PlayStation has earned its place as a leader in gaming, particularly with the PS5 and its impressive library of games. However, the company has its eyes set on a different platform and intends to expand to PC by porting first-party games through Steam.
The gaming company has been quite aggressive in recent years and was bold enough to share most of its strongest assets to a different platform. The era of exclusivity is seemingly coming to an end and not everyone is a fan of games crossing borders.
Not Everyone Is a Fan of PlayStation Ports on Steam
The gaming community just stood their ground against Sony’s latest mandate and fumble that involves PC players of Helldivers 2, and it just made the case that the PC platform is one true superior platform for gaming. Sony’s strongest asset is their diverse lineup of video games but its hardware can’t handle nor perform like a PC where anything can be played.
Stop Sony from porting more PlayStation games to PC – Sign the Petition! https://t.co/c6ZOEFTUDN via @Change
— Darkborn (@Darkborn162) May 6, 2024
This petition may seem counterproductive to Sony’s current plan to expand its reach in the gaming community, but there is a valid and solid argument to be made. The idea of abolishing the tradition of exclusivity will have serious ramifications for the ecosystem.
Even Microsoft is doing its part by sharing several first-party titles like Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment, and fans can only expect more to follow. It’s ironic that many games performed better on competing hardware than on the Xbox Series X.
Series X is widely considered to be the most powerful game console and while it has impressive technical specs, it seems that the level of optimization can vary depending on the hardware’s fidelity.
Steam Is Ruining the Quality of First-Party PlayStation Games
The idea of crossing borders can be dangerous and the company’s early attempts to do so were not all that great. The majority of these ports were full of bugs and technical issues that tarnished the quality of the games and were later fixed through a series of patches and updates.
Exclusivity is key to this business and it encourages competitors to try even better and give the gaming community something to root for. Day and date releases may have their benefits like a strong player count but they will divide the focus of the developers and both versions of the game will have a split development progress that will reflect on the final product.
Helldivers 2 was a great example of what a cross-platform video game could be but recent controversies have changed the opinion of the masses. It was the epitome of positive exclusivity until Sony shot themselves in the foot and backtracked by forcing PC players to integrate their accounts, luckily, the publishers came to their senses and reversed the decision but the damage was already done.
Sony made a strategic decision to release their older first-party games to set an assertive example and promote a more positive and inclusive gaming environment. However, it backfired and affected some of its recent projects but Steam was able to gain something out of it.
Should PlayStation keep its games to themselves? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
