After the recent PC release of Returnal, it appears the game is not performing as well as first hoped on the platform. Returnal is Sony's latest PC effort as the company continues to try and expand its audience.
Returnal was first released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in April 2021 and finally made its way to PC after almost two years of waiting. While the game wasn't necessarily a system seller, it was still well-reviewed and lavished with industry awards, so a number of PC players who had never experienced Returnal were still excited about the release. The PC port of Returnal received praise for its improved graphics and solid performance, which is often an issue for ports. Sony deserves praise for the effort it is putting into its PC releases, as it is yet to have a title with many of the issues commonly associated with lazy PC ports.
Just four days after Returnal's PC release, the game has peaked at just under 7,000 players on Steam, according to SteamDB. This is a disappointing result for the game, with only Sackboy: A Big Adventure faring worse among Sony's recent PC ventures at 610 peak concurrent players. It should be noted that despite the awards and acclaim, Returnal isn't a huge established IP, so the company's expectations may have been low for the Steam release. On PlayStation 5 however, the game performed within Sony's expectations, selling 560,000 copies during the first two months of release.
While the performance isn't great news for Sony, the company can still look to its established franchises for a better outlook on PC. The recent Steam releases of God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, and Horizon Zero Dawn all performed well on the platform, and the upcoming release of The Last of Us on Steam should be a huge seller for the company. It's certainly not all doom and gloom, as the company still has a variety of huge titles that are yet to arrive on PC, such as God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and the original Uncharted trilogy.
With the low sales, hopefully, this doesn't affect Sony's future PC plans. After years of the company locking its games onto PlayStation, it has been refreshing to see these titles finally make their way to PC, even if they usually don't appear for some time. It's a fair trade-off - Sony gets the timed PlayStation exclusivity, while PC players eventually get to experience games they otherwise wouldn't have. The current indication is that Sony intends to expand its "PlayStation PC game experiences" so despite the underperformance, players should remain hopeful for the future.
Returnal is available to play now on PC and PS5.
Source: SteamDB (via Video Games Chronicle)