Next Xbox Console Could Be Affected By PlayStation Pulling Back On PC

I'm not surprised by this. The sales data seems to suggest single player games haven't been selling well on PC so it's a no brainer really. Keep them as a selling point for PS6.

Contributes to a closed ecosystem maybe but wouldn't catch Nintendo doing it.

Always been different for Xbox a closed wall actually makes less sense for them as they have a vested interested in PC doing well.

Sony better up their pipeline then because the current cadence of Sony 1st party titles won't draw in new users. That leaves two options: reduce scope & production costs, or raise game prices

Oh dear what a pity never mind!

First of all, these are just rumors. Nothing has been confirmed by PlayStation, especially since it completely contradicts what they are doing and the statements from Sony’s CEO, who has been talking about becoming more open to PC.

Another thing is that pulling their single‑player first‑party games from Steam would mean a huge loss of revenue for PlayStation. Less revenue means smaller budgets, which ultimately means lower‑quality games. But who knows — it’s possible. It would actually be consistent with the small number of original single‑player games they’ve released this generation and with their shift toward live‑service titles. They’re clearly trying to make more money while investing less (live‑service games, remakes, fewer AAA single‑player titles, etc.).

And even if it happened, it wouldn’t remove that many games from Xbox’s ecosystem. If they really do pull their single‑player games from PC (which I doubt), the PS6 still wouldn’t have access to the 30–40% of games that are PC‑only, unlike the next Xbox. So Xbox would still come out far ahead in terms of available catalog.

In any case, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top: a closed ecosystem that locks itself in (PlayStation), or an open ecosystem that allows players to access a vast game catalog without restrictions.

@Jaxx420 do you have any sources? For example, God of War has 174,000 reviews on Steam, and with a sales‑to‑review ratio on Steam that usually ranges from 20:1 to 60:1 depending on the game, that suggests several million potential sales on PC. Same for Spider‑Man — several million copies sold on PC.

All the numbers show the opposite. Games that release on PC often sell even more than on consoles. Take the latest Resident Evil Requiem, for example

I think the shareholders wouldn’t be happy if they actually pulled their games from PC. That’s why I don’t believe this rumor at all.

@Coletrain PS5 is near 100M in sales. 1st party wise they have done pretty ok this gen despite what the internet likes to think.

@fatpunkslim If Jason's saying its true then its true. You can play armchair analyst all you like but you're not Jason Schreier.

Also Sony and Nintendo don't need MS but MS needs them. Its why the two former can do this while MS is stuck putting Halo on Playstation.

@fatpunkslim https://alineaanalytics.com/blog/steamps/

The data is showing all the single player follow ups like Horizon etc are selling a lot slower than the originals are which reflects it's declining.

I would assume it's the slowdown of the sequels that made Sony look at the metrics and go we can afford to keep single player games on our platform only.

Then there is the logic aspect. If and I say if as who knows, the next Xbox has steam built-in they may be looking at that as well and factoring that into any decision.

I would add that Resident Evil Requiem is an isolated example as it's multiplat anyway. Sony will only be looking at sales of their own titles vs numbers on their own machine. I think it goes without saying multiplats tend to sell best on PC.

@fatpunkslim sales on PC make up around 2% of Sony sales.

It’s a small number.

Sony makes a lot of money from PC. There's no way they'll say no to that.

Big news that’ll impact me greatly. My PC had almost effectively become a de-facto PlayStation as I’m using it primarily to play all games I can’t access on Xbox. God of Wars, Horizons, Kenas, Stray etc. and I have Stellar Blade, AI Limit, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted still on my Steam wishlist. I do use it for PC exclusive indie games too, but Sony’s AAA/AA games were the ones justifying the high end hardware that I invested in. So this really could change my purchasing plans in future honestly…

@DennisReynolds next gen consoles are going to cost more than this gen, Xbox couldn't possible bleed any more users over to ps5 than they have already; the install base becomes lower by default. Exclusives aren't all going to sell Spiderman numbers. And they're costing more to make. You're looking at 4-5m copies sold at full price to break even on some of these projects.

1st party wise Insomniac and team asobi are the only ones coming up smelling of roses. It's been a weird time this gen for them

@DennisReynolds Sony announced in December 2025 that it had shipped 92 million consoles to retailers (not necessarily sold to consumers). Sony never shares the actual sell‑through numbers.

