Sony Finally Speaks on PC Cancellations, Wants to Enhance Value of PS5 – Push Square

Sony speaks so little in the public domain that we only know about its decision to step away from PC because of reporting from Bloomberg’s always-reliable Jason Schreier.

This strategy change has been communicated to employees internally, but the company rarely conducts interviews, and so it hasn’t had an opportunity to comment on it publicly yet.

However, as mentioned earlier today, Japanese magazine Famitsu landed an interview with PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.

As part of that, the legendary publication asked the executive about its decision to cease bringing first-party single player games to storefronts like Steam.

Here’s his response in full, as translated by ChatGPT:

“Platform selection has always been determined based on the characteristics of each individual title. If releasing a game on PC allows us to maximise the value of that game’s experience, we will continue to consider it.

As our primary policy at present, for first-party single player games we intend to further refine and enhance the unique value of the gameplay experience that can be delivered on PlayStation.

On the other hand, for live service games, we believe it is important to enable as many people as possible to play through online multiplayer, and so we will continue to regard releases on both PS5 and PC as the basic approach.

Regardless of which platform a title is released on, our decisions will be guided by the principle that players should receive the best possible experience – one that maximises the strengths of that particular game.”

It’s nothing really we don’t know, although I do think there are a few important takeaways here:

• Nishino’s wording is very careful, never actually ruling out PC ports of any of its games. He says with its first-party single player games it wants to “enhance the unique value of the gameplay experience that can be delivered on PlayStation”, which implies exclusivity but doesn’t outright commit to it.
• I think it’s also very important that he mentions “first-party” games here. As expected, this opens the door for second-party single player games, like Kena: Scars of Kosmora and Physint, to still release on the PC. It’s not unexpected, of course, but worth noting.
• Moving forward, it sounds like virtually all Sony’s online multiplayer games will release on the PC, as it looks to broaden the audience of those communities. He actually doesn’t rule out the potential of porting those titles to other platforms either, like Helldivers 2, which eventually deployed on Xbox.

So we’re not learning a whole lot new here, although I do find Nishino’s surgically precise wording fascinating. He doesn’t actually officially rule out anything, and his non-committal response is reflective of someone who’s done a lot of media training.

For the time being, it seems that games like Ghost of Yotei and God of War Laufey will remain on the PS5 only – but seeing as Sony has said so little about this publicly, it does feel like it could pivot its approach at any time without any real contradictions.