Your data. Your choice.

If you select «Essential cookies only», we’ll use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your device and how you use our website. We need this information to allow you to log in securely and use basic functions such as the shopping cart.

By accepting all cookies, you’re allowing us to use this data to show you personalised offers, improve our website, and display targeted adverts on our website and on other websites or apps. Some data may also be shared with third parties and advertising partners as part of this process.

Legal noticePrivacy notice
Shutterstock/Gustavo Preiss
News + Trends
2717

Sony's strategy: PC ports should encourage people to buy a PS5

Debora Pape
31/5/2024
Translation: machine translated

Keep the Playstation attractive with exclusive titles or reach a larger audience? At the moment, Sony is focusing on a compromise with time-shifted PC ports to answer this fundamental question. The Playstation boss explains how this should boost sales of the PS5.

How long do you want to wait for great single-player titles?

However, that has changed. Sony gave several of the earlier exclusive titles a PC port two to three years after the Playstation release. PC gamers can therefore play the "Horizon" series, "Ghost of Tsushima" and "The Last of Us" on their favourite platform. However, Hulst did not give a fixed time frame for the PC release. The PC gaming community is still waiting for "The Last of Us 2" from 2020.

The PC ports are strategically motivated, as Hulst explains: on the one hand, Sony can count on delayed sales revenue from the PC gaming community. On the other hand, the company hopes to entice PC gamers to buy a Playstation 5: Playing the PC port should make them want to be able to play future follow-up titles right at release - without having to wait years for a port again.

Will this work? This strategy hasn't worked for me so far. The graphics on my PC are simply better and I find the stick controls for controllers atrocious.

Multiplayer appears immediately on the PC

The strategy is different for live service titles, as Hulst confirms. Multiplayer games such as "Helldivers 2" will continue to be released on PC at the same time as the Playstation release. These games are primarily financed by micro-transactions. Sony therefore wants to appeal to as many fans as possible, while the titles receive new content every few months and therefore remain relevant. Splitting the players between two releases does not make sense here.

Apropos: Microsoft currently has a similar problem with exclusive titles - only different:

Header image: Shutterstock/Gustavo Preiss

27 people like this article

User Avatar
User Avatar
Debora Pape
Editor
Debora.Pape@galaxus.de

Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.

News + Trends

From the latest iPhone to the return of 80s fashion. The editorial team will help you make sense of it all.

Show all