Microsoft is set to unveil its plans for the future of the Xbox brand later today which are rumoured to include launching first-party Xbox games on PS5. While gamers are arguing amongst themselves about this controversial move, it seems Sony might also jump on the multiplatform train somewhere down the line.
Sony’s new president Hiroki Totoki, the one who has recently replaced Jim Ryan, has spoken out about his views on first-party exclusive games and how he sees more success bringing games to other platforms instead of just PS5.
Of course, this comes in light of the recent success of Helldivers 2. The game day one launched on PC and PS5. It has gone on to become the best-selling PlayStation game on Steam to date. Its peak player count surpassed 200,000 this week too.
During the recent PlayStation financial earnings call, which revealed Sony’s PS5 console sales, Totoki says that in the past, it was Sony’s goal to popularize the console platform and use games to make the PlayStation brand popular. However, multiplatform releases can help improve operating profits and this is an area Sony wants to proactively work on.
“In the past, we wanted to popularize the console, and the primary goal of proprietary titles was to make the console popular. That’s true, but there’s synergy in it. So, if you have solid proprietary content, not only with our console but also with other platforms like PC, proprietary content can grow through multiplatform support, and that can help improve operating profits. That’s another area we want to proactively work on. Personally, I believe there are opportunities to improve margins, so I would like to be aggressive in improving our margin performance.”
I doubt Sony will go down the road of releasing PlayStation Studios titles on Xbox but we will likely see certain games come to PC at the same time as PS5. These will be on a case-by-case basis and mostly for live-service multiplayer games. Helldivers 2 is the perfect example. I am sure Sony will still release Marvel’s Wolverine on PS5 first and PC a year or so later.
