Following the launch of God of War on PC, Sony Santa Monica creative director Cory Barlog has revealed that many of PlayStation’s own studios helped convince Sony that it was a “really good idea” to bring its biggest exclusives to PC.
Speaking to Game Informer, Barlog – who served as game director on 2018’s God of War – was asked what insight he may have into Sony’s decision to put a greater focus on the PC market.
“I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea,” Barlog said. “We should be looking into this. Eventually, I think it reached that tipping point. When we had sent so many suggestion box suggestions that they were like, ‘I’m tired of hearing all this. Fine, we’ll do this.’ It’s a process. We’re still figuring it out as a company and as individual studios how to do this and what the process and strategy will be.”
Sony’s push into the PC market began in 2020 when it announced it would be bringing Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition to the platform. While other games that were either funded or published by Sony had already made their way over like Death Stranding, Horizon was a true first-party PlayStation Studios game that would no longer be exclusive.
Following Horizon, Sony released Days Gone on PC in 2021 and is gearing up to make Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection available to PC players in early 2022.
As for God of War Ragnarok, Barlog isn’t ready to commit one way or another and confirms the decision is ultimately up to Sony as to whether we may see the sequel arrive less than the four years it took the original to.
“I have no idea,” Barlog said. “Right now, we’re taking it one game at a time, kind of looking at each one and determining, ‘Okay, is this the best thing?’ And we’ll gauge how it does. Do people enjoy it? Did we do it right? Is there anything we did wrong? What can we do better in the future if we do this again? But at the end of the day, ultimately, it’s Sony’s decision.”
Hopefully, Ragnarok does make its way to PC as, in our God of War PC performance review, we said, “this PC port offers some nice boosts over the PS4 Pro release, it scales well, and although impactful on hardware, it does give you the choice of increasing resolution, quality, frame rates, and even aspect ratio over what PlayStation consoles offer.”
For more on God of War on PC, check out our chat with Barlog and Santa Monica Studio lead UX designer Mila Pavlin that dives deep into how Santa Monica Studios made the game more accessible and how it sets the stage for the studio’s future projects.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
