Earlier in August, Sony did something remarkable. For the first time, Sony published a major AAA first-party PlayStation exclusive on PC. The decision to do so was met with broad approval from the PC gaming community, but with questions, too. Those questions being about Sony’s real interest in bringing PlayStation games to PC, as PC gamers more than others reward dedicated support of the platform. It seems like Sony is listening, as it’s now making clear that Horizon Zero Dawn‘s PC release is just the start.
In a Sony corporate report for 2020, a document breaking down the company’s various plans and efforts looking forward, PC gaming is briefly mentioned. While no specific promises are made, Sony does offer a hopeful statement for PC gamers. “We will explore expanding our 1st party titles to the PC platform, in order to promote further growth in our profitability reads the statement. Again, there’s no guarantee that more PS4 or PS5 exclusives will be coming to PC, but the implication is definitely there.
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Additionally, the section of the report in which this quoted statement is found is explicitly about the company’s “Strategic Direction.” And further, the paragraph it’s in is about ways to achieve “robust revenue growth.” Bringing first-party games to PC isn’t listed as one of those goals, but is listed as a potential opportunity for growth.
To be clear, Sony isn’t getting anywhere near close to the strategies of Microsoft. In fact, earlier in the paragraph where bringing games to PC is mentioned, Sony says one of its core goals for revenue growth is ensuring “consumers select PlayStation as their platform of choice.” It seems contradictory to release games on PC while also prioritizing bringing players to the PlayStation platform. But that’s probably the exact idea that Sony’s going to continue exploring going forward.
Sony has several different options. It can choose not to release any more first-party PlayStation exclusives on PC, obviously. It can wait and only release exclusives that have the potential to draw players back to their console hardware, like Horizon Zero Dawn getting people excited for sequel Horizon Forbidden West. Or Sony could push further. It could start releasing multiple first-party exclusives on PC, simply because they’ll be successful on the platform. 2021 will hopefully shed light on Sony’s choice.
To be clear, Horizon Zero Dawn wasn’t the first Sony-published game released on PC. Smaller games like Helldivers, Guns UP!, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture have also been published on PC by Sony. Horizon was definitely and escalation, though. And it’s rather clear Sony‘s only just getting started now.
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Source: Sony