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PlayStation exclusives “may lean to a wider installed base” says Sony studio chairman

The chairman of Sony game studios has said that some first-party Sony exclusives may launch on non-Sony platforms

Sony PS5

Shawn Layden, the chairman of Sony game studios, has said that some first-party Sony exclusives – particularly multiplayer titles – may be distributed beyond its own consoles. Could this mean a handful of Sony’s award-winning titles are heading to PC? Potentially, although I wouldn’t get your hopes up for any of today’s famed Sony titles coming to desktop hardware anytime soon.

The PlayStation 4 has a large library of exclusive titles, all made to order by any one of Sony Interactive Entertainment Studios’ (SIE) 14 game developers worldwide. But in a world where Microsoft is opening the doors to PC players on Windows, buying up studios faster than you can say ‘capitalism’, and Fortnite is still making Epic a killing as a multi-platform free-to-play, Sony may be starting to feel the pressure to reach out to larger install bases.

“We must support the PlayStation platform – that is nonnegotiable,” says Layden in an interview with Bloomberg. “That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base.”

Some of Sony’s most famed exclusives include God of War, The Last of Us, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last Guardian. Yet, as Layden says, these are unlikely to be the titles that get a little cross-platform love. Rather, it’s future multiplayer titles, which Sony has expressed it wants to develop more of, that the company will be hoping to use to capture the wider market.

Games developed for PS4 have occasionally made their way to PC in the past. One such title was Street Fighter V, which featured crossplay between PS4 and PC.

Microsoft has similarly shifted away from Xbox-only exclusives with its Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass for PC services. These allow some of its most recognised Xbox exclusives to be bought and played across both both its own console kit and Windows PCs.

Quantic Dream’s famed PlayStation exclusives, such as Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, were recently announced for the Epic Game Store after it was announced that the studio was no longer tied into exclusivity with publishers Sony.

Sony also announced last night that it will be purchasing Insomniac Games, the developers of PlayStation exclusives such as Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spyro the Dragon.