If we apply the usual 5–8% gap between shipped and sold during the PS4 era, that puts real sales at around 86 million units. In both cases, it’s still far from 100 million, and the PS5 remains behind the PS4’s trajectory.”

Schreier is a journalist — he doesn’t work at Sony as far as I know. So how can you claim he’s automatically right? He talked about GTA 6 being delayed to 2027, yet nothing has been confirmed so far.

@Coletrain your perspective seems based on a lot of ‘on paper’ points that the reality of the situation just isn’t reflecting. They’re crushing it in the console space with 100million units sold and record revenues despite the genuine lack of constant AAA bangers like the PS4 generation had.

Would more and better exclusives increase their position? Obviously. But they aren’t floundering nor is their situation even remotely resembling the dire predicament you’re painting for them. The PS5 is the ‘de facto’ console, for better or for worse, and that’s highly unlikely to change whenever PS6 comes out. Again, you have a lot of points that sound good individually and theoretically, but things just aren’t panning out in a way to legitimize your statements.

@DennisReynolds but Jason Scheirer is a journalist playing armchair analyst.

I don't disagree with your point but you are almost defeating it with that comment.

@Jaxx420 Maybe the sales are lower, but we’re still talking about several million copies sold. And another way to look at it is that the delay between the PlayStation release and the PC release is exactly what causes the lower sales. So the conclusion could actually be the opposite: they should speed up the PC release to take advantage of the game’s marketing hype.

The other explanation that would support your point would be to say that PC players have less appetite for cinematic single‑player games than PlayStation players — but there’s nothing that really proves that.

@fatpunkslim Lmao revenue from PC amounts to 2% of their total revenue, it’s absolutely minuscule compared to their console business hence why they’re quickly moving away from it.

The truth you don’t want to hear is that you’re heavily coping as you’ve been already bragging about having PS games on the next Xbox for a while, realistically speaking no one will choose to buy the next Xbox over the PS6 because it has some PS4/PS5 ports that at that point will be more than half a decade old, and that’s even assuming the next Xbox does launch and does fulfill the promise of having third-party stores.

@Coletrain and people will prefer buying a $600 PS6 over a $800+ PCXbox. MS haven't found the secret sauce the PCXbox is a last hail merry and giving the heavy rumours the PCXbox was Sarah Bond's thing there's a good chance MS might change course with it. Either way the PS6 will still do far better.

Ghost of Yotei? Helldivers 2? Returnal? Horizon FW? God of War Ragnarok?

@fatpunkslim Jason is the most reliable journalist in gaming and he has contacts in every studio and publisher. There's a reason rumours stop once Jason has his say. Sorry dude this is his job while you're what? A commenter on a PureXbox. Also link to that GTA VI comment? I'm curious on his exact wording.

For all the people who kept saying Sony will be able to "block" their games from being on the next Xbox while still putting them on Steam, here you go. I told you you were wrong, and you were wrong.

I do think it's funny Sony will forgo the entire PC market simply because they refuse to take their boot off Xbox's throat. He's already dead, Sony!

Anyway, this is going to be less and less important as single player exclusives are less of a priority for Playstation. They don't need a costly differentiator when they don't have a real direct competitor.

@Jaxx420 You understand he has contacts within Sony right? He doesn't make up stuff and if he speculates he says so 🙄

xbox gamers were looking forward to playing new sony games on the magnus the dream is now over..

@DennisReynolds I'm not comparing a ps6 with a next box, it will obviously sell more, it'd be naive to think otherwise. I'm saying the exclusive thing isn't the needle mover given dev costs (and time) unless they improve it.

It's not going to attract new users, just existing ones. All the data and reports have consoles trending down. PS6 isn't magically immune to this.

@fatpunkslim

Aside from the fact that it's not even guaranteed that the new Xbox will have Steam integration you're just going to have to accept that you're not going to be playing any future PlayStation exclusives on Xbox via Steam as you and many a die-hard Xbox fan has hoped.

I did say that you're setting yourself up for disappointment and, well, here we are. 🤷

Spider-Man 2 was ported “at record speed” with about 15 month exclusivity.

