References to a ‘Playstation PC launcher’ were found in the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man that launched last week on Steam (thanks VGC).
The Spider-Man files contain references to the phrases ‘PSNAccountLinked’ and ‘PSNLinkingEntitlements’. The suggests that perhaps Playstation is planning to set up its own game launcher similar to how Ubisoft, Rockstar, and Acitivsion-Blizzard have done.
As of this article PlayStation and Sony Computer Entertainment have not commented or confirmed anything about the files or the existence of a launcher.
In recent years many of PlayStation’s first-party exclusives have received ports to PC including Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War (2018), and Horizon Zero Dawn. All of these games have been released on both Steam and The Epic Game Store.
If PlayStation is making a PC launcher it does beg the question of if PlayStation’s PC games will be exclusive to the launcher. It would be unlikely considering the popularity of their games on Steam, not to mention, that even Microsoft releases Xbox games on Valve’s platform in addition to their own store.
It’s also possible that future PlayStation games will require users to log into their PlayStation Network accounts to start the game even if it’s bought on Steam.
Whether the PlayStation PC Launcher becomes reality or not, PlayStation does seem to have a vested interest in reaching out to PC gamers if their high-quality ports to Steam are anything to go by. Hopefully, we’ll see more of their games come to the platform in the future.
PlayStation Studious currently has eight games available via Steam for PC.