Former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden Thinks Sony Should Continue Release Their Single-Player Titles on PC

Throughout the year, there were repeated reports suggesting that Sony might stop releasing its single-player games on PC, allegedly due to low sales and a desire to refocus on the exclusivity of its projects. This information was officially confirmed in May during a meeting of senior representatives from PlayStation Studios, where the company's CEO, Hermen Hulst, made the announcement.

Undoubtedly, many PC users were disappointed by Sony's decision. In a recent interview with PSI, former PlayStation head Shawn Layden went even further, criticizing the company for refusing to release single-player projects on computers. According to Layden, launching titles like The Last of Us, Marvel's Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, and many others on PC not only helped Sony reach a new audience of gamers but also boosted the popularity of these universes ahead of their screen adaptations. The highlights from his interview you can check out below:

"The PC thing... In my mind anyway, at the time, was not to make money, frankly. It was 'how do I get my intellectual property in front of people who wouldn't normally see it?'. Not necessarily because they're gonna buy a PlayStation — I wasn't that crazy, I didn't think that was gonna happen — but as we take our intellectual property across other media, whether it's into films and television, or comic books, or into merchandise, whatever, you need to have as many eyeballs that are aware of this character, of this story.

And just concentrating on the PlayStation population, and only telling them these stories, and then trying to bring it off of that platform and into different media — that's gonna be a hell of a jump.

First of all, the games don't go on PC for like, a year. And if thinks that a game coming out 18 months after its launch, on another platform, somehow stopped a sale from happening 18 months ago in the hardware business... I'd like to see how they can prove that thesis. I think if someone's waiting 18 months for something to come on PC, we didn't lose a sale to them. They weren't going to buy the hardware anyway. If is a way to just cover costs, or the burden of making a port — there's some money attached to that — or it's a distraction or whatever... yeah, I don't know what they're thinking.”

The most recent single-player game from Sony released on PC in March this year was Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. There were also rumors of a PC version of Ghost of Yotei being in development, similar to the first installment, but since then, no updates have been given, and it’s likely that the game was canceled.

Do you agree with Shawn Layden that Sony should continue to release their single-player titles on PC? Share your thoughts in the comments below!