Sony Might Finally Stop Making Us Pay Twice, PSN Leaks Suggest
A "Cross-Buy" tag has been found lurking in the PSN store's code. My wallet is both terrified and intrigued.
A new leak is making the rounds, and this one has my full attention. An X user named Amethxst spotted some interesting new symbols hidden in the PlayStation Store's backend. The icons are simple: one says "Cross-Buy," and the other, "PS5/PC".
At first, it was just an image, easy to fake. But then Amethxst followed up with a video that's a hell of a lot more convincing. This isn't just a rumor; it looks like Sony is building the plumbing for something big.
A 'Feature' We Haven't Seen Since the Vita
That French site Dealabs did some digging of its own and found the term "crossbuy-tag" living in the store's CSS files. This isn't just some new idea. Sony has used the "Cross-Buy" term since the sad, lonely days of the PS Vita.
But finding new symbols in June, specifically mentioning "PC," lines up perfectly with Sony's slow, reluctant, but profitable march toward the PC market. They've been porting their exclusives for years, and Helldivers 2 proved a simultaneous launch can be a goldmine.
But What About 'Printing Money'?
Here's the part that makes my brain itch. Earlier this year, Shuhei Yoshida famously said that porting PlayStation games to PC is "almost like printing money".
He's right. I've bought some of those games twice. A lot of us have.
Cross-buy, by definition, stops the money printer. It means they lose that second bite of the apple. So why do it? The corporate-speak answer is "ecosystem." Yoshida also said PC exposure might convince players to buy a new console for the sequel. By that logic, cross-buy is the ultimate bait, making it painless for a PC player to justify grabbing a PS5.
The Microsoft Problem
Then again, we've seen this movie before, and it gets weird. Microsoft has been doing cross-buy for ages. You buy Halo once, you own it on Xbox and PC. It's great for us.
But as my colleague James Bentley pointed out, this strategy has consequences. Xbox has made "everything an Xbox," and in the process, has... well, what is the Xbox brand anymore? Their console sales are reportedly in decline, even as they insist a next-gen box is coming.
Sony has to be looking at that and wondering how to get the PC money without completely gutting their own brand identity.
So, What Now?
As a PC gamer, I honestly don't care about their identity crisis. More games on more systems is just... good. It's all gravy.
I'm just morbidly curious to see what the console landscape looks like in five years. Will Sony's "ecosystem" be a walled garden with a PC-sized door, or will they and Microsoft just blur into one giant, amorphous "Game Pass" blob?
Either way, my wallet is ready for a break.
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