“Porting PlayStation games to PC is practically a goldmine,” says former executive Shuhei Yoshida.

Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida has admitted porting PlayStation-exclusive games to PC is “almost like printing money”, and provides an opportunity to invest in further games.

In an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (via Push Square), Yoshida revealed he wanted to bring first-party games to PC sooner, but this wasn’t Sony’s business model at the time.

“Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles – especially in regions where consoles are not as popular,” he said. “The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation.”

Beyond those benefits, it also allows Sony to reinvest money into other projects.

“It also adds additional income, because porting to PC is way cheaper than creating an original title,” he said. “So, it’s almost like printing money. And that helps us to invest in new titles now that the cost of games has increased.”

What’s more, releasing games on PC allows PlayStation to spread to new regions where that platform is more popular – China, in particular.

“China is a huge PC game market,” said Yoshida. “And China is a growing but very small console market. In order to reach the audience in countries like China then it’s crucial to release on PC. So, I believe PC versions really reach a new audience.”

Beginning with Horizon Zero Dawn in 2020, Sony has gradually been porting its PlayStation exclusive games to PC.

Most recently, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 released on PC, while The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is set to follow in April.

And while these releases have seen diminishing returns in terms of player numbers on Steam at least, the release of Helldivers 2 was a huge success for Sony – it was PlayStation’s fastest selling game owing to huge success on PC. That success was hampered, though, by Sony’s insistence on requiring PSN to play.

In the same interview, Yoshida also discussed Sony’s live service plans, revealing he played Naughty Dog‘s ill-fated The Last of Us Online, which he described as “great”.