Sony: New Frontiers

 

I imagine it’s got to be a hell of a week to be Sony Interactive Entertainment. To be honest, it’s more like it’s been a hell of a decade. While there’s easily 5-10 years of rather unprecedented shifts in the gaming landscape that has concerned Playstation directly, I want to zoom in and focus on what’s happened specifically in the last week. It’s been unusually loud at SIE; even when factoring in that they’re quite vocal this time of year, this week alone we’ve had a new (and unique) State of Play from and largely concerning Japan, we’ve had a new competitor rise valiantly from the ashes of Xbox hardware in Valve’s Steam Machine, and, perhaps most controversially, the announcement of not one, but two mobile games made out of Sony IPs that will not be releasing on their main hardware in Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble and Horizon: Steel Frontiers. I don’t want this to be an SIE newsletter, I’m much more interested in looking at the larger implications for SIE moving forward. We’ll discuss this in three parts: the Japan State of Play, the Steam Machine, and Sony’s Mobile Initiative.

The Japan State of Play was interesting, to say the least. I think it had a good number of games and interesting trailers but also definitely harbored the now much expected slop that seems to be part and parcel with these shows. Which is to say, even for a show that was explicitly geared and marketed towards the Japanese domestic market; there were some misses. That said, I do think the show was one of SIE’s more interesting presentations, I especially liked the cozier living room feel of the presentation and do sincerely think that that should carry over to the show’s stateside counterparts. The more important thing than the games and presentation, however, is the sheer desperation that oozed from the show. I mean it was shameless and, towards the end, kind of sad? Sony very clearly wants to reestablish a foothold in their motherland, which has been handedly dominated by Nintendo, who ran away with the bank decades ago but has hit an unprecedented stride with the Switch family; not just unprecedented for Nintendo themselves, unprecedented for the entire industry. In 2020 it was estimated that the Switch and Switch Lite accounted for, and this is not a joke, 87% of console sales in Japan. In 2025, with the Switch being 8 years old and the Switch 2 only being on shelves for 5 months, Nintendo is responsible for 76% of console sales in Japan. These numbers only concern what the market considers direct competitors in Playstation and Xbox, not PC, which is a whole other animal we’ll get back to later on. 

As Sony has effectively captured the western console market with the formal exit of Xbox as a main competitor in the home console space, (and no, software is not a console, the Xbox is dead), it’s seemingly refocused its sights on recapturing some of that market share from Nintendo. We saw the first major attempt with the PS5 companion unit the Portal as an asymmetric competitor to the Switch. The State of Play, however, threw a few more axes at the target. The show was broadcasted in Japanese, the host was famed Japanese voice actor Yuki Kaji, all of the developers showcased were from Japan or otherwise Asia and were largely focused on games that are popular in Japan; Dragon Quest, a kombini simulator, 3 Japanese horror games, Dynasty Warriors, Marvel Tokon, Elden Ring: Nightreign, this, that, and the third. Much to the chagrin of western audience members, this State of Play was very obviously not marketed towards their demographic, but there very clearly was quite a decent collection of games. 

And then we got to the end of the show. It was… fucking weird. In a generation that’s been lambasted for being largely lackluster in software you’d imagine that Sony would double down hard on the age old tradition of ending the show with a “one more thing”, but what we got was a peripherals showcase including the Playstation® Portal, the previously announced Playstation® Speakers, a new Playstation® Monitor, and, from the remnants of the 7th console generation, a Japanese-language-only Playstation® 5 Console. I don’t think these are “bad” products, I don’t even think they’re remotely nonsensical investments; at best you’re incentivizing people to join the ecosystem, at worst you get someone who refuses to maybe consider at least a peripheral. “How do you do, Japanese netizens? Please buy something,” those last five odd minutes of the show were kind of icky and quite honestly out of character for Blue Team. Again, it’s not inexplicable behavior, but it is unbecoming to behave like this. It would’ve landed a lot better had these hardware highlights been sprinkled throughout the show and probably not ended it? (always end with a game, what the fuck are you doing?) I don’t think it was a bad show ultimately, but those last five minutes really came off like a flashbang to the point where it didn’t seem particularly natural, and more like a last ditch plea to get someone in Japan to buy literally anything. The show’s countdown timer even had Toro Inoue in attendance, Playstation’s official Japanese mascot. Y’know, the cat who hasn’t seen an official release in 6 years, and even then that was a fucking match-3 mobile game. Avengers Doomsday but instead of cameos of characters no one has seen in a decade it’s just Sony jingling keys their market data tells them Japanese people give a rats’ ass about. I wish them luck in their endeavors but it’s going to take so much more than a desperate, 11th hour peripheral hardware lob to make a dent in Nintendo’s market control.

