By porting its games from PlayStation 5 (or PlayStation 4) to PC, Sony can make big profits, and not just by getting more players for those titles.

It is now abundantly clear that console manufacturers are leaving a lot of money on the table by not porting their games to PC. Microsoft found this out in the second half of the last decade when it first had Xbox One exclusive games (Halo 5: Guardians; we wrote about why it didn’t get a PC port). Nintendo is sticking with the Switch/Switch 2 pairing. Sony, on the other hand, started porting its games to PC a few years ago (and sometimes the ports are of questionable quality).

Last year, Helldivers 2 was released simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and PC, and it was a huge hit. It’s also why Yoshida Shuhei, who was head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (the predecessor to PlayStation Studios) and then head of indie at Sony before leaving the company after 31 years, said. He told the Sacred Symbols+ podcast that he would have liked to bring the games to PC sooner, but Sony had other ideas at the time, but then convinced the company that the port could get gamers to buy PlayStation consoles.

“Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience that does not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular. The idea is that these people might become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they might be convinced to buy a PlayStation. Porting to PC is a lot cheaper than making an original title. So it’s almost like printing money. And it helps us invest in new titles now that the cost of games has gone up. China is a huge market for PC games. In order to reach the audience in countries like China, it’s crucial to release on PC,” Yoshida said.

More platforms to target means more profit.

Source: PCGamer