In context: Shawn Layden is the former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios and former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America. He was the executive who brought several major PlayStation titles to PC. In contrast, today's management appears to have very different views on releasing games on other platforms.
Shawn Layden recently shared a few interesting insights about the now-concluded initiative focused on bringing original PlayStation games to PC. Layden suggested that bringing PlayStation games to another platform was essentially a marketing strategy rather than an attempt to generate significant additional revenue.
Porting PlayStation games to PC was, in his view, an ideal way for Sony to extend the reach of its intellectual property to audiences that would otherwise overlook it. Broader exposure to Sony's original IP would expand awareness of its characters, stories, and worlds, helping build a larger audience and potentially extend those franchises beyond gaming into other media.
Layden argued that releasing a game on PC 18 months after its original console launch cannot be considered a "lost" console sale. PC gamers, he said, were unlikely to purchase a PlayStation console solely to play a single game. The former Sony executive cited the God of War and Horizon series as prime examples of this strategy, noting that both are single-player franchises owned by Sony.
The PC port strategy becomes even more effective when applied to massively multiplayer online titles. MMOs, and even free-to-play live-service games more broadly, often benefit from a multi-platform approach in order to remain viable. Concord, one of Sony's most high-profile recent commercial failures, reportedly forced the company to reassess aspects of its live-service strategy.
Sony's current leadership is pursuing business priorities that differ from those during Layden's tenure. Multiple sources have recently indicated that Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment's Studio Business Group, has decided to keep story-driven, single-player games as PlayStation exclusives for the foreseeable future. Multiplayer titles – and likely new live-service games as well, despite Concord's failure – are still expected to launch on PC.
Sony has reportedly scaled back its PC port strategy due to disappointing sales performance, a view that contrasts with Layden's perspective on the rationale behind multiplatform releases. The former SIE executive does not know what current Sony leadership is planning, but remains convinced that expanding the reach of original IP beyond the PlayStation ecosystem would not harm the console's appeal.