Porting games to PC is «almost like printing money»: former PlayStation Studios boss
Diana Golenko
In a recent interview with Sacred Symbols+, former PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida discussed the company’s policy of bringing console exclusives to PC. According to him, ports are an easy way for Sony to make big money.
It’s all about the relative ease of development: there’s no need to spend absurd amounts of money to port a game to PC, which means you can make solid money and invest it in other projects. Sony didn’t immediately come to this idea — when he was the head of the company, Shuhei Yoshida insisted on ports for PC, but the company rejected this model.
Porting to PC is way cheaper than creating an original title. So, it’s almost like printing money.
Eventually, his idea found a response, and starting with Horizon: Zero Dawn in 2020, Sony began gradually bringing its major releases to new platforms. According to Shuhei Yoshida, there is another advantage to this: reaching the PC audience increases brand awareness and encourages people to buy a console to play new projects as early as possible.
Earlier, he revealed that Naughty Dog canceled the online game based on The Last of Us in favor of a new sci-fi action game.