Sony May Be Prepping PlayStation PC Games Launcher
The PC version of "Spider-Man Remastered" wasn't out for long before people started digging through its code and files, and it wasn't long after that before some interesting details were discovered. It turns out there are some references sprinkled throughout the game's files that hint at a possible future connection to PlayStation Network (PSN), which is significant considering this is a PC release.
VGC reports – and says it has confirmed — that terms like "PSNLinkingEntitlements" and "PSNAccountLinked" appear several times in the data for "Spider-Man" on PC. Now, PlayStation exclusives coming to PC aren't a new thing; in fact, it has been happening more often lately. With that said, this points to something more than just porting — not that cross-platform game ports are simple or easy most of the time, of course.
This could indicate plans to somehow allow PSN account interconnectivity for PlayStation PC games (like activity sharing, trophies, etc.), but it could also be the start of something more. Many people are speculating this could result in the PlayStation Store itself appearing on PCs in the future, or possibly some other facsimile of a PlayStation game launcher on PC similar to the Epic Game Store or Steam.
What a PlayStation launcher could mean for PC gamers
What these crumbs of information lead to — assuming they lead to anything at all — is still a matter of speculation, but it's got a lot of PC gamers buzzing. Having access to the PlayStation Store (or at least a version of it) on something other than a PlayStation could mean a more open approach to first-party game distribution, at least as far as PlayStation-to-PC goes, and that distribution might not necessarily be limited to big-name AAA titles.
It could also result in something like cross-platform purchasing, VGC speculates. This would mean buying an eligible game digitally on PlayStation 5 would also grant you access to the PC version and vice versa similar to how some games can be purchased on PlayStation 4 and PS5 through a single transaction (and at the cost of one copy of the game).
Again though, as of right now, this is all a bunch of guesswork. It could lead to nothing, it could lead to an official PlayStation game launcher on PC, or we could get a monkey's paw type situation where the PlayStation PC launcher ends up causing more problems than it solves. Right now all we can do is wait and see what happens.