Shawn Layden, former President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment of America, has voiced his perspective on PlayStation's past PC strategy, asserting that its primary goal was not immediate profit but rather broadening the reach of its intellectual properties.
Speaking on the YouTube channel PSI, Layden elaborated on the value of exclusives while acknowledging the benefit of later releasing games on PC. He stated that the expansion to PC was intended to introduce PlayStation's IPs to audiences outside the existing console ecosystem. This move gained particular importance as Sony began planning adaptations of its franchises into films and television shows, necessitating a wider awareness of its characters and stories.
"The PC thing, in my mind at the time, was not to make money, frankly," Layden explained. "It was, 'How do I get my intellectual property in front of people who wouldn't normally see it? How do I get the world of Horizon to be seen by people who aren't in the PlayStation world?' Not necessarily because they're going to buy a PlayStation, I wasn't that crazy. But as we take our [IP] across other media, whether it's into film, television, comic books, or whatever... you need to have as many eyeballs that are aware of this character [and] this story."
He further noted that players who purchased these games on PC were unlikely to have otherwise bought a PlayStation console, especially given the significant time lag between a game's console release and its PC port. "If someone's waiting 18 months for something to come on PC, we didn't lose a sale to them. They weren't going to buy the hardware anyway," Layden stated.
This perspective emerges amidst reports suggesting that PlayStation is scaling back its multiplatform releases for narrative-driven single-player games, potentially foregoing PC releases for titles like Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey. The company's reported new approach favors using the PC platform primarily for live-service titles.
While PC versions of PlayStation games may not have consistently topped sales charts, they did succeed in exposing these titles to new audiences. However, in an environment focused on cost reduction, this strategy may be considered a luxury Sony is no longer willing to afford.