Sony says some PlayStation games ‘may need to go multiplatform’

The chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios has said the company may consider releasing first-party games on non-PlayStation platforms in a bid to reach a bigger audience.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Shawn Layden reportedly said prime candidates for such a strategy would be multiplayer PC titles.

“We must support the PlayStation platform — that is nonnegotiable,” he said. “That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base.”

Sony announced on Monday that it is to acquire Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games, a long-time collaborator which has worked on several PlayStation exclusive series such as Resistance, Spyro and Ratchet and Clank.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Insomniac will become PlayStation’s 14th first-party studio.

With the company gearing up to release PlayStation 5 and competitors new and old preparing to launch rival platforms, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said in July that Sony was considering studio acquisitions, noting that “content is more important than ever before”.

While Microsoft has also been investing heavily to grow its first-party capabilities ahead of the launch of Xbox Scarlett in 2020 – Xbox Game Studios is now 15-strong – the company recently said newly acquired developers such as Double Fine and Obsidian could create games for rival platforms in the future.

And on Monday, it was announced that Microsoft will release Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition for Nintendo Switch in September.