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Sony Won't Release PlayStation Games On PC At Launch

Sony is committed to doing more on PC, but it won't come at the expense of the console market, Hermen Hulst says.

17 Comments

PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst has shed some new light on Sony's approach to releasing games on PC. In an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Hulst said it's still early days, so there is no hard-and-fast strategy at this point. That said, Hulst noted that Horizon Zero Dawn's PC edition was "very successful," which demonstrates that people are interested in playing PlayStation games on a PC.

At the same time, Hulst stressed that Sony's efforts on PC will never come at the expense of "building an exciting lineup of great console games." He also suggested that you will not see day-and-date releases for PlayStation console games on PC like Microsoft does with its exclusives.

"I want to emphasize that PlayStation will remain the best place to play our PlayStation Studios titles at launch," he said. "But we do value PC gamers, and we'll continue to look at the right times to launch each game. Bend Studio just released the PC version of Days Gone on May 18. So that's about two years after the PS4 release."

"We want to reach new gamers who haven't yet experienced the great stories, characters, and worlds that we've built," Hulst added. "Releasing games on PC will not come ever at the expense of building an exciting lineup of great console games."

A recent Sony investor presentation revealed that Horizon Zero Dawn's PC edition was tremendously successful; Sony had a return on investment of 250%. In the same investor briefing, Sony strongly suggested that Uncharted 4: A Thief's End may be the next PlayStation game to land on PC, but this has yet to be officially announced.

It's been a big day for PlayStation news. The company also announced that God of War: Ragnarok has been delayed to 2022, while Horizon Forbidden West is not guaranteed to release this year. PlayStation also announced that Days Gone studio Sony Bend is now making a new IP.

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tingtong

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I thought that was always an Xbox thing anyways

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Musicsvictim

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I hope that they'll use the time between releasing on consoles and PC to really polish up the PC release. I believe that Horizon: Zero Dawn had a number of problems when released on PC, so they've hopefully learned from that experience to invest time into the ports.

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KaptenHaddock

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Still waiting for Bloodborne... I mean, I've already got it and played it, but I'll buy it again dammit!

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Thanatos2k

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Did you...expect them to?

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m4a5

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Ah yes, nothing like being too stubborn to admit that properly supporting an open market like PC is a smart move.

Just gotta stall and try your best at double dipping...

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@m4a5: They'd have to share revenues on other platforms, dude, so you can understand why they'd be stubborn about it.

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m4a5

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Edited By m4a5

@Barighm: That's one angle, but then they get revenue that people without PS5s would give.

The PC market is more than big enough to cover such a shallow (greedy) concern.
And it's, y'know, a pro-gamer move (something Sony has been avoiding compared to MS).

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realitybites

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@m4a5: Game pass on PC isnt that great btw. Apart from FF12 maybe a very old Forza 4. The rest are either reallyold games or indies. Like any deal its looks like candy but when you really bite into it its just another subscription that gets old fast. Really who wants to play the original Halo games? Sony is talking about game that has been on the market for 2 years. Sunset Blvd and most those are really really old.

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m4a5

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@realitybites: Gamepass on PC is better than whatever Sony is offering lol

And MS is committed to putting their first party games on PC a heck of a lot faster than Sony.

It's no contest, and that's the problem. What's with all you Sony apologists covering for that?

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@m4a5: If you think MS is pro-gamer, you haven't been keeping up with the news. Go look up what MS REALLY thinks about crossplay as revealed during the Apple vs. Epic trial.

Second, preserving business interests isn't "greedy", it's just their strategy which makes perfect sense when their digital presence is pretty much limited to just one major platform (they don't seem to be supporting PSN on tvs anymore for some reason). The more purchases that go through PSN, the more money that goes directly into their pocket. No PS platform involved, that's a lot of recurring revenue lost aside from the direct purchase of the game which has proven to be less valuable than recurring revenue. Again, something you lose when you move purchases to another platform. It's probably why the only games to hit PC so far are the ones without much in the way of recurring purchase opportunities.

And don't get snippy just because I'm explaining why it's not the best idea business wise. I don't care one way or another if a release hits PC or not.

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m4a5

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@Barighm: "compared to" is the key phrase I said there. Sony is still worse, especially with their crossplay tax. Don't go creating strawman arguments.

And as a consumer and gamer I can call it out as greedy. I understand the business points, but it doesn't change anything, especially when compared to other gaming companies. MS, however un-happy/willing to do so in in private, is doing far more publicly for gamers in general than Sony is willing to do. And I'll call them out on that in a "get more competitive" way.
Something like crossplay should be a more common thing by now, but it's Sony that's dragging behind.

And "dude", what are you talking about? You're the one who stated the obvious in a "snippy" way with your first reply lol

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MoogleStar

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Makes sense Sony draining games dry on console and then selling to PC to get bonus money to make more amazing games. And they're still technically console exclusive anyway, so no losses there either.

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