It had been widely reported in March, though not officially confirmed, that Sony was pausing PC ports for its single-player games. PS5 games such as Saros, Ghost of Yōtei, and the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine are said to be affected by these changes, with a couple of industry insiders suggesting the Steam Machine is the reason why Sony is returning to console exclusives.

Now, a fresh ‘scoop’ claims that PlayStation Studio Business CEO Hermen Hulst, the person in charge of the content creation side of Sony’s gaming division, has confirmed the previous reports in a message to staff. The narrative had already been widely shared, but the confirmation seems to seal the deal – this is despite Saros’ sales reportedly underperforming early on.

No more PC ports for major PS5 exclusives?

According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Hulst communicated to staff on Monday that it will be going ahead with plans to make Sony’s “narrative single-player games” exclusive to its consoles moving forward. While this doesn’t confirm that every single-player game will be affected, it does suggest that the majority of them will be.

We expect both first-party PlayStation Studio and PlayStation-published games to be included as part of these changes. Multiplayer titles are safe from the changes, which we can already see from the likes of upcoming MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, which is published by Sony and is already penciled in for an August 6 launch – including on PC platforms such as Steam.

Ex-Blizzard president Mike Ybarra suspects Sony sees Valve as a major new competitor thanks to the introduction of the Steam Machine (due this year), calling it the “most important” reason why Sony wants to pause PC ports. Steam Machine will offer a console-like experience on SteamOS while remaining a PC at its core, allowing users to install whatever they like on it.

It’s a strategy that Sony had previously employed before eventually warming to the idea of PC ports. Major titles such as God of War Ragnarok, Marvel’s Spider-Man series, and Ghost of Tsushima all made it to PC, albeit a couple of (or a few) years after the original PlayStation releases. The fact that Tsushima made it to PC makes it feel odd that its follow-up, Yōtei, won’t make the cut.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.