God of War's Cory Barlog says PlayStation studios convinced Sony to put games on PC
Though really, it seems like it was only a matter of time.
In an interview with Game Informer about the launch of God of War's very good PC port, creative director Cory Barlog suggested that the recent wave of PlayStation games coming to PC started with enthusiasm from Sony's studios.
"I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea. We should be looking into this," Barlog said. "Eventually, I think it reached that tipping point. When we had sent so many suggestion box suggestions that they were like, 'I’m tired of hearing all this. Fine, we’ll do this.'"
Sony first announced it would be bringing exclusive PlayStation games to the PC in March 2020, beginning with Horizon Zero Dawn. According to God of War's developers, its PC port has taken about two years, which means it got underway right around the time Sony went public with its first PC plans.
It makes sense that PlayStation's developers would largely be in favor of seeing their games in the hands of more players, as Barlog said—it's a bit more of a stretch to picture a $150 billion corporation ended up deciding to publish games on PC just because its studio heads badgered it for long enough. According to former Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Shawn Layden, who left in October 2019, Sony's leadership was keen to reach out to new customers.
"The strategy as we were developing it when I was there was that we need to go out to where these new customers are, where these new fans could be," Layden said last year. "We need to go to where they are... Because they've decided not to come to my house, so I've got to go to their house now. And what's the best way to go to their house? Why not take one of our top-selling games?"
Layden said he didn't expect Sony to ever start releasing games on PC day-one with consoles—it doesn't have to risk cannibalizing console sales if it waits two years to port its games to PC.
According to Barlog, it's still not a given that future games will come to PC, and he has "no idea" when the next God of War game, Ragnarok, might arrive. Even if the studios did sway Sony into giving PC ports a try, it sounds like they're still not the ones making the final call.
"Right now, we’re taking it one game at a time, kind of looking at each one and determining, 'Okay, is this the best thing?'" Barlog said. "And we’ll gauge how it does. Do people enjoy it? Did we do it right? Is there anything we did wrong? What can we do better in the future if we do this again? But at the end of the day, ultimately, it’s Sony’s decision."
If you're thinking about picking up God of War yourself, check out our review and our sharpest God of War tips. We also have a guide to God of War's treasure map locations and God of War's best armor.