In recent years, Sony has ported its hits to PC: God of War, The Last of Us, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Ghost of Tsushima. This allowed for an expanded audience. Now the strategy has changed — new single-player games will no longer be released on PC. Layden considers this a mistake.
He reminded that initially, porting games to PC was a way to showcase Sony brands to players who would never buy a console. According to him, there are many more people in the world playing on other platforms, and late releases helped expand the reach of franchises.
How do I get my franchises seen by people who would normally never encounter them? There are 250-260 million console-owning households in the world, but there are 8 billion people. Billions more play on PCs, phones, and other devices. How do you reach them?
He noted that late PC releases did not harm PlayStation; on the contrary, they strengthened the recognition of brands that Sony develops in both films and series. As an example, he cited the success of The Last of Us series.
According to him, players who wait 18 months for a PC release would not have bought a console anyway, so the company simply gains an additional audience and revenue.
However, Layden does not support simultaneous releases on PS and PC. He believes that exclusivity remains the foundation of the console business.