PlayStation maker Sony has historically attracted players to its consoles by releasing its first-party, high-profile single player games exclusively on its systems, though throughout the last several years, it's been bringing them to PC via Steam months or years after their initial launch as well. Now, however, it appears the firm's time releasing titles on PC has come to an end.
According to a new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst told the gaming brand's employees that Sony will no longer publish any of its single player games on PC in a meeting on Monday, meaning that they'll now be completely exclusive to the PS5 and future console systems.
Notably, this news comes after an earlier report from Schreier in March in which he revealed that his sources informed him PlayStation would be moving away from PC releases. Though there were plans to bring games like 2025's Ghost of Yotei to Steam, they were reportedly axed as Sony decided to shift back to complete console exclusivity.
The only games exempt from this new policy will be multiplayer titles such as Marathon or Helldivers 2 — games that benefit greatly from being as accessible as possible, and stand to rake in the most profit from being widely available. Sony could still make new multiplayer games PlayStation exclusive, but I'd say it's unlikely after the success of Helldivers 2 on Xbox and PC.
It's speculated that Sony may be abandoning the creation of post-launch PC ports due to poor sales on Steam, and also because some at PlayStation feel releasing the brand's first-party exclusives on PC weakens it and gives people less of a reason to buy PlayStation consoles. The fact Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" Xbox system is said to be a console/PC hybrid is also likely a factor, as Sony wouldn't want its games to be playable on Xbox hardware.
Assuming this new report is accurate, it puts Xbox in a bit of an interesting position. It's grown to become a major multiplatform publisher in recent years, with its own first-party games releasing on PC on day one and nearly all of them coming to PS5 either at launch or at a later date, too. But if you can get Xbox games anywhere and can only get PlayStation games on PS5, why bother getting an Xbox console?
Helix's value proposition is offering players the plug-and-play simplicity of console gaming with the unrivaled catalog and Windows flexibility of PC, but is that enough? Ultimately, I'd argue it's probably not, especially since exclusives are the "number one reason" someone decides to play on a specific machine. Notably, exclusives are also the number one topic in the new Xbox Player Voice forum.
Given that Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma wants to strengthen the brand's hardware performance as part of a plan to make Xbox "where the world plays," I expect she wants to bring back single player Xbox exclusives, and might even take them off Steam to release them on PC exclusively through the Xbox on PC app. We know she's evaluating the potential return of exclusives carefully, after all.
But will Microsoft let her? As the firm aggressively pursues a 30% profit margin and tech manufacturers struggle worldwide to keep systems in stock amidst the ongoing AI-driven memory crisis, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw it prioritize short-term revenue over long-term brand health and make every new Xbox game available on Steam and PlayStation as well.
In the end, only time will tell. But Sony's shift away from Steam and PC undoubtedly puts some pressure on Xbox, and it will be interesting to see if some changes come in response.
Are you sad to hear that new PlayStation exclusives won't come to PC? Do you believe Xbox needs to bring its own exclusive games back in order to succeed? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.
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