Bend Studio, the developer behind PlayStation 4 exclusive Days Gone has announced that the game is coming to PC this spring, with PS4 exclusives from other developers following soon after.
The news was first broken in GQ Magazine’s interview with PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan a few hours before the official announcement by the developers. While we don’t know the specifics of what a Days Gone PC version will bring to the table, Jim Ryan did suggest that it isn’t the only PS4 exclusive making the jump to PC.
“We find ourselves now in early 2021 with our development studios and the games that they make in better shape than they’ve ever been before. Particularly from the latter half of the PS4 cycle our studios made some wonderful, great games. There’s an opportunity to expose those great games to a wider audience and recognise the economics of game development, which are not always straightforward. The cost of making games goes up with each cycle, as the calibre of the IP has improved. Also, our ease of making it available to non-console owners has grown.” – Jim Ryan, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This lines up with what we saw in Sony’s annual corporate report at the tail end of last year, with the company expanding beyond the PlayStation’s console ecosystem. It started first with Horizon Zero Dawn coming to PC, and we even saw rumours of a Days Gone PC port earlier that year, although that one was quickly debunked to be a false Amazon listing.
More PlayStation Exclusives Are Coming to PC Soon
Unlike Microsoft which has fully embraced the PC market, Sony has always been a little apprehensive about bringing their games to PC gamers. While it’s true that the sheer wealth and quality of PS4 exclusives played a big part in making Sony’s console reach record sales numbers, player expectations have changed quite a lot. With Xbox, it’s a little more understandable since Microsoft is fully embracing a more open and accessible future in gaming, investing heavily in cross-platform development and cloud gaming. Sony on the other hand has banked on the simplicity of releasing one console and making games that take good advantage of its hardware, locking players into the PlayStation ecosystem.
To get some context, independent games analyst Benji provided some insight into how publishing games on PC bolstered the Xbox brand:
We don’t know what other PS4 games will release on PC, but something synonymous with the PlayStation brand like Marvel’s Spider-Man or God of War is unlikely. As for 2nd party titles, we can only hope that games like Bloodborne make their debut on the platform which will undoubtedly unlock the full potential of such classics.
Days Gone will release on PC this spring, and will likely be available on both Steam and Epic Games Store as the Horizon Zero Dawn PC port did.