If you buy The Outer Worlds 2 or any number of major Microsoft-published games, you can play them on both Xbox and PC with the same purchase. Now that Sony is all in on supporting the PC platform with its first-party games, it might just be planning to support a similar cross-platform purchase system between PC and PlayStation 5. Newly uncovered assets indicate that it’s in the works.
Leakers on social media are showing a “Cross-Buy” logo from files uncovered on the PlayStation Store with a combined “PS5/PC” logo attached. While it’s far from definitive, that sure sounds like a buy-it-once, play-it-anywhere approach to me. “Anywhere” might include streaming options, which Sony has just recently expanded to its Portal handheld device, but is unlikely to include an actual Xbox home console.
As Tom’s Hardware notes, this isn’t the first time that the “Cross-Buy” label has been used by Sony. Back when the PS Vita was still kicking, you could buy some games and have them available on your handheld, PS3, and PS4. But Sony moved away from that when it ceded the handheld market to Nintendo. All PS4 games can play on the PS5, and some can be “upgraded” to the more powerful hardware with extra graphical features.
Since I have both a gaming PC and a PS5, the idea of owning games across systems is particularly exciting for me. I’ve often had to weigh buying a game on the more powerful PC hardware or the system sitting in my living room that’s much better for multiplayer. It sure doesn’t help that we seem to have fully embraced the idea that $70 is an acceptable price to pay for a new game. Getting access to it on PC and console with one purchase would help a lot to ease that sting in my wallet.
