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2 months ago
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God of War on PC just hit an important milestone that would have seemed extremely unlikely 6 years ago when the game launched on PS4: it’s now available DRM-free via GOG.com (and it’s half-off at $24.99 for the rest of the month, to boot). The title has joined an impressive group of other PC games that were once exclusive to PlayStation consoles — all of which are completely free of DRM (digital rights management), software that is typically used to prevent piracy and mods. Currently, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection are each discounted, as well.
Sony’s decision to bring some of its PlayStation games to PC is nothing new, nor is its work to eventually remove DRM from select titles to list them on GOG’s site. Nevertheless, there’s something exciting about seeing new games get added to the DRM-free pile. In doing so, Sony is expressing that it is content for its games to exist outside the control of any store’s platform, so long as people pay for them. Ironically, this is something that Xbox Game Studios currently does, to a much less impressive degree.
It’s true that most PC gamers use Steam to buy and play games, but offering DRM-free titles is what fully committing to PC as a platform looks like. Kudos, Sony.
Sony Santa Monica’s hit revival of the God of War series was (and still is, if you want to experience God of War Ragnarök) one of the main reasons to buy a PlayStation console. The steady stream of Sony-published games coming to PC is changing that slightly. The company’s big 2024 hit, Helldivers 2, hit Steam the same day as the PS5 version’s launch, as did its remaster of The Last of Us Part 2. Sony’s next big title to make the platform leap is Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch Production’s excellent open-world title is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store (EGS) in May. Maybe Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is next?
But when will these games become DRM-free and head to GOG? That’s hard to predict. Going off of God of War’s 6-year timeline, the PC port came to Steam at the beginning of 2022, after it was a console-exclusive game for 4 years. Other games made the transition much quicker. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection came to GOG in December 2023, a little more than a year after its Steam and EGS debut. However long the wait is to get more DRM-free titles, GOG’s Zuzanna Rybacka told Polygon that a vocal community plays a major role in accelerating its negotiations with Sony to get more games on its storefront — that, and having an ace business development team.