The Steam Machine was announced this week to a rapturous response as it almost feels like a prodigal son of the industry, a sleeping giant in wait, and a potential sledgehammer that both Sony and Nintendo should be greatly concerned about. I know the immediate reactions are the Nintendo at the very least shouldn’t really care, but the fact of the matter is that the Steam Machine is going to the a one stop shop for every game on steam and an emulator for every single console released before 2013, especially with the recent ameliorations of RPCS3 and its preconfiguration into EmuDeck. The Steam Machine is the game preservation machine, the legacy console, and the only way to play Sony and Nintendo’s full pre-8th gen libraries unhindered. Now, while that’s all well and fine, you’ll notice that the vast majority of “gamers” actually don’t care about older titles or preservation in the slightest, and that they’re more focused on today’s software. But we absolutely need to get a lay of the land. Sony has moved quite a few of its bigger titles onto Steam in the last few years, meaning that those first party releases will be available to play on the steam machine natively on launch. Nintendo doesn’t have this issue, so it’s spared one of the bigger potential hits.

However, to discuss why the Machine potentially poses a major threat to both brands, we need to talk about the Playstation 2. Widely regarded as the single greatest video game console of all time, and factually the highest selling, the Playstation 2 is a benchmark that looms large over Nintendo’s best efforts. You’d think, since it’s a game console, that Sony just had an inexplicable generation by way of exclusives or video game incentives, but people who were around back then (yours truly) know that while the PS2s software line up was one for the ages, it was not the only reason. The Playstation 2 was capable of playing DVDs, and during its first few years, it was quite literally the cheapest way for a family to get their hands on a DVD player, which meant that it had serious appeal outside of the video game industry. Strange that we’re about to enter a DVD-less world, they were at one point the inescapable apex of all media consumption, but I digress. So, what the fuck does the PS2s ability to play DVDs have to do with the Steam Machine? The Steam Machine is, ultimately, not a video game console, and that’s its greatest weapon.

A subsidized, compact, pre-built PC that is performance oriented, open source, and can dual boot any Operating System. It’ll play your games, but it’ll also handle content creation, data crunching, it can be used as a server and home media system including a streaming service box. It’ll have PlayStation's biggest games and will be GamePass accessible. It’s the size of a fucking lunch thermos. It’ll be cracked in a day, it doesn’t matter that it’s slightly underpowered: The Steam Machine is an industry disruptor that could potentially be so significant that it affects not only console giants, but potentially Apple and Nvidia. All of this, however, is completely dependent on the price tag. If the Steam Machine launches anywhere in the ballpark of $1000, you run into perpetuating the same issue of “I can build a better one for less money”. On the other hand, if it can land anywhere around $500 (my theory is $599), it’s incredibly dangerous. Again, this isn’t necessarily about whether or not you’d pick one up over a Playstation, it's whether you’d be interested in picking one up because it can also run FL Studio and DaVinci and Torrent and whatever the hell else you could possibly do on a PC. The counter argument is “PCs could already do all this shit, they haven’t stopped the PS5 from moving 85 million units,” and while that’s true, the main reason behind this is because the idea of a PC is daunting to more plug-and-play oriented players. The Steam Machine has a bespoke OS, there’s no poking around internals unless you feel so inclined, there’s no “building” involved, there’s no decision paralysis. It’s a PC the size of a large coffee mug, and that is a very enticing prospect. It’s my understanding that there will be a few different SKUs based on SSD size? The base will launch with a relatively paltry 512GB of internal storage (arguably a federal offense in 2025), but up to a 2TB model (that I imagine will boast a price tag well above $1000). While 512GB doesn’t seem particularly useful, you have to imagine the two following scenarios:

1. It’s your main everything, main console/pc/whatever. One time $1000+ expense on the only hardware you own for 2TB of storage.
2. It’s your secondary, supplementary device, 512GB is totally fine, you already have a console and this is just for the other games or software. 

In the second case, there is a high probability that adopters realize that the Steam Machine is in fact a more versatile product and potentially forgo upgrading to a 10th generation machine since they know that, eventually, Playstation will move its biggest incentives over within the year. Not to get dramatic but it’s almost a forbidden fruit for people who have never been particularly interested in PC gaming. Case in point: me. If that thing hits shelves at $599 I will be buying one day and date, it will turn the very laptop I’m writing this on into “the computer I use outside of the house” and it will become an integral part of my media consumption ecosystem, gaming included. Don’t even start with the unit’s shitass controller (which, it is, it’s abhorrent, no PCMR freak is going to convince me that the steam machine’s controller isn’t an ugly ghoul of a gamepad), the Dualsense (which I consider the single greatest controller of all time) has been made compatible with Steam, and was updated to have multi-device connectivity this year, which will include the Steam Machine. Whether it ends up becoming my go to device remains to be seen; I am a life long, admitted Sony Pony, but even I’m not delusional enough to ignore the writing on the walls and ultimately succumb to convenience. Playstation: you’re officially in check, Xbox has already been Sega’d, try not to get Atari’d.

This brings us to our last topic: Sony's Mobile Initiative. This week we saw the official reveals of not one, but two mobile exclusive games based on Playstation IPs, neither of which are targeting a Playstation release. You know what they will be on, though? Valve’s box via emulation software. To be honest, this doesn’t bother me.

