Highlights
- PlayStation's PC strategy includes day one releases for live-service games, like Helldivers 2, but single-player titles will stay exclusive to consoles.
- The company's acquisition of Nixxes has led to a significant growth in its first-party library on PC, with more titles being ported faster.
- PlayStation's co-CEO clarified that while live-service games will release simultaneously on PS5 and PC, single-player games will follow a different strategy.
PlayStation has reaffirmed its PC strategy, stating that its first-party live-service titles will launch "day and date" on PC alongside PS5. The company first revealed this back in 2022, but the PlayStation PC initiative has seen a significant amount of growth and success since then, leading many to fear that it could skew its exclusivity strategy towards PC across its entire slate of future games.
PlayStation kicked off its PC publishing initiative with the Horizon Zero Dawn PC port in 2020. It suffered a rocky start on account of technical issues, but was consistently patched to an acceptable standard. Four years later, the company's first-party library on PC has grown exponentially, thanks to PlayStation acquiring Nixxes in 2021 to expedite the porting process. Usually, the company has maintained a near two-year stagger between console and PC releases, but Helldivers 2 was the first simultaneous PC and PS5 release and went on to become the fastest-selling PlayStation first-party release.
Helldivers 2 Hits Impressive Sales Milestone
The smash hit live-service game Helldivers 2 reveals that it is experiencing exceptionally high sales numbers just a few months after launch.
Although PlayStation confirmed day one PC releases for live-service games back in 2022, and Helldivers 2 fit this criterion exactly, many speculated that the game's success as a simultaneous release may sway PlayStation into doing the same for its single-player games. Thankfully, PlayStation co-CEO Hermen Hulst clarified the company's PC plans during a recent Sony corporate strategy meeting, stating that it will follow a "dual approach" for releasing its titles on the platform. "On the live service side we are releasing our titlessimultaneously, so day and date, on PlayStation 5 and PC," affirmed Hulst.
PlayStation's Defining Single-player Titles Won't Follow the Same Strategy
However, for PlayStation's tentpole single-player games, Hulst said that the company will take a "more strategic approach," in that it plans to introduce its franchises to "new audiences" via the PC initiative and potentially get them to invest in a PlayStation console to play their sequels. In other words, Hulst confirmed that single-player games will indeed be launched exclusively on PlayStation consoles first and then make their way to PC in subsequent years. The co-CEO also endorsed the effect of film and TV adaptations like HBO's The Last of Us on bringing more players into the PlayStation ecosystem.
With this confirmation, PlayStation fans can rest easy knowing the brand's big first-party single-player titles will continue to define their console experience in the years to come. However, there's some nuance to the above that remains a bit hazy, specifically remasters and remakes of past single-player games on PS5. Until Dawn's remake is the most recent example of this, as it's slated for a simultaneous PC and PS5 release despite being a single-player title. On the flip side, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered launched exclusively on PS5 earlier this year, and while it's most likely headed for a PC release sometime in the future, the unpredictability with remasters and remakes is still perplexing.
