Sony mulls creation of PlayStation PC game launcher

Following the launch of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered for the PC, files pertaining to a "PlayStation PC launcher" have been found.

By all measures, the game is an excellent port and PlayStation, with the help of Nixxes, should be patting themselves on the back.

With the release, files containing multiple references to "PSNAccountLinked" and "PSNLinkingEntitlements" were also found. While this might all be speculation for naught, there is some logic behind a proprietary PlayStation PC launcher.

After all, Valve does take a healthy chomp out of all Steam sales - generally in the region of 30per cent. With Sony predicting that they would earn $300 million in PC game sales in 2022, it does make sense to manage costs.

So far, Sony has released a trickle of first-party titles, years after their initial release on the PlayStation console:

• Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition (Aug 7, 2020)
• Days Gone (May 18, 2021)
• God of War (Jan 14, 2022)
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (Aug 12, 2022)

However, this could risk alienating a base of audiences who need to overcome the friction of installing yet another launcher. As history suggests, such a move does not pay dividends in the long run. Most recently, Bethesda was one such example having moved away from Steam to their own launcher before moving back again.

Would you download yet another games launcher just to access exclusive unlockables? It's really down to how well PlayStation rolls out their ecosystem for consumers outside of just cosmetic skins.

ALSO READ: Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered swings in as PlayStation Studios' second biggest PC launch

This article was first published in Geek Culture.