Sony’s PlayStation 5 has been very successful since launching in November 2020. Along with shipping 32.1 million units worldwide, it’s had steady amount of high-profile exclusives, particularly from third-party companies. That trend continues with Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Silent Hill 2 remake, and much more in the works.
Speaking to GamesIndustry, Shawne Benson, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s third-party portfolio and acquisitions, discussed the company’s strategy for exclusives.
“There’s room for exclusives where it makes sense, obviously, but the focus – especially with a digital distribution model that is more prevalent than in generations past – is that there are different types of gameplay out there. For example, a free-to-play game’s business model is most successful when it’s on as many platforms as possible and brings the biggest audience possible.”
Interestingly, the company isn’t concerned so much about exclusivity as highlighting the PS5’s features. “So that’s thinking about it less around exclusivity than what kind of technologies could they adopt that really make PS5 sing. What kind of innovation can they apply with the haptics in the DualSense or the adaptive triggers?
“What could they do with 3D audio in the sound design of a game, etc? So there’s a lot of things we could do and then create marketing stories around, and that’s where some of these partnerships for multiplatform games really focus.”
Though Sony isn’t explicitly paying developers to implement DualSense, if it’s a “good PlayStation story,” then it may partner with them for marketing and support. Such deals aren’t exactly uncommon in today’s industry. Despite The Callisto Protocol being a multi-platform title, it had PlayStation-exclusive bonuses and DualSense support, while PlayStation Studios Visual Arts lent its motion capture studio.
Given Xbox’s numerous acquisitions, it remains to be seen if Sony can retain its third-party exclusivity momentum in the coming years. Stay tuned in the meantime.