For years, the more vocal members of Playstation’s player base have been very loudly telling sony that the Horizon IP is a fluke, that the gameplay is uninspired, Aloy is annoying, and that the only reason the franchise is posting the sales figures it is is because Zero Dawn was given away for free during the pandemic, and Forbidden West was an early PS5 bundle and went out on Extra early in its sales lifecycle. So, to Sony’s market research, there’s precedent for them thinking their player base wouldn’t exactly give a shit about a Horizon game not being on the PS5. Moreover, I imagine there is clear sales and user engagement data that suggests that Playstation users aren’t exactly all too fond of traditional MMOs. It’s not to say there aren’t, but if you look at who buys what month to month, I don’t think I have literally ever seen an MMO crack a top 20 sales list on Playstation; they are quite literally not financially incentivized to market an MMO to their own playerbase. The disparity between MMO engagement on Playstation and MMO engagement on mobile or PC is immense, I imagine. Also, Sony has been more interested in expanding its IPs to other platforms, be it PC, Switch, and now Mobile. Similar to what Nintendo did with Pokemon Go and Mario Run a decade ago, there’s a completely different player market on mobile that will largely never touch a PS5 (even if it is a further subsidized, language-locked variant). Horizon has also, for one reason or another, been at the forefront of Sony’s more “experimental” business endeavors, including putting Forbidden West on Extra and Lego Horizon being on Switch day and date.

All this is to say, from a business perspective, there are quite a few fairly legitimate reasons as to why Sony would do this, chief of which has been expanding the market viability of their IPs outside of their proprietary ecosystem (see: God of War show, Gran Turismo movie, etc). That said, there are certainly questions. For example: upon Ranger Rumble’s release, the Steam Machine will be the only device on the planet that can run every Ratchet and Clank game. It also puts into question whether or not players have any faith in the value of the Playstation ecosystem as the exclusivity portion of its brand equity comes into question.
“Why get a PS6 when most or all of the worthwhile exclusives are going to be put on the Steam Machine sooner or later, plus some Playstation IP titles that will never be on PS6?” That’s a legitimate question now. Previously, you could argue that “it’ll be on PC within the year” wasn’t exactly enough to jump ship, but now PC is getting full blown extra games based on IPs that Playstation players have single handedly held down for 20 years. An arena shooter based on Ratchet and Clank, what’s next? A kart racer based on Bloodborne going to PC? (wait–). Which, mind you, when the fan port of Bloodborne is stable enough, the Steam Machine will be able to run it.

As the 9th console generation approaches its waning hours, questions have begun to crop up about the Playstation 6, naturally. While Sony is rumored to release 3 variants of the PS6 (handheld, base, pro), they’ll have $70 or $80 games, paid multiplayer, and less software incentives than what Valve will be offering. It’s a war on two fronts: in Japan, they’re trying to eat into Nintendo’s margins, and globally they need to fend off the rapid rise of PC gaming which has only become harder with the advent of Valve’s own hardware. For even the staunchest of supporters, there does get to be a point where diminishing returns are far too noticeable, and I believe that Sony’s playerbase is going to put it together, en masse, sooner or later.

I don’t really have many practical solutions here, to be honest. All of them are drastic and some would probably not go down well. However, for argument’s sake, here they are. To be clear I’m not for or against these practices, I simply think they would be moves in the interest of the business entity:

• Sony should immediately cease all porting of first party games to Steam and instead invest in a remote play launcher for PC, no native PC versions of games, streaming exclusively off of Sony’s internal PS5 server blades to prevent piracy and immediately porting. They do not have to pull what’s already on Steam, but they do need to stop porting their titles over. The fact that I already know that Marvel’s Wolverine will likely be on Steam by 2027 is not good for Sony.
• Sony should seriously consider going back to free multiplayer on the PS6.
• Sony should not advance box prices for games beyond $70.
• Sony must reinvest into smaller titles. Not every fucking release can afford the risk of being a 9 figure disaster. They don’t happen often, but once a generation is enough, stop putting the entire house on black. They should triple dip into IPs, there should be a side scrolling bullet hell game based on Returnal that costs $20. The ever elusive 2.5D God of War game that’s almost certainly going to cost $40 is risky. You want brand equity? Stop pricing people out of your fucking IP.
• Sony should solidify Astro as its global mascot, they constantly bitch about how they have “no IP”, so go ahead and make an Astro TV Show for kids, go make a movie, announce AstroBot 2 as soon as possible, announce spin off games. Go pay Vocaloid to have Astro featured on a Hatsune Miku song, however that works. Mario has appeared in over 300 games and an equally absurd amount of non-gaming media, granted he had a 40 year head start on the Bot, but you have got to bump those numbers up and stop under-investing in something you’re positioning as a flagship. This is not because I have a soft spot for Astro (trust me, I do), this is because Sony has failed multiple mascots by letting the ball drop. Crash, Toro, Sackboy, etc. Astro should be everywhere. Sony should work with Valve on selling an Astro Bot faceplate for the Steam Machine.

    Ultimately, they’ll choose to adopt none of these suggestions because they’re so far up their own ass after Xbox’s exit that they probably consider themselves impervious. I imagine that, out of everyone, the people with the least clairvoyance about what’s gone down this week is Sony Interactive Entertainment. If they don’t make decisions soon, they are, quite frankly, fucked.