In recent weeks we’ve seen an increasing amount of talk surrounding PlayStation’s multi-platform plans and their decision to move away from porting their single-player first-party games to PC. While Sony has yet to share a definitive statement on the matter, notable insiders have revealed the primary reasons for this shift in strategy.

Recently we reported on comments from PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino who offered a diplomatic statement on the company's position with regards to multi-platform releases, stating:

“Our current main policy is that, for single-player games developed in-house, we will further refine the value of the gaming experience that PlayStation can offer. At the same time, we believe it is important for live-service games to reach a wider audience through online multiplayer, so we continue to view releases on both PS5 and PC as the standard.”

While not directly stated, this seemed to suggest that the rumours are indeed true. In response to these latest comments, trusted industry insider Jason Schreier offered more or a direct explanation on the matter, taking to ResetEra to write: “I guess they're not going to lay this out publicly, but there's no ambiguity in their strategy.”

Schreier continued, “During a townhall a few weeks ago, Hermen Hulst told staff that their single-player narrative games will be PlayStation only, and he explained that they were inconsistent with their PC releases, they didn't make enough money, and they want to keep their IP aligned to their own platform. Confirmed this with two people who heard him say it. There's no ‘case by case’ here.”

While we are unlikely to ever hear a definitive position from Sony themselves, Schreier’s statement does give clarity on the matter. PlayStation are quite selective when it comes to sharing sales numbers, but based on various data points it sounds about right.

Regardless of the reason, it seems like we have now gotten a pretty conclusive answer on the matter – even if it’s not from the horse’s mouth.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Sony’s strategy shift? Were sales the main reason, or was it a case of compounding factors? Let us know your thoughts down below.

The post Insider claims Sony moved away from PC ports because they “didn’t make enough money” first appeared on KitGuru.

While Sony had been increasingly dipping its toes into the PC gaming space, recent reports claimed that the console maker would be pulling back from the sector, with its first-party single player titles no longer being ported to the PC platform. Though yet to be officially announced, known insider Jason Schreier has now ‘confirmed’ that PlayStation’s Hermen Hulst informed staff of this strategy change during a recent Town Hall meeting.

As reported by Schreier: “PlayStation studio business CEO Hermen Hulst told staff in a town hall Monday morning that the company's narrative single-player games will now be PlayStation exclusive, confirming Bloomberg's reporting from earlier this year.”

Reports about this first started popping up back in March. Shortly following its publication, Sony themselves added fuel to the fire when they began removing most mentions of PC from its website.

Of course, this should all be taken with a pinch of salt for now, but considering that Sony’s single-player titles have not been performing too well on the PC platform (especially compared to their live-service efforts) alongside the fact that the next Xbox could run Steam natively, it perhaps makes sense that PlayStation would want to reprioritise its releases.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of this u-turn? Does it make sense? Why do you think Sony are changing course? Let us know down below.

The post Leaked meeting reveals Sony will no longer bring single-player games to PC first appeared on KitGuru.

The Xbox Game Pass tier lineup might be about to change once again. Following the recent appointment of Asha Sharma as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, reports are surfacing that a budget-friendly, first-party-focused Game Pass tier is currently being planned. 

According to findings shared by Better xCloud, the Triton tier is limited to titles from Xbox Game Studios, effectively cutting out the licensing overhead associated with third-party titles. Initial findings show a curated list of roughly 15 games attached to the “Triton” identifier, including heavyweights such as Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Fallout 4, and Dishonored 2. This strategy would allow Microsoft to leverage its massive library of acquired IP from Bethesda and Activision Blizzard to create a lower-cost entry point for consumers who have been deterred by the recent subscription price hikes.

Image credit: Better xCloud

The discovery of ‘Triton' also arrives during a time where rumours around a new ad-supported tier of Game Pass are continuing to gain momentum. Recently, it has also been claimed that Microsoft is in talks with other media giants, like Netflix, to potentially create new subscription service bundles.

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KitGuru says: The question is, how long would it take for newly released first-party games to join this Game Pass tier? Right now, if you want to play games like Fable, Forza Horizon 6 or Call of Duty on day-one, you still need to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate. 

The post Leak points to new first-party only tier for Xbox Game Pass first appeared on KitGuru.