Even if Yotei was to follow that pattern, a port would not land until January 2027 at the earliest. Chances are Oct 27. That’s so far away that any of this sounds like articles for the sake of clicks and views.

Meh, this changes nothing for me personally. I have a PS5 if I really want to play their first-party games ((edit: which with a very few exceptions, I don't).

However, one of the reasons I want Xbox to become a more open platform with multiple store fronts is the huge selection of games that the PC has and for the third-party timed exclusivity games that usually Sony money-hats for PS and PC first, then Xbox getting them waaaay later, if at all.
Fingers crossed Xbox will stay the course for a hybrid next gen console.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

@fatpunkslim sales on PC make up around 2% of Sony sales.

It’s a small number.

Not quite. It's 30% - 40% of PlayStation's first party sales. Link: https://www.techspot.com/news/109514-pc-sales-now-account-nearly-third-sony-first.html

It's 2% of PlayStation total revenue, which includes Fortnite, Call of Duty and Genshin Impact micro-transactions.

@Fiendish-Beaver

There's no question that Sony's position has changed and for a number of obvious reasons, one of them absolutely being about closing a loophole allowing Xbox access to PS exclusives should the Microsoft hybrid console with Steam functionality come to fruition.

You can guarantee that came into the equation.

I like Slim, but you know as well as I do that he's going to argue until he's blue in the face that he'll "definitely" be playing all PlayStation games on his new Xbox that "definitely" will come with Steam integration.

Jason Schreier is a pretty reliable journalist, so you can read this report as true. Future PlayStation exclusives on PC, Xbox and Switch are over.
Just because Microsoft are trying to change that paradigm doesn't mean Sony and/or Nintendo have to follow suitb- and neither are.
If Xbox gamers want to play the next God of War or Spiderman they'll have to ante-up and buy a bloody PlayStation. End of discussion really.

@Fiendish-Beaver Even myself as a console enthusiast after buying every Xbox since the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle I heavily question if I’ll even get the next Xbox, and for me it’s not a matter of price as I’m thankfully able to afford a high-end PC but I just really don’t like the PC experience, I increasingly dislike Windows and having to tinker games and drivers almost every time to play ‘properly’, and so far everything they’ve said about the next Xbox seems precisely what I don’t want to deal with, moreover if Xbox will keep releasing all their games on PS5/PS6 then what’s the point? Why not just keep one console and one library to rule them all?

And this is precisely what I meant with the unstoppable spiral of death theory I had ever since the “only 4 games” were announced, showing how important exclusives truly are, Sony is doing right with reversing course even if some won’t like it, I only wish MS would’ve done so a couple of years ago but it’s too late for them now.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner "just 2%" More numbers pulled out of nowhere — it’s like the whole ‘100 million consoles sold’ story, which is completely false. But even if it were true, what shareholders look at isn’t the current percentage of revenue, it’s the potential revenue. And the potential is huge, and PlayStation has barely scratched the surface of it. That’s why it doesn’t represent much today — and I don’t believe the 2% figure at all, since Helldivers 2 alone, plus games like Spider‑Man or God of War, already push it way beyond that. The reality is simply that their PC strategy is still very timid. That’s the main reason I don’t believe this rumor.

I don’t care about PlayStation games anyway, for reasons I already mentioned. They don’t have much in terms of single‑player games honestly, and overall their games don’t interest me. But above all, the Steam catalog completely dwarfs PlayStation’s tiny library — around 30–40% of all games are PC‑only. People don’t realize how many games release exclusively on PC, it’s massive.

It’s still strange that every third‑party publisher succeeds on PC, but supposedly not PlayStation according to some people. Why? Are their games low quality? Or is it simply because they haven’t really committed to PC yet? It has to be one or the other — you can’t have it both ways.

thanks @TrollOfWar It's 30% - 40% of PlayStation's first party sales. Link: https://www.techspot.com/news/109514-pc-sales-now-account-nearly-third-sony-first.html

@fatpunkslim except the 2% isn’t pulled out of nowhere.

It’s available numbers that are out there.

It is consistently you who makes statements without any back up.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner look at this https://www.techspot.com/news/109514-pc-sales-now-account-nearly-third-sony-first.html

Where is your source ?

