PlayStation Will “Expand Beyond its Historic Console Heartland” – Jim Ryan

While Microsoft has taken an increasingly platform-agnostic approach in recent years, Sony has explicitly stated that it intends to continue to double down on PlayStation as a console- though recent developments might suggest otherwise. Sony recently announced the acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion, and following the completion of the deal, Bungie is not only going to retain its autonomy, all of its games (including future releases) will also continue to be multiplatform.

And according to PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, that’s a hint of the direction Sony is headed in. In his blog post published yesterday, Ryan said, “Bungie’s successful track record in multi-format publishing and live game services will assist us in realizing our ambitions to take PlayStation beyond the console and increase our potential audience.”

He elaborated on that in an interview with GamesIndustry, pointing to Sony’s recent PC releases with the likes of God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Days Gone, and suggesting that multiplatform releases will continue to be part of the company’s strategy.

“I’ve been on record talking about increasing the size of the PlayStation community, and expanding beyond our historic console heartland,” he said. “This can take many forms. And definitely one of the main ones is the ability for the wonderful games that we’ve been making over the past 25 years to be enjoyed in different places and played in different ways. We are starting to go multiplatform, you’ve seen that.”

He added: “Philosophically, this isn’t about pulling things into the PlayStation world. This is about building huge and wonderful new worlds together.”

There’s been plenty to suggest that Sony is indeed looking to expand PlayStation’s horizons. Their increased PC presence has been a huge indicator, of course, and it’s clear that Sony is also looking to make big plays in the mobile gaming space, while multimedia expansions with film and television adaptations also growing in importance.

Ryan has also stated that leveraging Bungie’s expertise with live service models is also going to be a huge boost for PlayStation’s own future live service games. Read more on that through here.