Phil Spencer tends to be pretty friendly when it comes to the competition, but the Xbox boss recently took a surprising dig at PlayStation. During an Xbox business briefing, Spencer addressed PlayStation’s recent move to bring some of its games to PC. While Xbox offers games simultaneously on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, PlayStation has only started to bring games over to the PC platform recently, often years after they’ve already been made available on PlayStation 4. That was the case for Horizon Zero Dawn, and it will also be the case for Days Gone and Uncharted 4.
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“We’re the only platform shipping games on PC, cloud and console simultaneously. Others bring console games to PC years later, not only making people buy their hardware up front but then charging them a second time to play on PC,” said Spencer.
PlayStation has seen a bit of backlash from some of its fans over PC releases. Some have gone so far as to argue that PS4 ports dilute the value of owning a PlayStation console. That argument has a lot of flaws, of course, considering that these games are enjoying a good deal of timed exclusivity. However, offering PS4 games on additional platforms allows more players to enjoy them, and provides Sony with an additional revenue stream. That’s becoming increasingly important as the cost of game development grows. In the case of Uncharted 4, it also gives Sony a chance to introduce the brand to new audiences ahead of the movie’s release.
It will be interesting to see whether or not PlayStation eventually follows Microsoft’s move to release games simultaneously on PC and console. At the end of the day, money talks. Regardless of how some PlayStation fans feel about the move, if Sony thinks it makes financial sense, it will probably do just that. Microsoft has been ahead of the curve in that regard, but we’ll just have to see whether or not Sony joins them in the future!
How do you feel about first-party games releasing on PC? Should Sony follow Microsoft’s move and release games on PC the same day? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
[H/T: Stephen Totilo]
