PlayStation’s PC Expansion: Is Simultaneous Release the Future?

In recent years, Sony has increasingly focused on the PC platform, porting more PlayStation exclusives to PCs to maximize profits and better distribute production costs. This strategy has proven effective, with titles like “Helldivers 2,” “Ghost of Tsushima,” and “Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition” achieving success on PC this year.

Many players view this multi-platform strategy as inevitable, anticipating Sony will allocate more resources to the PC platform, making simultaneous multi-platform releases for PlayStation exclusives a norm. However, SIE Co-CEO Hermen Hulst, in a recent interview during the 2024 Sony Games and Network Services business meeting, addressed this perception.

Hermen Hulst clarified that Sony maintains its original game release strategy on the PC platform, with single-player narrative games not launching simultaneously on PC. This approach is intended to showcase the allure of PlayStation exclusives, encouraging PC players to purchase a PlayStation 5 to experience new series entries sooner. Adaptations like “The Last of Us” series also aim to support the PlayStation ecosystem.

For live-service titles, Sony employs a different strategy, releasing these games on the PC platform simultaneously with the PlayStation launch. “Helldivers 2” exemplifies this success, with sales surpassing 12 million copies within 12 weeks of release, making it Sony’s fastest-selling first-party game, far exceeding internal expectations.

Additionally, Hermen Hulst revealed that the PlayStation 5 has become Sony’s most profitable console to date, generating $10 billion in operating profit over four years, with a user base comparable to the PlayStation 4. In contrast, the first-generation console earned $3 billion, the second $2 billion, the third incurred a $4 billion loss, and the fourth generated $9 billion in the same timeframe.