Sony may soon let you buy a game once and play it on both PS5 and PC

Possible evidence has been found that Sony is considering cross-buy, bridging the gap between Sony's games on the PlayStation 5 and PC.

Sony may soon let you buy a game once and play it on both PS5 and PC
Comment IconFacebook IconX IconReddit Icon
Tech and Science Editor
Published
1 minute & 30 seconds read time
TL;DR: Sony is reportedly testing cross-buy functionality, allowing players to buy games once on PS5 and access them on PC, enhancing platform integration. This move follows successful PC releases like Helldivers 2 and aims to attract PC gamers while preserving PlayStation's console exclusivity and brand strategy.

Sony has been bringing its first-party games over to PC for many years now, with the first cross-platform release being Helldivers 2, providing extremely lucrative results for the company. But what about cross-buying Sony games?

Sony may soon let you buy a game once and play it on both PS5 and PC 512
2

Leaks from the PlayStation Store indicate Sony is exploring the idea of enabling players to cross-buy its games, meaning a gamer could buy a PlayStation game via their PS5 and then have access to it on their PC.

Xbox already offers this feature across its various platforms, but as a result, it has somewhat lost its brand identity, as now everything has technically, and even according to Microsoft themselves, become an Xbox.

However, the feature is greatly appreciated by gamers as it saves having to buy a separate copy of the game for the new platform. With Sony moving toward adopting PC as a platform for its titles, it makes sense that the company wants to further integrate, but does that mean it will enable PC gamers to play its games for free if they have already bought them on PS5? Or on future PlayStation consoles? Possibly. However, Sony would be cutting its own lunch.

French website Dealabs has discovered symbols in the PlayStation Store called "cross-buy," and found evidence in CSS files for the word "crossbuy-tag". These terms were added to the PlayStation Store in June, but were only discovered recently. So, why would Sony want to stop gamers from potentially buying their games twice?

Well, Sony could be betting that if a PC gamer is exposed to one of its titles, they will eventually purchase a PlayStation console when a new entry in a Sony-produced series is released and is only available on PlayStation consoles. Essentially, Sony delaying the release of its titles on PC act as a way of exposing PC gamers to the PlayStation ecosystem.