Gaming

Sony hopes to attract players to PS5 by launching its single-player narrative games on PC

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If anyone was hoping to see a new installment of God of War, Uncharted, Horizon, Marvel’s Spider-Man or The Last of Us appear on the same day on PlayStation and PC, you can now get the idea out of your head. During the latest corporate strategy meeting Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, confirmed that the plan is to launch the games as a service on both platforms on the same day, but with the so-called tentpolea term taken from the film and television industry that Sony uses to refer to large single-player narrative games, the tactic is to release them on PC later to attract players to PS5.

“We bring our titles to the PC with a double strategy,” explains Hermen Hulst. “Regarding games as a service, we launched them simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and PC. However, with our titles tentpolethe single-player narrative games that are and have been the backbone of PlayStation Studios, we took a more strategic approach. “This approach consists of bringing these titles to the PC later and with the aim of finding a new audience that might be interested for example playing the sequel on PlayStation.

The idea is to attract players to the PlayStation ecosystem with the ultimate goal of getting them to buy a console. This is a similar strategy to the expansion of these intellectual properties into other media, such as the television series The Last of Us or the film Gran Turismo. “[…] That also attracts new players to our franchises,” says Hulst. Maybe not everyone will buy a console, a device that Sony says continues to offer a great experience and value, but there are other ways for them to leave money in Sony’s coffers.

Marvel’s Spider-Man, a game tentpole which has sold 11 million units.

Nintendo’s strategy pursues the same objective. We won’t see Mario or Zelda on PC, but over the last few years Nintendo’s intellectual properties have expanded into other media in search of a new audience. As an example we have Super Mario Bros.: the movie, which has exceeded $1 billion in revenue and already has a sequel on the way, or the Super Nintendo World amusement parks. Microsoft has also tested the honeys of the expansion of intellectual properties with Fallout, which thanks to the Prime Video series increased sales of several titles available for years.

To find out what PlayStation Studios has on its hands we just have to wait for a new State of Play to be held this midnight. Everything seems to indicate that we will see a tentpole like God of War Ragnarok taking bait form with a PC release, game-as-a-service Concord, and perhaps a new Astrobot installment.

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