PlayStation to Wait 'At Least a Year' Before Releasing Games on PC, Except for Live Service Titles - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 October 2022 / 4,529 Views
PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst in an interview with Julien Chieze on YouTube discussed Sony Interactive Entertainment's plans on releasing its PlayStation games on PC.
The plan is to wait at least a year after a first-party game releases on PlayStation consoles before the game were to launch on PC. The exception would be live services that could see a day and date release on PlayStation and PC.
"I think going forward we'll see at least a year between releases on our own platform, PlayStation, and on the PC platform." Hulst said. "Possibly with the exception of live service games.
"Live service games are a little bit different in nature because you want to have a really strong community, really strong engagement right away. Right when you go live. So we might in the case of our live service offerings go day and date with PC and the PlayStation platform."
Sony Interactive Entertainment has released God of War (2018), Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Days Gone, and Horizon Zero Dawn on PC.
Confirmed PlayStation games coming soon to PC includes Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The Last of Us Part I, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
At least we got confirmation of what we were all speculating. I figured Uncharted Collection and The Last of Us Part I were exceptions to the rule since they were previously released games.
If it means the PC versions have time for all the PC bells and whistles rather than being lazy direct ports then I'm all for it.
And don't forget that the extra time can also mean getting the complete edition of those games, without having to buy extra DLCs.
That is a lot shorter than expected, let's see how that will impact the sales of the PS console and games.
I doubt it will have a significant effect on how well the games sell on PS and it definitely won't affect console sales for years to come since supply will be the deciding factor.
And that is the data that Sony wants to use to validate their strategy for when to release the ports. If it have zero effect (or close to it) they may make most a 1 year or even progress to day one next gen.
As a PC gamer, I have little problem with this. They have their own platform to look out for and I'm not so entitled that I expect them to ignore their own interests completely. There are enough games out there that I can survive a year. And, as others have said, it's kind of a positive not needing to wait for DLC to drop.
That's their current policy, not a promise of what they'll do forever. Let's not forget that their policy has shifted from:
- no first-party games on PC
- release 2+ year old titles on PC
-
release titles on PC as soon as 1 year after PS release
The trend-line seems pretty clear to me, so we'll see how long this policy lasts.
Poor form Sony.
Still better than Nintendo who is literally platform exclusive though.
But far short of being Pro-Consumer (Which is ironic) like Microsoft with day 0 aligned launches.
Solid strategy. It's important to keep those live service games populated as much as possible.
All you Ps gamers that kept saying your going to go to PC if Sony kept up with releasing their games on PC might as well now. I mean look how many Xbox gamers became PC only gamers after MS done the same :-D :-D . And in case you didnt know this is called sarcasm :-D :-D
BTW the ones who said they would same with Ms remember your nothing to them console makers other then a small piece of a large pool who will never go to pc. In other words you mean nothing so i hope you uinderstand now Sony gamers all them times you said it would be the end of xbox, this means nothing.
Yup, going Full PC is very likely for me. Xbox Just needs to make some good games, so far they don't have a single exclusive that appeal to me, and i Will jump in PC only.
So it went from 2-3 year old titles to 1 year old titles. Just you watch, next will be 6 month wait then day and date.
I don't think that would make a lot of sense considering Sony's strategy. They have more of an incentive to grow their platform userbase than Microsoft. And we've seen them leverage timed exclusivity even for third party games to that end in recent times, even if the only other platform is PC (Final Fantasy 7). That titles took several years to get a PC port initially makes sense because the titles they chose when first deciding to try PC posts were obviously older game. But once PC ports proved to be lucrative, they had to decide on what to do with brand new titles.
You have been saying day 1 since the start of the gen and we are already several years into it and what you get is AT LEAST 1 year.
We are 7 years into this gen?. I mean you have to see i have been some kind of right, even yourself used to say games wouldnt come till at least 2-3 years after the PS5 ports.
And there haven't been any major title that released before 3 years have it? And you were saying they would be day 1 since even before the gen was starting, and now is saying that in the next 6 months it will go to day and date.
Id like you to point out where i said they would be day 1 before this gen started if you could. First i never once said PS5 games would be day and date before this gen started. However what i did start saying when Sony started porting their games to PC was its only a matter of time before that time gets shorter and eventually will move to day and date. I still stand by what i said as so far i been right. As we can already see here now Sony games will wait at least a year before being ported to PC. So i wasnt wrong, But i still dont know where you are getting this 7 years of me saying this from. Also i never said in 6 months they will go day and date. Reread what i wrote.
So lemme get this straight, you want to grow a community fast and retain it asap when it comes to live service games, yet you don't want to do the same for any other game you release on PC?.
That hardly makes sense, because both are designed primarily to sell and make money, money is always ultimately the end goal of these companies, so wanting that day 1 money should really be your priority for all the games you wish to sell.
Also with the way I have to wait a year and am expected to pay £65, it makes me simply want to wait another year, meaning less money from me over a 2yr wait period. You could easily get me hooked if you changed your age-old way of doing things, Sony.
Because right now they essentially get 2 launches out of their games. If they're happy with the current performance of their PC releases, then their strategy makes sense for them.
As for live service games, getting max exposure early on is almost a prerequisite . Anything else is just an uphill battle, and even having max audience day 1 is no guarantee of anything.
