PlayStation Classic flops on Steam despite strong reviews

Sony released ‘Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’ on Steam on July 26, peaking at only 8757 concurrent players. This charts well below other PlayStation PC ports.

Sony has continued to dominate the console wars with its direct competition of Microsoft’s Xbox which have both shared similar hardware, games and therefore customers.

Microsoft has recently acquired Activision Blizzard, further strengthening it’s overall gaming arsenal, such as console leader Call of Duty. This has ultimately put more pressure on Sony as Microsoft has historically always been more dominant when it comes to anything PC related.

Overall the company has struggled to gain any major success for PC games, such as when Rift Apart was released on PC. The critically acclaimed brand of Rachet & Clank has proven key for Sony for many years, with the latest PlayStation 5 release gaining huge critical acclaim and success. 

Despite holding a ‘Very Positive’ 84% rating based on from 670 user reviews, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart according to SteamDB has only peaked at 8757 active users on July 26, the day it launched. With figures dropping even further in the days following, the game has no signs of being revived and is the third-worst PC launch for PlayStation.

See below from PlayStation Studios the top games by highest players at one time on Steam:

• God of War – 73,529K
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered – 66,436K
• Horizon Zero Dawn – 56,557K
• The Last of Us Part I – 36,496K
• Days Gone – 27,450K

Why are Sony’s games flopping on PC?

Sony’s highest active players do not even make the top 100 on Steam, whereby the 100th-ranked game ‘Tom Clany’s The Division’ has an all-time peak of 114,228 (via SteamDB).

Speculation regarding PlayStation’s failings mainly has revolved around the disastrous transferring of games made for consoles being ported over to PC. However, early reviews for Ratchet and Clank suggested this was not the case, with players praising the gameplay.

Instead, the low sales figures have suggested it is more towards Sony’s strategies to win over new customers who are unfamiliar with PlayStation’s giant titles.

After a long successful history, the dominant console and game developer may have to rethink it’s PC launch strategy going forward if they plan to continue porting their exclusives to the platform.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is available now for PC and PS5 and to find out more about the game on PC, follow the link attached.