God of War had been an exclusive for the PS4 since it released in 2018, but right before the sequel Ragnarok came out, PlayStation had decided to bring the title to PC.
According to God of War director Cory Barlog, it was actually a decision that was supported by the PlayStation collective of studios. Talking to GameInformer, Barlog explained:
“I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea. We should be looking into this. 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. 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.”
Even before God of War came to PC, other exclusives like Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn had hit the platform. Since it took four years for God of War to make the exclusive jump, some are curious if the same could be said for its sequel, Ragnarok. To that, Barlog explains:
“I have no idea. 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?’ 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.”
While exclusives have managed to keep Sony at the top of the last console generation, a lot of people think that the concept of exclusives is pretty anti-consumer. Maybe this idea of releasing exclusives for other platforms after a few years could work for Sony; kind of how movie theaters screen movies exclusively before they get their home release.
God of War is now available for PC.
