Sony Doubles Down on PlayStation 5 Even as Console Costs Level Up

In Sony’s popular video game Ghost of Yōtei, Atsu searches for six outlaws on her quest for revenge. If they made it out of the realm of PlayStation 5, she may have trouble catching them. 

In a major shakeup for Sony’s strategy, the company is focusing on the console and pulling back from PC ports, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the company’s plans. Ghost of Yotei and action game Saros, which is expected to launch next month, will be exclusive to the company’s console, PlayStation 5, instead of being shared with PC users. 

Sony isn’t scrapping its PC releases completely: Bloomberg noted that online games such as Marathon will still hit multiple platforms, and two games created by external developers but published by PlayStation are still slated for a PC release this year. But, at least for now, gone are the days when gamers could bet on their favorite single-player PlayStation games coming to the device of their choice. 

Pricey Payoff   

The U-turn on PC releases brings Sony back to a pre-pandemic strategy that treated PlayStation exclusives as somewhat sacred, and put pressure on customers who wanted to get their hands on those games to buy the company’s console. But starting in 2020, Sony began bringing hits like The Last of Us to the masses via PC ports. The tradeoff? The company had to let its IP onto other firms’ hardware. 

Sony has now decided the broader audience that PC offers isn’t worth giving up that control. Neither Sony nor PlayStation responded to requests for comment. 

Sony is doubling down on its own box even as consoles become more expensive to develop and sell: 

• “The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025, it was $439,” ‪Mat Piscatella‬, Circana video game industry analyst, wrote on Bluesky. “3.9 million units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025, it was 1.6 million.”
• When asked how these companies would lower prices with tariffs and an increase in bill of materials (BOM), Piscatella‬ said, “They likely cannot and will not.” 

Mario Move: Sony’s shift is looking very Nintendo-like. The gaming rival has largely reserved its marquee franchises for customers with Nintendo’s hardware, the Switch.