PlayStation games to retain a year of exclusivity before porting to PC

Live service titles are an exception

PlayStation Studios’ head Hermen Hulst has noted that he expects future PlayStation titles to enjoy at least a year’s exclusivity on home console platforms before making the jump to PC — The former Guerrilla Games managing director made the comments in an interview with journalist Julien Chieze.

“I think, going forward, we’ll see at least a year between releases on PlayStation and on the PC platform, possibly with the exception of live service games,” said Hulst when asked about the recent range of PC ports. “Live service games are a little bit different in nature because you want to have a strong community, strong engagement right away, right when you go live. So we might, in the case of our live service offerings, go day and date with PC and the PlayStation platform.”

The Steam community has recently enjoyed a wide variety of previously considered PlayStation exclusives, including stellar releases such as God of War; Marvel’s Spider-Man and its follow-up Miles Morales; Horizon Zero Dawn; as well as games from Naughty Dog’s best-selling Uncharted franchise. Rumors also abound that Housemarque’s PS5 sci-fi smash, Returnal, is also en route to the Steam platform.

Given Hulst’s comments, it seems that PlayStation continues in its commitment to bringing its best-sellers to the PC audience but, understandably, wishes to give its loyal PS4/PS5 community priority. So while Steam fans will have to sit on their hands a little, they can be sure their patience will pay off.

PlayStation games will wait ‘at least a year’ before their PC release, except for live service titles [VGC]