Cory Barlog says Sony's own studios pushed to get PlayStation games on PC
"They were like, 'I'm tired of hearing all this. Fine, we'll do this.'"
Today sees the launch of God of War on PC - arguably the biggest PlayStation franchise to make the leap from console so far - and in a new interview published to coincide with its release, Sony Santa Monica creative director Cory Barlog has revealed it was Sony's own internal studios that pushed to get PlayStation games on PC.
Asked if Sony's decision to begin porting its games to the platform was something championed by the Santa Monica team early on, Barlog, in conversation with GameInformer, suggested it was actually the developers across Sony's PlayStation Studios network that were ultimately instrumental in convincing the company to make the move to PC.
"I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea. We should be looking into this," Barlog explained. "Eventually, I think it reached that tipping point. When we had sent so many suggestion box suggestions that they were like, 'I'm tired of hearing all this. Fine, we'll do this.'"
"It's a process," Barlog added. "We're still figuring it out as a company and as individual studios how to do this and what the process and strategy will be."
Barlog also said he had "no idea" if the arrival of God of War on PC might mean its upcoming sequel - Ragnarok - would make the jump from PlayStation in a more timely fashion. "Right now, we're taking it one game at a time, kind of looking at each one and determining, 'Okay, is this the best thing?'", he explained. "And we'll gauge how it does. Do people enjoy it? Did we do it right? Is there anything we did wrong? What can we do better in the future if we do this again? But at the end of the day, ultimately, it's Sony's decision."
God of War is the third first-party PlayStation game to launch for PC so far - Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone arrived last year, and the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is still to come. And the good news is Sony Santa Monica has done a cracking job managing the transition to PC, with Digital Foundry calling the port "simply sensational" in its recent analysis.