After the recent PC release Returnit seems that the platform game is not working as well as expected. Return it’s Sony’s latest PC effort as the company continues to try to expand its audience.
Return was first released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in April 2021 and is finally coming to PC after almost two years of waiting. While the game wasn’t necessarily a system seller, it was still well-received and was lavished with industry awards, so many PC gamers who have never experienced Return were still excited about the release. The PC port Return was praised for its improved graphics and solid performance, which is often a problem for ports. Sony deserves credit for the effort it puts into its PC releases, as it hasn’t yet had a title with many of the problems usually associated with lazy PC ports.
Literally in four days ReturnAccording to SteamDB, the game peaked on Steam after its PC release at just under 7,000 players. This is a disappointing result for the game, only with Sackboy: The Great Adventure worse among Sony’s recent PC ventures at 610 peak concurrent players. It should be noted that despite the awards and recognition, Return isn’t a big established IP, so the company’s expectations for a Steam release were low. However, on the PlayStation 5, the game lived up to Sony’s expectations, selling 560,000 copies in its first two months of release.
While performance isn’t great news for Sony, the company can still look to its established franchises for a better PC look. Latest Steam releases god of war, Marvel’s Spider-Manand Horizon Zero Dawn all performed well on the platform, and upcoming issue Last of us on Steam should be a big seller for the company. Of course, that’s not all, as the company still has tons of huge games that haven’t made it to PC yet, e.g. God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden Westand the original Uncharted trilogy.
Given the low sales, hopefully this won’t affect Sony’s future PC plans. After years of pinning its games to PlayStation, it was nice to see these games finally make it to PC, even if they usually don’t come out for a while. It’s a fair trade-off – Sony gets the temporary PlayStation exclusivity, while PC gamers end up getting games they wouldn’t otherwise have. The current indicator is as follows Sony intends to expand its “PlayStation PC gaming experience” therefore, despite the poor performance, players should remain hopeful for the future.
Return is now available to play on PC and PS5.
Source: SteamDB (by Chronicle of video games)