Sony Interactive Entertainment added another major studio to its lineup of first-party teams yesterday. Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games is in the process of joining PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios. That deal is part of building Sony’s list of PlayStation exclusives. But Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden revealed that the company is also seriously considering expanding the availability of some of its games beyond just PlayStation platforms.
“We must support the PlayStation platform — that is nonnegotiable,” Layden said 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.”
This likely doesn’t mean you are going to see God of War on the Epic Games Store any time soon. As Layden says, the company still sees exclusives as crucial. And the Bloomberg story notes that Layden is talking about multiplayer games on PC. So also don’t expect to see the next Killzone on Xbox.
What PlayStation exclusives may go to PC?
Sony multiplayer games on PlayStation, PC, and mobile devices make a lot of sense. Fortnite has found massive success through ubiquitous availability and the free-to-play business model. And while tens of millions of people may end up owning a PlayStation 5, multiplayer gamers that run as a live-service require as large of an audience as possible.
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And it’s not like this would hurt PlayStation hardware. Sony recently surpassed more than 100 million PS4s shipped. And it has done that while primarily launching single-player first-party games. Multiplayer games like NBA 2K, Fortnite, and Apex Legends do well on the system even though they are available everywhere.
But all that said, I hope that Sony also brings its community-powered Dreams game to PC. This is all about building and sharing creations using a powerful set of tools, and it seems perfect for the PC. Right now, it is available as an early beta. It will launch in full on PS4 before the end of the year.
