Sony has reportedly pulled back from PC gaming to such an extent that its big single-player PlayStation games will remain exclusive to the PS5, marking a significant strategy shift. And while it was speculated that one of the reasons Sony made the decision was to avoid PlayStation games showing up on the next-gen Xbox, which plays PC games as well as Xbox games, one developer at a studio Sony just shut down has another idea.
Peter Dalton, Head of Technology at Bluepoint Games, took to social media to say a “more interesting possibility” is that Sony is responding to the rise of a Steam-based console ecosystem, aka the recently announced and subsequently delayed Steam Machine.
“Consoles largely exist because they provide a cheaper, simpler alternative to gaming PCs,” Dalton said. “For most households, a dedicated gaming console is easier to justify than building or maintaining a high-end PC.
“However, if Valve releases a new Steam console that provides a console-like experience while still giving players access to the entire PC game library, that could become a very compelling option. In that scenario, if Sony were releasing all of its games day-and-date on PC, the Steam console could effectively offer the best of all worlds: console simplicity with the full breadth of PC gaming.
“It would be quite ironic if, after decades of traditional console competition, Valve ultimately ended up winning the console war.”
The question is, when will Valve actually release Steam Machine, and at what price? Valve recently suggested Steam Machine may not launch until 2027, but walked that back by saying it still intends to release the hardware this year. As for the price, Valve has yet to say, but the company faces an uphill battle keeping Steam Machine relatively cheap due to the AI obsession causing PC hardware to spike in price.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg suggested poor recent sales of PlayStation games on PC and the risk to the PlayStation brand, as well as a potential impact on PS5 and maybe even PS6 sales, were to blame for Sony’s policy shift. But it also suggested the prospect of PlayStation games running on the next Xbox may have encouraged Sony’s return to console exclusives.
Sony has in recent years expanded PlayStation to PC, but refrained from going as far as Microsoft, which releases all its games on PC at the same time as console. Sony, however, has employed a staggered approach, releasing its single-player PlayStation games on PC after a period of console exclusivity. When it comes to live service games like Helldivers 2 it’s a different story, with Sony publishing on PC day-one — and in the case of Arrowhead’s third-person action game, to record-breaking success. Indeed, Sony-owned Bungie launched live service extraction shooter Marathon across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S at the same time. The upshot of this is Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei and Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine will not release on PC, but remain PS5 exclusives.
But because some big single-player PlayStation games are already on Steam, then the next Xbox will potentially play the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima. All these games will of course be playable on Steam Machine when it eventually comes out.
As for Bluepoint, the studio behind the remakes of both Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, roughly 70 employees are going to be impacted by the closure when it officially occurs this month.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
