The so-called The exclusivity of games, understood as the ability to play them only on a selected platform, has for a long time defined what has gone down in history as the “console war”. PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo competed with each other for the best titles available only on their devices, trying to convince customers to buy their device. The last few generations of consoles were based on this concept, but with the start of the current one, both Microsoft and Sony began to slowly move away from it. Increasingly, brands associated with Xbox and PlayStation were also released on competitive ecosystems, or at least in PC versions, which in theory did not pose a direct threat due to a different target group.
Bloomberg, through the mouth of Jason Schrier, recognized in the industry and associated with the agency for several years, reported that although both companies had actually given up their exclusive titles for a long time, PlayStation authorities changed their mind on this matter. Although Microsoft and Xbox themselves remain on the multiplatform path (this is confirmed by the recently announced Project Helix), their main rival on the console market will most likely return to the practices used in past decades.
This in practice means that titles aimed at a single player and created within PlayStation Studios are to be only available on PlayStation 5 and potentially PlayStation 6. Online titles such as the 2024 hit Helldivers 2 or the recently debuted Marathon are excluded from this strategy, but they were not the hallmark of this brand, but series such as God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us or Horizon.
Although the versions of games that have already been made available on PC will, of course, remain available there, work on subsequent ports (this is the industry nomenclature for versions transferred to another platform) has been suspended until further notice. In practice, this means that one of the best games of last year – Ghost of Yotei, as well as other large, upcoming PlayStation productions, such as Saros, Marvel's Wolverine or Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, will not be available on PC. Neither at the premiere nor later.
As Bloomberg reports, Sony's decisions were said to be due to concerns about the brand's image, sales of subsequent consoles, and not entirely satisfactory results PC versions, which did not always bring the expected profit. Here, the weakest results were probably recorded by games such as Returnal, Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank, which, according to publicly available data from the Steam platform, generated the least interest among players.
It is possible that the current situation on the component market also influenced the change in the PlayStation strategy. It (and the confusion over customs duties) recently forced Sony to raise the prices of consoles and services, as well as to change plans regarding the launch of PlayStation 6. Due to the latter, PS5 debuting in 2020, will be the leading device in Sony's portfolio not for the expected 6-7 years, but perhaps even for a decade. This completely changes the console's role in the ecosystem and its earning prospects.
Combined with the upcoming premiere of GTA 6, the announcement of Project Helix, as well as the very strong results of Nintendo, which has been consistently focusing on exclusivity for years, Sony's decision seems to be very rational from a business and image perspective. However, this has obviously caused outrage among people who are unable to buy several gaming devices at the same time. However, PlayStation is certainly aware that the decision may deprive them of some customers interested in their productions on PC, and yet – it was decided to go in this direction. Internal estimates and calculations must have clearly indicated that this is a more financially secure path that will enable the company to meet its budget assumptions in the coming years.
PlayStation declined to comment on this matter.
