Ex-Sony Exec Says PC Ports of Old PS5 Games Are Almost Like Printing Money | Push Square
Sony has bringing many of its older games to PC, and some PlayStation fans have been wondering why.
While initial ports like Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War sold relatively well, the novelty has been declining, with recent release Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 performing particularly poorly. To be fair, that one did launch with major issues.
Speaking in an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (paywalled), Shuhei Yoshida explained that during his tenure as PS Studios boss, he pushed to bring more first-party titles to PC, but this wasn’t Sony’s business model at the time.
He noted that as the company’s perspective has matured, it’s started to realise the potential of releasing on storefronts such as Steam.
He explained: “Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular. The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation.”
He continued: “It also adds additional income, because porting to PC is way cheaper than creating an original title. So, it’s almost like printing money. And that helps us to invest in new titles now that the cost of games has increased.”
Later in the interview, Yoshida said that in some countries, the PC market is preferred to consoles, and so it’s almost impossible to find success without hitting the platform.
“China is a huge PC game market,” he pointed out. “And China is a growing but very small console market. In order to reach the audience in countries like China then it’s crucial to release on PC. So, I believe PC versions really reach a new audience.”
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But some fans feel that Sony is diluting PlayStation’s appeal by releasing on PC – after all, why would you bother owning a PS5 if you can play all the games on Steam? Yoshida noted that many games launch years later on PC,
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