I did have a question though: if we do get the overlay patched into other Sony games on PC, surely we'd retroactively get the trophies right? That would be nice.
Oh and how exactly would they verify the "integrity" of the save files on PC? What would stop someone from downloading a 100% save of GoT or any other Sony game and auto-popping all the trophies? Now I don't personally care if people do that, but I know Sony does.
Trophies being patched into earlier PC ports would be lovely, but I would not hold my breath. Hopefully, if Sony does undertake that, popping those Trophies could function similarly to how Steam and Xbox Achievements are interconnected. With a game like
Halo: The Master Chief Collection, any Achievements you earn via Steam are automatically claimed on Xbox, and vice versa. It even works upon account linking
years later, as I discovered myself by unlocking Steam achievements in 2024 for tasks I completed on an Xbox One back in 2014.
Sony's impending situation vaguely reminds me of the so-so support for Trophies when they debuted on PS3 back in the middle of 2008. They did not become a necessity in games until 2009. I recall being disappointed when some previously released, yet notable, first-party titles like
Resistance: Fall of Man never supported the feature. Even Sony's own games that
did receive a set of Trophies after release, such as
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, required new playthrough(s).
I am willing to bet that more people would buy games on a PS launcher over EGS
Press 1 if you think a Sony game will sell just 200 copies on their store vs millions on Steam or press 2 if you just wanted to use an extreme and unrealistic difference to try and prove a point :D
Sony introducing their own storefront would be a gamble not worth taking, in my opinion. Steam is so far ahead of everything else, to the point where Sony would have to offer substantial incentives to bring PC gamers through their virtual doors. Not to mention, Steam also has the advantage of being the oldest of the bunch. Some users have purchases that occurred roughly 20 years ago tied to the service. Out of
every launcher/storefront/etc. that is available on a PC running Windows, Steam is the closest one to replicating (and even superseding in some areas) the console experience.
EA left Steam and then returned. Ubisoft left Steam and then returned. Even
Call of Duty's departure was short-lived. The Epic Games Store is still a glorified Fortnite launcher. The growing number of free games that have come and gone from the latter cannot compensate for the absence of features. Some of those include controller remapping, game library customization, installed games management, performant download speeds, universal in-game overlay, as well as actual socialization options. To put it nicely, the current friends list does not offer much more than already present on Nintendo Switch Online.
Essentially, I believe that the monetary cost and time Sony would need to invest into developing a capable launcher could be better served elsewhere. If anything, it would have been wise to bring this launcher to market
alongside the
Horizon Zero Dawn port in 2020. Four years later, plenty of us (myself included) have already crafted a sizable collection of PlayStation PC LLC's games on one or more programs. I prefer to keep everything inside Steam, but EGS' occasional greater discounts or GOG's promise of DRM-free downloads are also factors to consider. I think introducing a fourth location to purchase these games would be unsuccessful in the long run.