A former developer at Bluepoint Games has suggested Sony’s move away from PC gaming could be due to the fear of Valve’s Steam Machine.
While it hasn’t been confirmed by Sony, recent reports suggest the company has decided to pull back on porting every PlayStation 5 exclusive title to the PC.
Sony has apparently scrapped plans to bring Ghost Of Yōtei to PC, while upcoming single-player exclusives like Marvel’s Wolverine and Saros are set to remain console-only. Although it’s claimed there will be some exceptions, notably multiplayer titles and games not internally developed by Sony, like the upcoming Kena: Scars Of Kosmora.
While some suggested this shift in strategy could be a response to Microsoft’s Project Helix, which is set to run both Xbox and PC games, a former developer at Bluepoint Games, which was recently shut down by Sony, has said it’s actually Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine that Sony fears.
In a post on X, Bluepoint’s former head of technology, Peter Dalton, wrote: ‘I read an interesting take on why Sony may be pulling back from pushing PC releases and instead focusing more heavily on exclusives. Some people frame this as a response to Xbox, but I’m not convinced that’s the real driver.
‘A more interesting possibility is the rise of a Steam-based console ecosystem. Consoles largely exist because they provide a cheaper, simpler alternative to gaming PCs. For most households, a dedicated gaming console is easier to justify than building or maintaining a high-end PC.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
‘However, if Valve releases a new Steam console that provides a console-like experience while still giving players access to the entire PC game library, that could become a very compelling option. In that scenario, if Sony were releasing all of its games day-and-date on PC, the Steam console could effectively offer the best of all worlds: console simplicity with the full breadth of PC gaming.’
Dalton ends the tweet on a dramatic note, adding: ‘It would be quite ironic if, after decades of traditional console competition, Valve ultimately ended up winning the console war.’
There are some caveats with Dalton’s comments. While Valve’s Steam Machine promises to be compatible with your entire Steam library, the reality might be quite different – as we’ve seen with its handheld Steam Deck and the ‘deck verified’ label.
Additionally, it’s unclear how competitive Valve’s Steam Machine will actually be compared to Sony and Microsoft’s next consoles. It’s expected to come out this year but we still don’t know anything about its price, or whether it will be available anywhere aside from Valve’s website, which has greatly limited the Steam Deck’s visibility and sales.
Even with these caveats though, it’s a pretty sensible theory – and one which is more believable than Sony being concerned about Project Helix. At the moment, based on Valve’s dominance in the PC space and the dismal sales of the Xbox Series X/S, the Steam Machine feels like it has a better shot of making a splash than the next Xbox.
Although that’s only in theory – Valve’s first attempt to create a range of Steam Machine devices, in 2013, was a complete failure and while much has changed in that time there’s still no direct evidence that a concept like Steam Machine or Project Helix can be a mass market proposition.
It’s also possible Sony’s drift from PC is for other reasons. According to Alinea Analytics, sales of PlayStation games on PC have notably dropped in recent years, so this could just be a failed experiment for the company which they’re hoping to rectify ahead of the launch of the PlayStation 6.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
