for their IPs.

If they wanted more game sales they would release them on PC day 1 with insane PC visuals and Nvidia trailers and all that when the hype is wild. Bigger userbase, more hype, more games sold.
As it is it’s just late to the party releases for people without a Playstation and for PS gamers with PCs who double dip for the higher fps and res.
 

Fabieter

Member
Does this confirm that the overlap of pc players interested in ps games and pc gamers who already play those games on ps are basically almost 100%?
 
This was a cheap port to make. The engine work was mostly all already done. Sony knew this game wouldn't do amazing numbers...

Regardless, they're still going to port these games over because the WILL make them some money eventually. These games on PC will sell for years and years into the future, slowly bringing money in. And more than anything Sony are basically bringing their library of games to PC so that when they have enough of them, they can (alongside Steam) open their own store and bring "PS+" style subscription service to PC gamers. I'm sure there's a lot of PC gamers who will sub to a service like that to play PS games, much like they do with GamePass for Xbox games.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Concurrent users mean jack shit

Bought many Sony games on PC and some I haven’t even booted yet.

I also buy cheap, never day one

Not the first time we have this discussion, almost every releases it pops up. Yet Sony still sees major growth on PC and lots of money, so the CCU arguments are a very narrow view of the situation
🤷‍♂️

In fact the more I play Sony games, the more puzzled I am by the huge buzz around their games? I’m often left wondering « that’s it? That’s what peoples lost their collective mind over?? » , so I don’t actually take them as « MUST » play day 1 anymore.
 
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Midn1ght

Member
Returnal didn't sell well on PS5 either.
9k is really bad regardless.

We know how these CCU numbers translate to sales.

unknown.png


playstation-steamdb.jpg


Days Gone's 27k CCUs translated to 850k in a year. Just $22 million in revenue. 9k would mean sales of 300k in a year and just $7 million in revenue.

the fact that nixxes worked on this for 8 months after shipping miles in december last year, probably means it will lose sony money. nixxes is not a big studio but seeing as how their big studios cost $50 million a year to run, this studio is probably $15 million.
Difference with PC is that initial sales (especially for years old games) are not as important as it seems, they do not represent how well a game can perform in its lifetime on the platform. You still see games like GTA V, Red Dead and The Witcher III going on top of the weekly chart years after release. First 1-3 months on console is everything, especially with first party since everybody expect to get them for free on PS+ at some point anyway.

Once the initial sales are done on console, this is it. These games make next to no money until a remaster or a remake is done. On PC, it's all about your portfolio of games available on Steam, give it a few years and Sony will have 30 games and new releases coming which will keep bringing an easy and steady yearly income without doing shit. Just look at Capcom and Square Enix, they literally have hundreds of game on Steam, some of them with very low initial sales and bad reviews. Why? Cuz even if not a whole lot, they'll still make money from them 10 years from now.

I mean, how much money is Driveclub making for PlayStation today? How much money is The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, The Last Guardian, Knack, Everybody Golf, Jak and Daxter, Gravity Rush, etc... making for PlayStation today? Probably nothing.
Not saying that it would make them hundreds of million on PC, but as long as a game is available on Steam, people will buy it.

Then there's also the heavy hitters, the games that will bring tons of money: Bloodborne, God of War, GT7, etc.. and they need only one of their upcoming GAAS titles to be a big success among the PC crowd to hit the Jackpot on PC.

Anyway, I know lots of fanboys around here don't actually care about Sony being successful across the board, it's all about validating their choices and scoring points against the other teams.
 

Fake

Member
What, Returnal bombed? That game looked great and seemed like a good fit fot the PC audience.

Same shit, different day.
PC gamers say the same shit every single day. They are in almost same play field as Nintendo Switch users saying 'Hey, this game would be perfect on Nintendo Switch.'

Numbers don't lie. If PC players want more games on PC they need to support the games that are coming to PC first. Same as Sony fanboys, if they want Sony to make new IPs they need first support the new IPs that got release on Playstation, not just 'wait for sale' team.
 
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Buggy Loop

Member
Same shit, different day.
PC gamers say the same shit every single day. They are in almost same play field as Nintendo Switch users saying 'Hey, this game would be perfect on Nintendo Switch.'

