Sony boss says we're gonna be waiting 'two or three years' before PlayStation games hit PC

Jim Ryan, president and chief executive officer of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., speaks during a press event at the 2023 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. For the first time, CES has a theme: how technology is addressing the world's biggest challenges.

(Image credit: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

I guess it's gonna be a while until we see a Steam page for Horizon Forbidden West. In a chat with Famitsu (spotted by TheGamer and machine translated), PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has reaffirmed Sony's commitment to keeping its exclusives off of PC until PlayStation fans have had their day with them.

Sony "fully understand[s] the importance of PS5 exclusive titles," Ryan told Famitsu, saying that "PlayStation Studios' main responsibility is to have people enjoy the game experience using the latest PlayStation". To that effect, Ryan said Sony is committed to (excuse the awkwardness of the machine translation) "increasing the number of PS5-exclusive titles and staggering the release of the PC version".

How long will those PC versions be staggered, you ask? Well, Ryan didn't give a firm timespan exactly, but he did mention that discussions with PlayStation fans suggest that "selling the PC version two or three years after the release of the PS version is accepted favorably". So don't go thinking Sony is gonna start picking up the pace of its PC releases just because The Last of Us Part 1 came out on PC a mere six-ish months after it hit PS5. Given the state of that port, though, maybe that's for the best.

Ryan hasn't dropped a bombshell here. Hermen Hulst was saying all the way back in October last year that PC players would be waiting "at least a year" for Sony exclusives to hit PC, and it's not exactly a surprise that the company that makes the PlayStation is prioritising PlayStation players. But it is confirmation that Sony thinks its current years-long PS/PC release cadence is working just fine, thank you very much, and we shouldn't expect changes anytime soon.

Plus, with rumours of Metal Gear remasters and remakes swirling around next week's PlayStation Showcase, I confess I've been crossing my fingers that we'll see them hit PC sooner rather than later if Sony nabs an exclusivity deal (if they even exist at all).

Anyway, Bloodborne released nearly a decade ago, so surely it's about time for a… No? No. Okay then.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.