In a nutshell: Sony’s PC porting strategy has been clear from the start. It is in no rush to follow Xbox’s multiplatform strategy. It wants to preserve the value of the PlayStation 5 by making sure high-end exclusives like Spider-Man and God of War remain showcases for the console first – and only reach PC when the timing feels right.

Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst says the company is continuing to take a “measured” approach to porting major first-party games to PC. Although Sony has expanded into the PC market in recent years, it has done so far more slowly than competitors like Microsoft, which now releases most of its games simultaneously on Xbox and PC.

“We’re really thoughtful about bringing our franchises off console to reach new audiences,” Hulst said during a business segment presentation on Friday. “We’re taking a very measured, very deliberate approach in doing that.”

Single-player games such as Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok have launched on PC well after their PlayStation 5 debut. Sony designs first-party releases to showcase its hardware and drive console sales. Maintaining an exclusivity window protects the PlayStation brand’s value while allowing the company to grow its audience on PC.

Stellar Blade and TLoU Part II Remastered are the most recent PC ports from PlayStation Studios.

Video Games Chronicle says Hulst explained to investors that PlayStation exclusives serve as a key point of differentiation for the brand, designed to highlight performance and quality that only the console can deliver. He emphasized that Sony is deliberate in deciding if and when to bring these titles to other platforms, ensuring players receive the best possible experience on each.

While PlayStation began porting very old exclusives to PC a few years ago, more recent adaptations have been newer. Stellar Blade, which landed on PS5 in April 2024, has seen tremendous success on PC since its port launched less than a week ago. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said that despite not offering day-one releases like Xbox, Sony is “printing money” with PC ports. Indeed, in 2023, Sony projected an increase in revenue from PC sales of nearly half a billion dollars.

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino said the company is closely monitoring player behavior to inform its strategy. Responding to Microsoft’s move toward simultaneous multiplatform releases, Nishino expressed confidence in Sony’s current approach, noting that healthy competition drives innovation across the gaming industry. While new engagement models are emerging, he emphasized that Sony sees no urgent need to change course.

“We think that competition in the business … pushes us to innovate,” Nishino-san said. “We are confident and committed to our current strategy, and there isn’t an urgent need for us to pivot.”

Sony has said it plans to increase its efforts in live service and PC gaming. However, for now, its biggest games will remain exclusive to PlayStation consoles for a period, reinforcing the platform’s role as the premier place to experience these flagship titles before they arrive elsewhere.

Recap: Playing modern high-end games on handheld devices, even with technical compromises, was considered impossible before the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck arrived. Their success has likely inspired Sony and Microsoft: the latter plans to leverage the emerging handheld PC market, and reports indicate a handheld companion to the PlayStation 6 is in the works.

A prolific leaker recently provided basic hardware specs indicating that a rumored portable companion to the PlayStation 6 is significantly weaker than the company’s current console. If the information proves accurate, it might conflict with prior reports that a handheld device designed to play PlayStation 5 games is in early development.

Late last year, Bloomberg reported that the project is likely years away from launch, and Sony might still decide against releasing it. It would build upon the PlayStation Portal – a successful handheld designed to stream PS5 software – to compete with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.

According to KeplerL2, Sony’s device will use a 3nm SoC that draws 15W, likely falling far short of the horsepower to play PS5 games natively. However, those specs could significantly outperform today’s handhelds. In comparison, the Steam Deck utilizes a 6nm 15W APU, the Asus ROG Ally X employs a 4nm chip that can reach 30W, and the Switch 2 runs on an 8nm SoC at an unspecified wattage. In light of this, developers could conceivably patch PS5 games to add “portable” modes for a new Sony handheld.

The recent rumors support Kepler’s earlier leaks, which indicated that Sony is developing two SoCs for the PlayStation 6, one of which could power a portable variant. The designs, set for A0 tapeout later this year, utilize AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 and UDNA architectures.

Zen 6 CPUs will mostly utilize 3nm transistors but might also incorporate components based on a 2nm node and are expected to debut in consumer PCs next year, with the PS6 following in 2027 or 2028. Meanwhile, UDNA will succeed RDNA 4 graphics.

Microsoft also reportedly plans to release a new console in 2027, and an Xbox-branded handheld gaming PC is expected to emerge later this year. The portable device, codenamed “Keenan,” will likely include functionality resembling the Asus ROG Ally but feature Microsoft’s design language and introduce a handheld-oriented user interface for Windows. The company aims to combine “the best” of Xbox and Windows but hasn’t specified how, igniting speculation that its future devices might land somewhere between PCs and consoles, similar to the Steam Deck.

Forward-looking: Now that the PlayStation 5 Pro is here, attention is turning toward Sony’s next generation of its console, the PlayStation 6. There’s been plenty of speculation about when it will arrive, and according to Shuhei Yoshida, the former Sony exec who was head of SIE Worldwide Studios, we could be waiting until 2028.

Yoshida worked at Sony for 38 years, 31 of which were spent at PlayStation. After leaving the company on January 15, 2025, he gave a lengthy interview to GamesBeat.

Among the topics covered was console cycles. The publication notes that during his tenure at PlayStation, the gap between console launches was around five or six years, but it’s getting longer.

The PlayStation 4 was released in November 2013. And while the PlayStation 4 Pro launched in 2016, the PlayStation 5 didn’t get here until November 2020, seven years after its predecessor. For comparison, there were only five years between the original PlayStation (1995) and PS2 (2000). The PS3 launched six years later, in 2006, and the PS4 landed seven years later.

Yoshida notes that if Sony sticks with a seven-year gap, the PlayStation 6 will arrive in 2027. However, he feels that date is a bit too early. “The PS5 generation was slowed down because of manufacturing issues,” Yoshida said, adding that a 2028 date “feels right to me.” He highlighted that based on a leak from Microsoft, the next Xbox console could also launch in 2028.

The former exec also said that the PS5 generation was “slowed” due to manufacturing issues stemming from the pandemic and global chip shortage. When asked about long cycles, the post-pandemic industry slowdown, and all the layoffs, he called it an “overreaction to the COVID situation.”

“Companies invested too much, including ourselves. Then we had to face reality and make adjustments. If you take out the COVID years you’d have smoother growth over the years.”

The PlayStation 5 had its best-ever holiday period in 2024, shipping 9.5 million units – only slightly behind the PlayStation 4’s best quarter in FY2017. The console has now sold over 75 million units, while Xbox Series S/X sales are around 28.3 million and showing little growth.

Last month, a leaker claimed that the chip design for the PlayStation 6 is essentially complete and nearly ready to enter the manufacturing phase. In keeping with Sony’s development cycle, the design completion would likely put the console’s launch date in 2027.

The same leaker previously said that Sony may be working on two SoCs for the PlayStation 6, speculating that one could be for the console and the other for either a new PlayStation handheld or a less-powerful version of the PS6.

Masthead: Robin Edqvist