I think for Sony the next Xbox is less of a concern, even if it's a PC with an Xbox sticker that plays Steam and Epic games, and who knows when it will release and at which price.

Their bigger problem is Valve's Steam Machine, a console-like gaming PC which connects to your TV, is in the same price range as a PS5 Pro, has more exclusives from indie developers by default, has cheaper games, a bigger back-catalog due to no generational limits and doesn't require a subscription for online gaming. Plus a handheld in form of the Steam Deck rounding up the Steam ecosystem.

While PS5 sales numbers are in-line with PS4's numbers there is still some way to go, especially with PS6 being postponed if the rumors are true. Usually in previous console generation you would see strong permanent price reductions on console hardware towards the end of a generation. With rising component costs, it looks like Sony will have to rely on exclusive games to attract more people rather than lowering the price of the console.

@fatpunkslim

Literally 1.96% of revenue.

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/110045/sony-has-made-at-least-dollars2-3-billion-selling-first-party-games-on-pc-and-xbox/index.html?iabc=1

@PsBoxSwitchOwner A 2% that they aren't gonna make back by convincing PC gamers to buy a PlayStation

@DennisReynolds Bold of you to assume the PS6 will be $600. Given what the PS5 Pro costs, I'd wager we'd be lucky to get a PS6 for $700, if not $800. Will still be cheaper than the next Xbox, though.

@fatpunkslim @DennisReynolds Schreier didn’t say GTA 6 would get a delay to 2027, Schreier said GTA is on track for its November 2026 release date but could see a final delay potentially depending on how things go. Other websites changed that quote into saying it’s gonna get delayed again. Schreier has called out websites for pulling what he said out of context.

.+ schreier said it off the record in a podcast, not in an article.

@TrollOfWar The Steam Machine probably won't even sell more than a million or two units

@fatpunkslim

I don’t care about PlayStation games anyway

Really? You've been going on and on about how Steam will give you access to PlayStation games, so much so that you've shot anyone down who dare to challenge the idea of the next Xbox having Steam integration thus giving Xbox gamers access to PlayStation exclusives through the platform.
Now you don't care all of a sudden? Man, you change more than direction of the wind!

I like you Slim, but you're making a fool if yourself. I guess our little chat the other week or so didn't sink in at all did it...

@Questionable_Duck take away the costs of porting it to pc and its even less in profit.

They have the numbers. If the numbers work they will carry on

Anyway, moving on.

Given Microsoft Xbox's new leadership I wonder if they'll now shift the goalposts in light of this news and the realisation that they're only hardware company that's happy to put all their games on rival consoles?
Will they stay the course or have a 'oh bugger, that didn't go to plan!' moment?

@fatpunkslim @TrollOfWar Using that headline it’s disingenuous since Helldivers 2 is pretty much the only exception to the rule as it’s the only game that has sold more on PC than PS5 with nearly 2/3 of its total sales being on PC, it’s even stated on the article itself that’s an anomaly due to Helldivers 2.

There’s also Spider-Man 2 that sold +16M on PS5 and 0.7M (700K) on PC, and pretty much every single-player game follows a similar ratio or worse, sales have been a flop even if Sony will never word it that way, again, you will not like to hear but you’re coping because you were already assuming and even bragging for something that was never a certainty.

Source for Spider-Man 2 sales:
https://open.substack.com/pub/alineaanalytics/p/our-most-requested-estimates-and?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Just because they have the numbers doesn't mean they're being smart or that they're right to make this decision. Countless execs have focused too much on the numbers and failed miserably on the execution. I mean, just look at Xbox.

I can't imagine the costs of porting to PC are that high, considering Shuhei Yoshida said that it was like "printing money" when he was still at PlayStation. The margins on PC ports must be pretty good, the problem is that the recent titles weren't selling well. A problem they could fix, of course, by releasing games on PC day-and-date. But they don't want to do that.

Like I said before, I highly doubt Sony will be able to convince the PC gamers who have been buying their games on PC for several years to get a PlayStation. Especially not when the PS6 will be more expensive than ever before.

Jason Schreier said it himself in the article, that things may change in the future, since Sony is actively trying to figure things out. I wouldn't be surprised if they start doing PC ports again 5 years from now, if they aren't able to get a significant increase in console sales, GTA 6 notwithstanding.