Former PlayStation boss says bringing exclusives to PC was an easy choice

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"There's no losing in this transaction."

Horizon Zero Dawn
(Image credit: Guerrilla Games)

Former Sony CEO Shawn Layden says that the decision to bring PlayStation exclusives to PC was an easy one.

Speaking on the What's Up PlayStation podcast (via ArsTechnica), Shawn Layden said that  "there's no losing in this transaction" when bringing PlayStation titles to PC. Layden said that he had been one of a number of people considering the release of Sony games on PC ahead of his departure from the company in October 2019, and that "the strategy as were developing it [...] was that we need to go out to where these new customers are, where these new fans could be. We need to go to where they are [...] because they've decided not to come to my house, so I've got to go to their house now."

Layden explained that the best way to get PC gamers involved with the PlayStation ecosystem was to offer them their top-selling games. He thinks it's unlikely, however, that Sony will ever bring its titles to PC at launch, suggesting that for a game like Horizon Zero Dawn, which came to PC more than three years after its PS4 release, had "no real retail activity" to drive PlayStation sales of the game.

Since Layden's involvement, Sony has continued to bring its titles to PC, with Days Gone following Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding hitting PC, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection bringing the series' two most recent games to PC and PS5 in early 2022. Sony also recently acquired Nixxes, a studio best known for its porting work, sparking speculation that it's planning to increase its PC output.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.