Head of PlayStation Jim Ryan noted in a recent interview that he’s frustrated by games being gated by platforms via things like exclusivity.
Head of PlayStation Jim Ryan wants to see the company’s first-party games reach hundreds of millions of gamers. Although PlayStation’s big exclusives tend to sell incredibly well, Ryan hopes to expand its audience going forward in some way. This comes just after the release of Deathloop, a game that has a one-year console exclusivity on PlayStation, something that was upsetting to Arkane and Bethesda fans.
Over the last year or so, PlayStation has invested in PC ports of its games, but they’re still planning to space them out between the console release and the PC release by multiple years. So far, the platform holder has released games like Days Gone and Horizon Zero Dawn on PC and has plans to add the Uncharted franchise to that roster next year. Although this does show a shift in direction for PlayStation, it’s still making fans wait many years to play its games on other platforms.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Head of PlayStation Jim Ryan noted he wants to see the company’s games reach hundreds of millions of more players. Former Head of PlayStation Shawn Layden recently stated he doesn’t think PlayStation games will come to PC day one due because the PC ports are meant to lure people into buying a PlayStation. With that said, Jim Ryan noted films and music can be experienced by virtually everyone, but games are often gated to certain platforms. Ryan stated that it “frustrates” him, but didn’t give any suggestions on how to alleviate this issue.
Earlier this year, one of PlayStation’s biggest franchises expanded to consoles. MLB The Show 21 was the first game in the series to release on Xbox and it was a day one Xbox Game Pass title. This was more in part due to decisions made by MLB rather than Sony, so it remains unclear if Sony will ever attempt to release another series on Xbox.
With games like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop being timed PS5 exclusives, Sony isn’t really making the impression that it wants to make its games available to everyone. Even multiplatform franchises like Call of Duty have had modes and entire remasters as timed PlayStation exclusives. Console exclusives and subscriptions are some of the many ways that platforms turn a profit, as consoles are often sold at a loss. Perhaps if Sony and other platform holders can find a way to offset these margins, more games will become multiplatform or available through things like cloud streaming.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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