Former PlayStation Boss Defends PC Strategy as Sony Shifts Away from Multiplatform Releases

Shawn Layden, former President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, has explained why PlayStation's PC strategy made sense. In an interview with YouTube channel PSI, Layden discussed the value of exclusives. He noted that while it's important to have games exclusive to PlayStation, it also makes sense to later release them to other audiences. He emphasized that the move to PC wasn't about making money, but about growing their IPs beyond the PlayStation ecosystem. This became especially important as PlayStation began adapting its IPs into films and TV shows, requiring a broader reach.

"The PC thing, in my mind at the time, was not to make money, frankly," Layden said. "It was, 'How do I get my intellectual property in front of people who wouldn't normally see it? How do I get the world of Horizon to be seen by people who aren't in the PlayStation world?' Not necessarily because they're going to buy a PlayStation, I wasn't that crazy. But as we take our [IP] across other media, whether it's into film, television, comic books, or whatever... you need to have as many eyeballs that are aware of this character [and] this story. Just concentrating on the PlayStation population and only telling them these stories, and then try to bring it off that platform into other media, that's going to be a hell of a jump."

Layden added that PC buyers likely wouldn't have purchased a PS5 anyway, given the 18-month delay between console and PC releases. "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," he said.

This defense comes amid reports that PlayStation is abandoning PC for its narrative-driven single-player games, meaning titles like Marvel's Wolverine, Intergalactic, and God of War Laufey won't come to PC. Instead, the platform will be used for live-service games only. PlayStation reportedly found PC releases inconsistent and not generating enough revenue to justify the expense, despite reaching new audiences as Layden suggested. In a cost-cutting environment, PlayStation may no longer be able to sustain this strategy.