With this, the company has confirmed that they don’t care about PC gamers and that they should buy a console even if it costs nearly twice as much as it did when it was first released.

Sony’s latest PlayStation 5 commercial has brought the topic of exclusivity back into the spotlight. This topic had largely faded into the background since the console’s launch following reports that Sony would not port its major single-player games to PC in the future. The new ad, titled “Only on PlayStation 5,” showcases footage from the company’s latest and upcoming major games and is currently circulating on social media. Notably, the phrase “PlayStation 5 exclusive” appears throughout the video. The games featured are Marvel’s Wolverine, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Gran Turismo 7, God of War: Ragnarök, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and Ghost of Tsushima. None of these games have been ported to PC, and there are no plans to do so in the near future (although Gran Turismo 7 was released on PlayStation 4 simultaneously in 2022). Therefore, the ad strongly suggests that none of these games will be released on PC anytime soon.

None of the previously presented games were available exclusively on PlayStation, nor was the term “exclusive” used in their marketing—except for Gran Turismo 7, which was originally announced as a PlayStation 5 exclusive. However, games published by second-party developers (e.g., Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Phantom Blade Zero) were advertised as PlayStation 5 exclusives. This new marketing strategy centered on exclusivity aligns with Bloomberg‘s reports that Sony has abandoned its plan to release future games on PC and that future single-player games will be PlayStation 5 exclusives. Sony later appeared to confirm this by removing all references in its annual business report to releasing its in-house titles on PC.

In recent years, the company has ported its games to PC following the release of their PlayStation 5 versions. However, in May, Hermen Hulst, the CEO of PlayStation Studios, reportedly told employees that future single-player PlayStation titles (e.g., Ghost of Tsushima, Star Wars: Sith Troopers, and Marvel’s Wolverine) would remain console exclusives. While PC gamers welcomed Sony’s decision to make several of its titles available on PC, the delayed release schedule and rushed ports have resulted in low sales of the PC versions of some PlayStation titles.

According to Bloomberg, a group within PlayStation has expressed concern that releasing games on PC will negatively impact sales of the PlayStation 5 and its successor models and pose a risk to the console brand, according to sources familiar with Sony’s internal operations.

Source: VGC, ResetEra, Bloomberg