The debate continues about whether PS5 exclusives harm games and conflict with sales data. While higher sales are always better, the distribution of sales between platforms for certain games shows that PS5 is the preferred platform, as recently seen with the Silent Hill 2 remake.
How much does the exclusivity of the PS5 affect games?
As Chris Dring from GamesIndustry.biz explained, 78% of Silent Hill 2 sales in Europe (excluding the UK) were on PS5, while only 22% were on PC. Europe is just one piece of the global pie. But this percentage is a sufficient and comprehensive indication that the game’s exclusivity to PlayStation 5 does not harm sales as some may believe. On the other hand, some players assumed that Silent Hill 2 sold less on PC due to its high system requirements.
Recently, Square Enix released the game Final Fantasy XVI on PC after admitting that the game had lackluster sales. Many speculated that the game’s release as a PS5 exclusive harmed sales, but the PC release was not noteworthy either. There are many arguments that could be made about why FFXVI did not achieve massive sales on PC, but the point here is that exclusivity does not necessarily harm studios.
Studio Shift Up is currently preparing to release the game on PC. It remains to be seen how successful it will be on a platform where full-priced games are not easy to sell.
