Sony Were Cross-Buy Pioneers, So I'm Glad PC/PS5 Support Is Likely Coming

Datamining suggests PlayStation will introduce cross-buy between PC and PS5, which makes sense given its history.

This recent leak comes from Amethxst, who uncovered a series of presently unused symbols on PlayStation. Though some of these are already used for the PS5's power save mode, this is the first time we've seen the PS5/PC logo. Logos can only tell so much and Sony would likely need its own PC app to implement cross-buy, but it's a welcome pro-consumer move if this turns out to be true.

Many will point to this being a similar strategy to Xbox Play Anywhere, which gives you both an Xbox and PC copy for no additional charge. It's a fair note and with Sony's comparatively more recent PC strategy, arguably an overdue move, and I'd welcome Sony expanding this further. Recent years have largely seen cross-buy only cover games on both PS4 and PS5, which isn't always a guarantee.

Granted, Sony no longer has a dedicated handheld platform like the PSP or Vita, opting for cloud streaming options like the PlayStation Portal instead. Still, it laid out today’s cross-generation groundwork between consoles; there was something exciting a decade ago when I learned buying Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time or Ratchet & Clank: Q Force gave it to me on multiple platforms.

As mentioned before, this will almost certainly require a PlayStation on PC app of some description - Valve's not about to let Sony link up cross-buy directly through its store. Convincing people not to use Steam is a challenge in itself, though free PC copies if you already own a game's PS5 edition (PS4 seems to be excluded) would be promising. Time will tell.