Numbers don't lie. If PC players want more games on PC they need to support the games that are coming to PC first. Same as Sony fanboys, if they want Sony to make new IPs they need first support the new IPs that got release on Playstation, not just 'wait for sale' team.

I ain’t pity buying. They seem fine with the money they are getting, so all this extrapolation of sales via CCU with napkin math is meaningless.

They reap what they sow. If they keep selling ports with problems at launch years later PS versions at full price and they are disappointed and leave PC, so be it.
 

DrFigs

Member
Really glad playstation is wasting money on PC gamers. that money spent there definitely couldn't have gone to better use for their actual audience.
 

Fake

Member
I ain’t pity buying. They seem fine with the money they are getting, so all this extrapolation of sales via CCU with napkin math is meaningless.

They reap what they sow. If they keep selling ports with problems at launch years later PS versions at full price and they are disappointed and leave PC, so be it.

With is totally fair. 100% agree with you. Is just that PC mentality that got over the top here on the thread.

Look at some users saying that Sony should port games that sell well on Playstation, but they forgot that Bloodborne sold pretty mix bag on Playstation 4, so by this logic Sony shouldn'd port Bloodborne.
 
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Senua

Gold Member
With is totally fair. 100% agree with you. Is just that PC mentality that got over the top here on the thread.

Look at some users saying that Sony should port games that sell well on Playstation, but they forgot that Bloodborne sold pretty mix bag on Playstation 4, so by this logic Sony shouldn'd port Bloodborne.
Souls games do very well on PC, it's makes logical sense to port Bloodborne and Demon's Souls
 

DrFigs

Member
With is totally fair. 100% agree with you. Is just that PC mentality that got over the top here on the thread.

Look at some users saying that Sony should port games that sell well on Playstation, but they forgot that Bloodborne sold pretty mix bag on Playstation 4, so by this logic Sony shouldn'd port Bloodborne.
This is the thing i don't really get. It didn't sell that well on ps4 to begin with. But being that it is a ps4 game, one that was free on ps plus for a while, tells me that probably a lot of pc gamers already did play it and it would probably bomb as bad as uncharted 4 did. And if it's just a genre thing... well roguelikes are pretty popular on pc. Returnal did terribly. On the other hand, pc gamers allegedly hate sony movie games, but God of War is their biggest game on pc so far?
 
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Saber

Gold Member
Souls games do very well on PC, it's makes logical sense to port Bloodborne and Demon's Souls

It would be meanless. Elden Ring is already there, not to mention Bloodborne sales aren't spetacular or anything. Plus most PC players are touchy about the aspects of Fromsoftware games and would rather focus on other stuff rather than gameplay. They will be either be complaining its a bad port, graphic is not good, fps is not good, etc. Its a complete waste of resources, regardless of how much decades worth of Bloodborne port begging people make.
 
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Fake

Member
This is the thing i don't really get. It didn't sell that well on ps4 to begin with. But being that it is a ps4 game, one that was free on ps plus for a while, tells me that probably a lot of pc gamers already did play it and it would probably bomb as bad as uncharted 4 did. And if it's just a genre thing... well roguelikes are pretty popular on pc. Returnal did terribly. On the other hand, pc gamers allegedly hate sony movie games, but God of War is their biggest game on pc so far?

Two points that don't line each other, GoW have cinematics that can be totally skipped, but the combat gameplay carry all the game alone.
All those moves are risk and play, they need more than social media conversation before consider hiring a team for port a game. As you said, rouguelike are huge popular on PC, but Returnal flop really bad, but try saying otherwise on social media like twitter/facebook/reddit. Maybe Sony will start to reconsider doing risk decisions like that after losing that battle over Activision/Microsoft.

And lets not forget the Mobius movie huge fiasco for Sony.
 
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DrFigs

Member
Two points that don't line each other, GoW have cinematics that can be totally skipped, but the combat gameplay carry all the game alone.
All those moves are risk and play, they need more than social media conversation before consider hiring a team for port a game. As you said, rouguelike are huge popular on PC, but Returnal flop really bad, but try saying otherwise on social media like twitter/facebook/reddit. Maybe Sony will start to reconsider doing risk decisions like that after losing that battle over Activision/Microsoft.
Lets not forget the Mobius movie huge fiasco for Sony.
I feel like we're on the same page, but you lost me at Morbius. Unless the point is that Sony often makes confusing business decisions!
 
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