Shuhei Yoshida expressed skepticism about releasing new triple-A PlayStation games on PC on day one of their launch. Speaking at the Powerhouse Museum's ALT. Games Festival, where he appeared as a keynote speaker, Yoshida said he does not believe day-one PC releases benefit a platform holder like PlayStation [1, 2].
Yoshida, who retired from Sony in 2025, explained that during his time working on game development at PlayStation, first-party triple-A games were not allowed to launch simultaneously on other platforms such as PC. "From a strategy standpoint, we [were] not allowed to bring our triple-A games to other platforms like PC," he said [1].
He added that releasing games on PC after a delay of a couple years helped the company recoup the investment in expensive development. "Releasing games on PC after a couple of years must have helped recoup the investment of these big budget games and help the team and company to reinvest that money into their new games," Yoshida said [1, 2].
Yoshida said he has not seen any proof Sony has changed its PC release strategy during the PlayStation 5 generation, despite reports suggesting a shift toward less PC availability for first-party games. He characterized the current approach as "almost like print," implying staggered releases are deliberate [1, 2].
The discussion comes after Horizon Zero Dawn became the first major PlayStation game to launch on PC in 2020, marking a start to first-party PC releases for the PS5 generation [1]. Last month, reports claimed Sony would no longer release first-party games like Ghost of Yotei on PC outside of online titles. However, Sony had not confirmed this policy change, and Yoshida said he has not seen evidence of a strategic shift away from PC releases [2, 1].
If Ghost of Yotei does not appear on PC by the end of 2027, those reports suggest it may confirm Sony’s reluctance to bring new first-party games to the platform [2].
Yoshida's keynote at ALT. Games Festival added perspective to an ongoing debate over Sony’s strategy for PC releases. The festival interview was also featured on the Back Pocket podcast according to some sources [1, 2].
