Recently I came across an IGN writeup about the success of Stellar Blade on PC. Shift Up’s action RPG has done incredibly well, selling more than a million copies in its first three days on Steam and becoming one of PlayStation’s strongest new IP launches on the platform. That part of the story is worth celebrating. Where things start to fall apart is the analysis that followed. According to Alinea Analytics, a newsletter I had never heard of until now, PlayStation games are not selling on PC the way they used to. Their conclusion is that the novelty has worn off and that all of Sony’s major franchises have already landed on PC.
Not All Major PlayStation Games Are Even on PC
This is where the argument begins to crumble. That claim is simply not true. Several major PlayStation titles have never touched Steam. There is no Gran Turismo 7. No Demon’s Souls. Astro Bot has never been ported. Bloodborne is still missing. The Last of Us Part II is not on PC. The Order: 1886 never made the jump. So, the idea that Sony has already brought all of its heavy hitters to PC is factually incorrect.
Console Owners on PC Are Not Going to Double Dip
There is also a much larger factor that Alinea never mentions. Many PC players also own a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5. They do not want to wait years for a PC port with no release window in sight. They buy the game on console because it is the only way to play it at launch. Plenty of those same players are not going to purchase the game again on PC. These are $60 and $70 dollar titles. Double dipping is not realistic for everyone, and pretending otherwise ignores how actual players behave.
Port Quality Has Been Inconsistent
Another problem Alinea overlooks is the quality of the ports themselves. PC gamers will not tolerate a broken release. They refund aggressively when a game runs poorly, and we have seen more than a few rough PlayStation to PC launches. Horizon Zero Dawn was a mess at release and took months to stabilize. The Last of Us Part 1, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Returnal, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection all had technical issues.
On the other hand, ports like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, and Horizon Forbidden West were handled well. But once trust is damaged, it does not fully recover. Some PC players will simply stick with the console version because they no longer want to gamble on optimization.
The PSN Account Controversy Hurt Sales
Then we cannot forget the PlayStation Network account controversy. Requiring a PSN login locked players out of buying certain games if PSN was not available in their region. Others pushed back against what they saw as forced account creation. Even after Sony reversed course and made it optional, the situation had already created anger and confusion. That matters. It absolutely affects sales.
Long Wait Times and Piracy Impact Performance Too
Alinea’s data also does not account for the simplest explanation of all. If you make players wait six months, a year, or longer, many will lose interest. Some will buy on console instead. And yes, some will turn to piracy. None of these realities show up in sales charts, but they all shape how well a game performs on Steam when it finally arrives.
Single Player Games Do Perfectly Fine on PC
Now, there’s another notion making the rounds, one that wasn’t directly mentioned by Alinea, but one that should be addressed none the less. For some apparent reason, some people assume that single-player games simply don’t do well on the PC. Which is laughable at best. When people say this, I always ask them if they’ve ever played Baldur’s Gate 3, Hades, Disco Elysium, StarCraft, Hollow Knight, Diablo, Civilization, Total War Series, just to name a few. It’s not that PC gamers don’t like single player games like those on consoles, it’s that developers didn’t do so and focused on consoles. I enjoy a single player game on my PC just as much as my PS5. But the truth is, most of those games are multi-platform anymore, and outside of indie games, no developer is going to make a AA/AAA single player game for the PC. And that’s just the nature of the platform, with it not having an owner or a need for exclusives.
This Is Not About Novelty. It Is About Strategy.
So no, this is not about novelty. It is about strategy. Sony is releasing PC versions long after the console debut, often without clear timelines. Some ports launched in poor condition. Some games were region locked because of PSN limitations. Some players already bought the game on console because they were tired of waiting. None of that reflects declining interest in PlayStation games. It reflects the consequences of delayed and inconsistent release plans.
If Sony ever releases a major first party title on PC and PlayStation 5 at the same time, the results will be very telling. That would finally give us a fair comparison instead of data shaped by delays, technical issues, and regional restrictions. Until that happens, calling this a novelty decline is not analysis. It is an oversimplification.
PlayStation games are not losing their appeal on PC. The demand is still there. The problem is not the audience. The problem is the timing.
