God of War and Monster Hunter Rise top Steam charts — this is big for gaming

God of War and Monster Hunter Rise top Steam charts — this is large for gaming

(Image credit: SIE)

God of State of war (2018) and Monster Hunter Ascent accept been on PC for only almost two weeks. But they've already skyrocketed to the very superlative of the Steam sales charts, and it seems as though they're staying put.

Monster Hunter Ascension has "very positive" user reviews; God of State of war has "overwhelmingly positive" ones. We evaluated both games, claiming that MH Ascent was even improve on PC than it was on the Nintendo Switch, while God of War "proves that we need more PlayStation games on PC."

The people have spoken, and the message is loud and clear: Console-sectional games belong on PC. They make a ton of money, they delight players and they're sometimes even meliorate than the panel releases that preceded them.

An stop to the console wars

ps5 xbox series x — (Epitome credit: Microsoft/Sony)

It's no secret that I am not a fan of "panel war" rhetoric. Few things in the tech enthusiast space are more than exhausting than watching people have the exact same fight for thirty years and counting, occasionally stopping to bandy out specs and manufacturer names. The PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch all have different strengths and weaknesses. By evaluating where each ane excels and falters, buyers tin make the all-time use of their limited coin and leisure time.

When information technology comes to choosing a console, I would contend that no single criterion is more important than game selection. How well a console runs games is almost totally ancillary if information technology doesn't have games that you actually want to play. Usually, the calculus goes something like this: If you lot want to play Mario and Zelda, get a Switch. If you lot want to play God of War and Ratchet & Clank, get a PlayStation. If you lot want to play Halo and Forza, go an Xbox.

Up until late in the Xbox Ane/PS4 life bike, that was pretty much the common wisdom. Each console manufacturer held onto sure franchises like grim expiry. Ownership a console was substantially a prerequisite for enjoying your favorite series.

That all began to change when Microsoft, long a proponent of PC gaming, decided to make a serious foray into the wonderful world of computer games again. Gears of War and Halo triumphantly returned to PC. Microsoft was even willing to list these games on Steam, which many players adopt to the company's clunky Microsoft store. Now, Microsoft has committed to near total parity between the Xbox Series 10/Southward and the PC. Near every Xbox game from a start-party Microsoft studio comes out on PC, and vice versa, usually with seamless cantankerous-saves to boot.

While Sony's steps take been a little more hesitant, it's yet embracing a future of PC parity, one hitting game at a time. Former PS4 sectional Horizon Nil Dawn debuted on Steam in 2020, followed by Days Gone in 2021. Now, we have God of War, and in a few weeks, we'll have two Uncharted games. It's not a Microsoft-level commitment to an unbroken PC/console ecosystem, but it's a big crack in Sony's "all PlayStation, all the time" edifice. PCs tin run these three PS4 exclusives beautifully; is there any reason they couldn't do the aforementioned for, say, The Last of United states of america or Marvel'south Spider-Man?

The Nintendo variable

Monster Hunter Rise - Wirebug — (Paradigm credit: Capcom)

Usually, at this indicate, I would consider some kind of counterargument. Panel exclusives have been a fact of life for a long time; at that place must be some logic behind them. And in that location is, in terms of both selling consoles and optimizing games. However, the facts as well speak for themselves in this case. God of War and Monster Hunter Rise are big hits, and Xbox's plans to integrate with PC have made Xbox Game Pass the best deal in gaming.

Peradventure hoping for Ratchet & Clank on Xbox or Halo on PS5 is too much of a stretch, but the PC seems like a logical middle basis. Both consoles run games similarly to the fashion a PC runs games, and even use similar hardware to do so. PC represents a largely untapped audience for panel-sectional series, and an active modding community can keep a game live in the public consciousness long later people have completed the story manner. (Howdy, Skyrim.)

That's why it's interesting that ane of the games under consideration this week is a former Nintendo Switch exclusive. Of all the three major gaming companies, Nintendo seems like the least likely to share its properties with the PC community. Yes, nosotros had a handful of Mario games on PC back in the '90s, merely none of the major entries, and Nintendo hasn't revisited the topic since then.

It's worth noting, of course, that Capcom both developed and published Monster Hunter Rise, and then Nintendo exclusivity was never a guarantee. Nintendo seems far less likely to share anything it's developed or published, from Mario and Zelda on one end of the spectrum, to Bayonetta two and Curiosity Ultimate Brotherhood 3 on the other.

And yet, perchance information technology's time to ask "why?" Both Microsoft and Sony accept embraced the PC platform, to varying degrees, and neither company has gone bankrupt. Xbox and PlayStation sales are meliorate than e'er. The PC ports are commercial and disquisitional darlings. The Switch is admittedly less similar a PC than either the PS5 or the Xbox Series 10, simply if emulators accept shown the states anything, it'due south that Nintendo games could run — and run gorgeously — on a PC.

Right now, only Microsoft seems to be embracing PC gaming to its total potential, and that'due south a shame. Sony is on the correct track, however, and the next few years could see a bevy of beloved PS4 (and PS5?) titles delight a whole new demographic. Every bit much as fans on Twitter might like to fence about exclusives, Twitter isn't real life, every bit the old saying goes — and being inclusive, rather than sectional, seems to be the better selection.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. Later hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.