According to Kotaku, the acclaimed Sony PlayStation exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn will arrive on PC this year. This news seems to be a bit odd to digest and it also suggests that Sony may possibly launch games on other platforms beyond the PlayStation brand. The information allegedly comes from three anonymous individuals associated with Sony.
Nowadays, it is unusual to see console exclusives being ported to PC, but it is still quite unusual to see that a Sony exclusive game is joining the trend. That said, we have seen big PS4 exclusives like Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human make their way to PC, and Death Stranding by Kojima Productions is coming to PC shortly, though Quantic Dream is now an independent studio and Kojima Productions never officially was a Sony studio to begin with. But, as Kotaku says, Horizon: Zero Dawn would be the first proper Sony exclusive game to be released on PC.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is an open-world game set in the post-apocalyptic USA that is overrun by robotic dinosaurs. The game launched on PS4 in February of 2017. Horizon: Zero Dawn was critically acclaimed and became a commercial success for Guerilla Games, who is owned and operated by Sony. Now, three years after its release, the game is expected to launch on PC. The release of Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC can show off Guerilla Games' technological prowess on more powerful machines. The game was locked at 30fps on the PlayStation 4 and the PC version can be expected to surpass that cap by a large number.
The launch of a console exclusive game on PC wouldn't be a big deal for most publishers. Most publishers want their games and software to be available on as many platforms as possible. But for Sony, this is a remarkable move. Since the company launched the PlayStation 1, any game that the company funded and developed has remained exclusive to the PlayStation platform. The company's main strategy has always been to drive hardware sales using software and games.
If Sony truly is opening up its games to more platforms, this lines up with a previous rumor suggesting the MLB: The Show series will branch out beyond the PlayStation waters. Nintendo shared a tweet seeming to suggest that MLB: The Show will appear on the console in the future. If Sony is jumping on the Nintendo Switch, it makes sense for them to also appear on PC as well.
If this rumor turns out to be true, we could expect Sony to take the same approach that Microsoft has taken.
