Opinion: PlayStation Studios’ PC strategy makes everyone but Sony happy

It’s often been said that a portfolio of exclusive titles is PlayStation’s greatest strength. From Bloodborne to The Last of Us, Sony has boasted a prestigious selection of games that it has mostly kept to itself. That changed in 2020, when PlayStation Studios began porting and publishing select releases onto PC. Suddenly, the Japanese multinational entertainment company began sharing.

But now, reports are that Sony will be rolling back this publishing strategy. Big single-player experiences like Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War may cease arriving on Windows PCs. A report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier states that after six years of putting titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and Ratchet and Clank onto PC, Sony will be returning to console exclusivity.

That means games like last year’s Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming Saros (from Returnal studio Housemarque) will remain exclusive to PlayStation consoles. Schreier’s report dropped following several reputable journalists individually drawing similar conclusions and shortly after he weighed in on the matter on the Triple Click podcast he co-hosts with Maddy Myers, editor-in-chief of Mothership.

“The sense I’m getting is that they’re backing away from putting their exclusive console stuff, like traditional single-player stuff, on PC. […] I think that’s going to stop,” said Schreier. He cited Marvel’s Wolverine, which is scheduled for release this September, as one example of an in-house Sony game that may never get a PC version. Schreier confirmed his comments were “not speculation.”

Elsewhere, Digital Foundry’s John Linneman said, “I have an inkling that they’re pulling away from PC. I get the feeling that under the current leadership PC has become less important. I think console is where they want to be.” Meanwhile Jez Corden of Windows Central said last November that he’d heard “from a very good source that PlayStation probably is pulling back from PC.”

A sudden pivot like this is surprising, given the extent to which most in the gaming industry have conceded the strategic necessity of publishing on Steam. The Bloomberg report says there exists a faction within PlayStation that believes that PC releases risk damaging the console brand and sales of future hardware. Telling on this is the inconsistent execution of PC strategy. 

Some releases would arrive years after the games came to PlayStation, others would arrive within barely a year. My own guess is that this haphazard sort of time table made it difficult for consumers to make decisions. With no sense of regularity, players would rather wait and see than make any risky software or hardware purchases.

The result has been that sales on PC are less than Sony may have hoped for. While a report from Alinea Analytics estimates that Sony has generated $1.5 billion in revenue on Steam, their breakdown shows that Helldivers 2 carried most of the water. At 12.7 million units sold, the squad-based online shooter outclasses Horizon Zero Dawn and Marvel’s Spider-Man in terms of revenue. 

There’s a sense that the hype over a publisher relenting over decades of tradition has not translated to meaningful sales volume. Alinea’s Rhys Eliott attributes the slow sales to the declining novelty value. For example, Horizon Zero Dawn was Sony’s first PC release and Eliot credits the “pent-up demand” for turning it into a big success. Zero Dawn’s sequel Forbidden West has sold far less.

I personally think that this is a problem of play demographics. PC gamers are a diverse, eclectic lot – for every player who gravitates towards big releases or has a predilection for artful indie titles, there is a player drawn to niche genres and esoteric subject matter. While the absolute number of would be Sony exclusive players are high, they represent a significant percentage of the PC gamer population.

Another major shortcoming of Sony’s strategy is waiting as long as they do to release to PC weakens their appeal. Being able to play something that has already had its time in the hype cycle pales in comparison to the excitement of a brand new game that hasn’t been seen anywhere else. Sony could attempt to release their games simultaneously on PC and PlayStation, but that’s likely a non-starter.

Regardless of whatever happens, Sony will do what’s best for Sony, which is to say the future software strategy will always be re-evaluated to prioritize its own hardware. It’s going to be disappointing for the minority of PC users that are experiencing FOMO for its marquee franchises, but clearly the company wants to do something to preserve their brand value.