As Kotaku’s Jason Schreier learned from his source, one of biggest PS 4 exclusives Horizon: Zero Dawn might be coming to PC.
Not only is it launching on Steam and the Epic Games Store sometime in 2020, it might actually get an upgrade on PC where it will no longer be locked at 30 fps.
If that’s the case, this indicates a major change in Sony’s strategy regarding the exclusives.
That Sony is relaxing its stance on exclusivity was kind of hinted at by Shawn Layden, former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios.
“We must support the PlayStation platform – that is nonnegotiable,” Layden said in interview with Bloomberg. “That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base.”
While Horizon: Zero Dawn is technically already playable on PC via the PS Now, it will be the first Sony first-party title to get an actual PC release. A tectonic shift for Sony, which relied on exclusives for its hardware sales since 1994 when PS1 came out.
Schreier cites analyst Mat Piscatella who suggested that “the 2020’s will be about ecosystems, not platforms. By the end of the decade I doubt any company will tie content exclusively to one device.”
And that might very well be the case. After all, Microsoft has already released all of its Xbox games on PC. Sony might be embracing the same strategy with Horizon.
As for Horizon developer Guerrilla Games, it will be their first release outside of PlayStation since 2005 when Sony purchased the studio.