Playstation Doubles Down on Ditching PC in New PS5 Video - Polygon.com
Sony published Helldivers (the first one) on Steam and PlayStation in 2015. The PlayStation maker is also catching flak after announcing it will stop creating physical discs for its games in January 2028. PlayStation hits like God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man don't replicate that success on Steam
'Only On PS5' is doing a lot for Sony
After a brief foray into PC gaming, Sony is signaling its retreat from the platform. The PlayStation maker posted a video on its official channel on Monday titled “Only On PS5.” The 30-second montage shows footage from previously released PlayStation 5 console exclusives like Saros, Astro Bot, Gran Turismo 7, and Ghost of Yotei, alongside clips from upcoming games such as God of War Laufey and Marvel’s Wolverine.
“These moments don’t happen anywhere else, so come and make the unthinkable happen, only on PS5,” the narrator says, reaffirming that these six games won't be coming to PC.
In May, Bloomberg reported that, going forward, PlayStation Studios' narrative single-player games will be PlayStation-exclusive, reportedly because these titles haven’t been selling as expected. Sony published Helldivers (the first one) on Steam and PlayStation in 2015. Since then, it has released over 20 games on the platform, including The Last of Us duology, the recent God of War games, Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Ghost of Tsushima.
Previous rumors suggested that other games, like Gran Turismo 7, might eventually make their way to Steam, but that no longer seems likely.Sony's most recent Steam release was Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a port that drew heavy criticism for poor optimization and numerous technical issues. If that’s the company’s final PC release for a while, it’s a bad note to go out on.
Sony’s doubling down on its own system comes at a time when game consoles are less affordable than ever. The company raised the price of the PS5 due to an ongoing memory shortage, bringing the base edition up to $649.99, $150 more than it cost at launch six years ago.
The PlayStation maker is also catching flak after announcing it will stop creating physical discs for its games in January 2028. This has caused backlash because, unlike buying a disc, purchasing a digital game doesn't technically mean that you “own” it. Instead, you are purchasing a license to play them. A few months ago, Sony unceremoniously removed several hundred films from the PlayStation Network that users had paid for because their licenses were expiring. Meanwhile, the Sony-owned Crunchyroll removed the vast majority of physical media from its store. The company isn’t exactly in many players’ good graces right now, and the apparent end of its PC ports certainly won't help.
PlayStation hits like God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man don't replicate that success on Steam