Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan was featured in an interview published today by Japanese website Famitsu.
The interviewer went through various topics, including the improved supply chain of PS5 consoles. Ryan highlighted that the PlayStation 5 had registered the best start ever for a Sony console, despite those supply chain issues encountered in the first couple of years since the hardware’s debut.
Sony plans to maintain favorable momentum thanks to upcoming PS5 exclusives like Koei Tecmo’s Rise of the Ronin (due next year), Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI (due on June 22nd), and Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (likely due in September; we’ll know more next week at the PlayStation Showcase). On the latter game, Ryan said it would fully utilize the PS5’s features to provide a ‘wonderful experience’ according to feedback from gamers (perhaps during testing).
Later in the interview, the executive mentioned Sony’s plan to increase PS5 exclusives while keeping PC ports staggered. He added that PC fans didn’t mind waiting two or three years to play those games on their platform.
We also fully understand the importance of PS5 exclusive titles. As I mentioned earlier, PlayStation Studios’ main responsibility is to have people enjoy the game experience using the latest PS. We are increasing the number of PS5 exclusive titles and staggering the release of the PC version.
I often have the opportunity to ask game fans for their opinions, and when I ask them about the time lag, they say that selling the PC version two or three years after the release of the PS version is accepted favorably.
While Sony was always clear that at least the single player exclusives would continue launching on console first and PC later, we were hoping the port timing would shrink rather than expand. The first big first-party game ported to PC, Horizon Zero Dawn, landed on the platform over three years after its debut on PlayStation.
However, the most recent port (Housemarque’s Returnal) took less than two years. In October 2022, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst said the single player PS5 games would keep at least one year of exclusivity on the console, sparking hope that the wait time could become even shorter. Ryan’s fresh statement doesn’t exactly inspire confidence on that count, especially pared with Hulst saying earlier this month that the decision to port a game on PC would be made case by case.
Still, given the success of most PlayStation releases, we’d be surprised if any games didn’t eventually make it. It’ll just take a few years.
As an aside, Jim Ryan also revealed today that Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima has sold over one million copies in Japan, showing that the Seattle-based studio managed to win the hearts of Japanese gamers with their excellent adaptation of the Mongol invasion. Ghost of Tsushima is being adapted into a live action movie directed by John Wick’s Chad Stahelski.
