God of War director Cory Barlog has revealed that it was Sony’s first-party studios that were pushing the company to release PlayStation games on PC, and the powers that be ultimately reached a “tipping point” where they agreed to go ahead.
Speaking to Game Informer, Barlog said that PlayStation Studios collectively sent “so many suggestion box suggestions” that someone higher up at Sony decided, “I’m tired of hearing all this. Fine, we’ll do this.” However, both the management and developers are still coming to grips with the process of porting PlayStation exclusives over to PC, and figuring out a strategy for doing so.
Why do Sony devs want to release PlayStation games on PC?
Contrary to popular belief, releasing PlayStation games on PC does not impact console sales, and Santa Monica Studio’s Matt DeWald confirmed as much to Game Informer. “We’ve sold almost 20 million, like 19.5 million copies [of God of War] on console,” he said. “There are still people out there that have never played it, and if they haven’t played it on console by now, they’re probably not going to play it on console.”
DeWald and Barlog said that releasing PlayStation exclusives on PC opens up developers’ work to a whole new audience, which is exciting for studios.
Opinion: PlayStation games on PC will benefit Sony
Zarmena writes… DeWald hit the nail on the head when he said that anyone who hasn’t played God of War by now is unlikely to purchase a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 to play it. Sony isn’t in direct competition with PC and it’s only a fanboy theory that gatekeeping PlayStation exclusives somehow benefits Sony or console players. It doesn’t. What benefits Sony is introducing its franchises to a broader audience. For developers, it’s undoubtedly exciting to see new players enjoying their labor of love, and I hope we see more PlayStation exclusives on PC going forward.
In other news, God of War‘s PC port has actually helped Ragnarok‘s development, and Dying Light 2 won’t have cross-play at launch.
[Source: Game Informer]
