According to the analyst, surprise hit Helldivers 2 benefited greatly from its release on PC at the same time as PS5. Enough to convince Sony to spoil PC gamers with its next releases.
This is one of many surprise hits this year: Adddivers 2 has been gathering hundreds of thousands of players every day since its release on February 19th. No one foresaw this phenomenon that would happen with this game released by Sony PlayStation after twin stick shooter was released in 2015 and is highly appreciated by players.
During its release week, there were over 450,000 players on Steam, not counting the massive PS5 base. This success even caused difficulties for the Arrowhead studio, as effective word of mouth brought its server infrastructure to its knees.
Several months later, the game’s player base has gradually declined, but still attracts over 100,000 players per day on PC. And it looks like its release on Steam is no stranger to its popularity.
The PC played an ‘important role’ in the game’s success
In a short thread posted on Twitter (X), analyst Mat Piscatella (formerly of Activision and Warner Bros. Games) discusses the success Helldivers II in the US and in particular the impact its simultaneous release had on PC and PlayStation.
According to him, the PC played an “important role” in the success of the game, which has already ” 7th highest grossing game released by Sony in history ” He clarifies that without the PC release, it would have been in 20th place. Its success on Steam in the US is undeniable: the game ranks among the games with the most players on the platform every month since its release.
Obviously, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of the PS5 on this success, which should gather an equally large player base and which alone would allow the game to rise to the top of the rankings, the analyst points out in the final tweet.
Strategy that pays
Helldivers II is one of the rare games published by Sony PlayStation that will be released simultaneously on PS5 and PC. The strategy is part of a broader context in which the concept of exclusivity is becoming entirely relative, with original PlayStation games being ported to PC in less than two years, and Xbox now bringing its exclusives to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
For Sony, the PC has gradually become the target of privileged players who, on the one hand, continue to develop their intellectual property after the end of life on the PS5, but also push the know-how of PlayStation Studios beyond console players. This synergy is clearly a new priority for the firm.
Could we see more games released on both platforms in the future? Not so sure. But this strategy seems ideal for multiplayer games that offer cross-play, so much so that the concept of exclusivity no longer makes sense. Phil Spencer, after his release, also wondered “who benefits” from the inaccessibilityAdddivers 2on Xbox.
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