PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan was interviewed by Famitsu recently, where he was asked about the company's strategy around porting exclusives to PC. After launching Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam in 2020, Sony has since ported eight other PlayStation’s exclusive to PC, including Returnal, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Uncharted 4, and Day’s Gone. Each of these games were ported to PC two to three years after their PlayStation debut, a gap Ryan says Sony plans to maintain with future ports.
In a quote translated by IGN Japan, Ryan said, “PlayStation Studios’ main responsibility is to make games for the latest PlayStation hardware that players will enjoy. We are increasing the number of PS5 exclusive games, and staggering the release of the PC versions.” Though disappointing, this isn’t unexpected. Sony has had a lot of success with its PC ports so far, and it makes sense it would want to continue driving players to PlayStation consoles with its latest first party releases. What struck me as odd about Ryan’s statement was what he said next:
“I often have the opportunity to ask game fans for their opinions, and when I ask them how they feel about the time lag, they often say they feel the release of a PC version two or three years after the release of the PlayStation version is acceptable.”
I can’t figure out why Ryan thought it was important to add that, actually, gamers enjoy waiting three years to play our games on PC. There’s a lot of reasonable justification for staggering PC releases already. As I mentioned before, Ryan says specifically that Sony’s priority is developing games that add value to the PlayStation, and simultaneous PC releases do make some people (losers) feel like their consoles are less valuable.
Developing multiplatform games is much more difficult than focusing on a single platform, and optimizing for PC is especially difficult given the infinite number of variables in hardware. It’s exceedingly common for the PC version of multiplatform games to have a lot more problems than the console version, with Jedi: Survivor being the most recent example. The delay gives the developer lots of time to polish the port and ensure they’re the best quality they can be, which has paid off for Sony so far in every case except for The Last of Us Part 1. The port is also the game with the shortest gap between console and PC launches - they were only six months apart.
I understand the business reasons for why PC players have to wait, but I don’t see any reason why this is also what’s best for the players. It stands to reason that people would much rather play new games now rather than in three years time, or at least have the option to. Other companies with far fewer resources than Sony manage to launch games on console and PC simultaneously without issue, so I’m confident Sony could release games on PC and PlayStation at the same time, which would be in the best interest of its players. But here Ryan makes the claim that, actually, game fans are fine with waiting, and I have to wonder, which game fans has Ryan been talking to?
I’m a game fan, and if he had asked me, I would have said no, launching day-and-date on PC would be much better for me. I’ve played every PlayStation game Sony has released on PC and everyone (barring TLOU) has been a far better experience on my computer. Performance is much higher, frames rates are much smoother, and I get to play in stunning super ultrawide, which makes games like Horizon and Spider-Man more immersive than ever. As someone who has invested a lot on my gaming PC, the PS5 experience is, frankly, inferior. It’s not in my best interest to play games on PS5 that I could play on PC. If I had a choice, I’d choose PC everytime. I find it hard to believe that PC players told him they’re okay with waiting three years to play PlayStation games, because I’m certainly not.
I also don’t think he asked any game fans with disabilities. As game journalist and accessibility advocate Grant Stoner points out, a lot of disabled players may not have the option to play games on PlayStation. PC offers a lot more flexibility for those that require custom setups, and I’m certain those players don’t want to wait three years to play the hot new PlayStation game - but I guess Ryan didn’t ask those game fans either.
I’m not sure which game fans Ryan is asking to weigh in on this, but I have a couple of guesses. Every time a PlayStation exclusive makes its way to PC, there’s always a few PlayStation fanboys who fly into a rage over it on social media. These people think ports devalue their PlayStations. They get mad if people on other platforms are allowed to play PlayStation games because they want to feel like they’re in a special little club with 32 million other PS5 owners, I guess. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think we need to validate the opinions of people who want games to play worse or be less available to everyone just so they can feel better about their brand loyalty.
I don’t even believe Ryan when he says he often asks fans their opinions, and it turns out they agree with his business decisions. Donald Trump does this same thing all the time. Instead of stating his opinion he’ll say “A lot of people are saying…”, or when he makes a wild claim he’ll then follow it up with “and everyone agrees”. CEOs are nothing if not politicians, and, and Ryan is under no obligation to show receipts. He’s well within his right to run his business however he sees fit (as long as it generates profits for his shareholders, as he’s legally obliged to do), but he shouldn’t try to back up his decisions by claiming the gamers agree with him, especially when they don’t.