Recently, reports popped up with news of Sony backing out of PC ports on Steam and the Epic Game Store. The reasoning was largely debated and speculated over, with some pointing at changing market conditions and Xbox gearing up for the next generation.
While others pointed out how Sony’s releases on PC were not as profitable as they had thought they would be, mainly due to the games coming out a year later than their release on the PlayStation 5.
A new round of speculation has popped up as Bluepoint’s Technical Director, Peter Dalton, gave his opinions on why Sony might be backing out of PC ports. We must say, these are really interesting developments if the claims are real.
The Steam Machine is a direct threat to home consoles
According to Peter Dalton, Sony might now look at Steam as a direct threat to the console market space, with the release of devices such as the Steam Deck in recent years, as well as the upcoming Steam Machine. This seeks to curb the gap between a PC and a home console.
He explains how consoles are supposed to be a cheaper and easier alternative to having a computing device that plays video games. So it is normal for some households to go for that instead of a high-end computer just for gaming.
But it’s a problem if Steam is going to encroach on that space. “If Valve releases a new Steam console that provides a console-like experience while still giving players access to the entire PC game library, that could become a very compelling option.” According to Peter Dalton.
In that case, even if Sony releases their exclusive titles on PC by “day-and-date,” it would not matter for the PlayStation anymore, because with optimization for the Steam Machine, it would be the better home console by default. It would mean that “Valve ultimately ended up winning the console war”, he adds.
Social media reaction to Peter Dalton’s opinions
The internet came together to chime in with their two cents over these new developments. Some are pointing at how the console hardware giants are changing things up, with Xbox becoming more like a PC while the Steam Machine turns into a home console.
Of course, there are some ardent fans of particular consoles who thrive on the generational hardware wars. These users jumped in to laugh at the situation, fully convinced that the Steam Machine being a threat is not the reason why Sony is pulling out the PC ports.
Whatever the reason may be, we probably will not know what the official decision is until we see Sony themselves talk about it. Although there is some weight to Peter Dalton’s words since he was the Ex-Bluepoint tech lead.
It was a studio under PlayStation making exclusives specifically for the hardware. Unfortunately, it got shut down recently and was a major blow to the Company with widespread negative reactions on social media.
