Releasing PlayStation games on PC years after console version "acceptable" to fans, Sony exec claims
Are you Thor about that?
PlayStation head Jim Ryan believes Sony's current strategy of releasing games on PC several years after their console launch is working well, and fans find the extra wait for a PC port "acceptable".
Chatting to Famitsu (via IGN), Ryan said Sony understood "the importance of PS5 exclusive titles" such as last year's God of War Ragnarök, and as such dismissed the idea of launching games on PC at the same time as their console counterparts. "PlayStation Studios' main responsibility is to make games for the latest PlayStation hardware that players will enjoy," Ryan explained. He went on to state the company is increasing its PS5 exclusives and "staggering the release of the PC versions".
This comment from Ryan echoes those of PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst, who previously stated that the company's first-party releases will likely take "at least a year" to launch on PC, with the possible exception of live-service games.
Ryan continued: "I often have the opportunity to ask game fans for their opinions, and when I ask them how they feel about the time lag, they often say they feel the release of a PC version two or three years after the release of the PlayStation version is acceptable."
Last year Sony said it expects PC and mobile games to make up almost half of PlayStation's overall game releases by 2025, but it is clearly fair to say these will not be day one releases.
In recent years, Sony has ported several of its console exclusives over to PC. These have included the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection and Days Gone.
Some of these ports have had a better reception than others. Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, for example, both received praise from Digital Foundry on their PC release.
On the flip side, the likes of The Last of Us Part 1 failed to wow, with Alex Battaglia recently noting this PC port arrived "in a pretty desperate state" back in March.
Other Sony titles, meanwhile, have failed to make any real impact at all on their PC release, with Sackboy: A Big Adventure's all time concurrent player peak on Steam still sitting at a rather dismal 610.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Ryan touched more on the PSVR2's launch. He stated that it is still "a little too early to judge" the headset's popularity, but that reactions so far have been "positive". The exec also said there will be many more games coming to Sony's latest VR this year "and beyond".
"We will continue to push forward so that those who purchase PS VR2 can enjoy it for a long time and we can also secure profits," Ryan told the publication, sharing that his favourite VR2 title is upcoming release Beat Saber.Earlier this year, a report claimed Sony had slashed its planned PlayStation VR2 shipments in response to disappointing pre-order numbers. This, the company told Eurogamer, was not true, and Sony remained optimistic about its VR future.
Sony has a PlayStation showcase scheduled for later this week. This show will last for an hour and focus on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2 games from PlayStation Studios, third-party partners, and indie creators from around the world, so we can expect to hear more then.