Hopeful PC gamers The spirit of Yotei at some point in the future you will have to stay positive. Sony is reportedly ending its plans to bring PlayStation exclusives to PC, although it hasn’t given a reason why.
Sony will no longer be able to ship its PlayStation exclusively to the PC, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The company hasn’t given any reasons why it will stop releasing its PC games, but the report says it may change its stance in the future.
Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why did Sony change its mind on porting its games to PC?
The most likely reason to change strategy is the lack of global memory.
Rising RAM prices have caused hardware manufacturers to rethink their strategies in recent months. Sony reportedly delayed it PlayStation 6 is released in 2029 due to shortages, which means the life cycle of the PS5 will last nine years instead of the seven-year cycles of the PS3 and PS4. A longer life cycle will require Sony to sell more PS5 consoles, and an exclusive could help, especially as its competitors shift their focus.
Asha Shar, the new boss of Xbox, confirmed on Thursday that the next Xbox console, called Project Helix, will play PC games as well as Xbox games. This will disrupt Sony’s exclusivity strategy. Again, Valve is set to release its own The Steam Machine later this year after being delayed due to shortages. This new hardware will only play PC games, but it is designed to be set up in the living room, connected to the TV. This puts the Steam machine in direct competition with the PS5.
Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine will make it easy to play PC games on your living room TV.
Video games as a whole are also facing changing consumer demand, according to a new industry analysis by Epyllion. Money normally earmarked for video games is now being spent on other things, such as gambling, crypto and pornography.
Recent sales data also shows that PlayStation exclusives were not selling well on PC, GameIndustry.biz reports. Since Sony delayed the exclusive PC release for a few years, the sales of those titles are not that strong, suggesting that the interest in those games was already satisfied when they came out on PlayStation.
There may be other factors that Sony considered when making this decision, but it is clear that the current state of the hardware market and the changing demands of players are the reason for this change in the system.
Watch this: RAM Shortage Could Mean Higher Prices for PC Gamers This Year
What PlayStation exclusive did Sony put on the PC?
The first PlayStation exclusive to make the jump to PC was Horizon Zero Dawn back in 2020. Other games followed, usually years after they were first released on the PlayStation, with the exception of Helldivers 2, which was released on both platforms at the same time. This includes:
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Days Gone
- Unknown: Legacy of Thieves
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Returning
- Helldivers 2
- The Last of Us Part 1
- The Last of Us Part 2
- God of War
- God of War Ragnarök
- The wind of Tsushima
What are the last PlayStation games to come to PC?
Marathon was released for PC on Thursday, and while it’s not thought of as a PlayStation exclusive, it was developed by Bungie, which is owned by Sony. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a Sony-published game developed by Arc System Works, and is set to be released on PS5 and PC.
