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Sony is drastically changing its approach to releasing its biggest hits on personal computers. According to the latest reports from Bloomberg, the Japanese giant plans to abandon the transfer of key single-player games to PC. This means that upcoming titles, such as Ghost of Yōtei or Saros, may never leave the PlayStation 5 console.
Return in strategy and a return to full exclusivity
The decision to release PlayStation games on Steam, initiated in 2020 with titles like God of War and The Last of Us, seemed like a natural step in development. Both platforms use the same processor architecture (x86), which made the lack of ports merely a strategic choice. However, as various sources report, the sales results of single-player games from Sony's internal studios on Windows turned out to be disappointing.
As a result, the company is set to abandon plans to move more major single-player hits to PC. This change will directly affect fans waiting for Ghost of Yōtei and the project Saros – both titles will now remain exclusives for PS5. The exception will be productions focused on online gameplay, which by their nature require as large a player base as possible. The last major single-player games that will “skew” this new rule and make it to PC are Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Kena: Scars of Kosmora.
Sony vs the Rest of the World: Two Different Visions of Gaming
Sony's move is surprising in that its main competitors are heading in exactly the opposite direction. Microsoft has announced that the new generation of Xbox consoles will be able to natively run games from PC, and Windows 11 will receive a special 'Xbox Mode'. Furthermore, the giant from Redmond is increasingly willing to release its games on PlayStation 5, while Valve is working hard to blur the lines between PC and console with the new Steam Machine devices.
Flatpanelshd writes that Sony is in a different situation than Microsoft – the company does not have its own operating system or PC platform, which gives it a much stronger motivation to protect the PlayStation ecosystem and the console itself as hardware. Analytical data from Newzoo, mentioned by GamesIndustry.biz, confirms the waning interest in Sony's ports on PC, although experts suggest that the issue is not the desire to own a console, but the too long wait time for the release of the computer version. However, it seems that Sony prefers to completely close the door for users of Windows PCs rather than shorten this window.
Source: Bloomberg, GamesIndustry.biz, flatpanelshd
