Sony has no plans to give up on its strategy of releasing first-party PlayStation games on PC. The time lag between the two versions will remain, but there will be more PS5 exclusives in the future.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan opened up about it in a new interview with Famitsu (in Japanese). He stressed the importance of the PC games market, saying that it is “indispensable for allowing more people to enjoy games in a variety of ways.”
“I think the more the better,” Ryan noted.
PlayStation will be proactive in bringing its first-party titles to PC, but will be primarily focused on increasing the number of PS5 exclusives. Games like God of War Ragnarok or Horizon Forbidden West should act as system sellers and motivate players to buy the latest version of the console. So the release of PC versions will remain “staggered”.
“I often have the opportunity to ask game fans for their opinions, and when I ask them about the time lag, they say that selling the PC version two or three years after the release of the PS version is accepted favorably,” Ryan said.
PlayStation started to regularly port its first-party games to PC a couple of years ago. For these purposes, the company also acquired porting studio Nixxes Software and launched the PlayStation PC label.
Sony last updated the sales figures for its PC game releases last year. As of May 26, 2022, Horizon Zero Dawn is the company’s highest-grossing title on the platform, with 2.3 million copies sold and $60 million in lifetime revenue. It is followed by Days Gone (825k units sold, $22.7 million in revenue) and God of War (971k units sold and $26.2 million in revenue).
In that document, PlayStation also noted that it expected to make $300 million from the sales of PC versions during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 — compared to $80 million and $35 million in the two previous years.