Sony is pulling a U-turn on its multi-platform strategy, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reporting that first-party PS5 games soon to become exclusive once again, at the expense of PC players.

Sony started releasing some of its biggest games on PC in 2020, when Horizon Zero Dawn came to Steam. A number of other titles have followed suit since, including The Last of Us Part I, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök and the Marvel’s Spider-Man games. But the company appears to have had a major change of heart, with high-profile titles like Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming Saros set to launch on PS5 only.

Schreier was told by anonymous sources that Sony-published online games like Marvel Tokon and the imminent Marathon will remain multi-platform releases as planned, and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2, which launched last year as a PS5 exclusive, is still set for a PC release in 2026. But while Sony could always change its mind again, it looks unlikely that the tentpole single-player epics that PlayStation has become known for since the PS4 era will receive PC ports going forward.

There are likely several reasons for this strategic shift. The most obvious one is the poor sales performance of PS5 games on PC, with ports generally not arriving on Steam until at least a year after their console launch. This is in stark contrast with Microsoft, which will launch first-party titles such as Fable and Forza Horizon 6 on Xbox, PC and PS5 at the same time later this year. It would see Sony return to a more Nintendo-like approach, with the latter famously (and extremely successfully) holding firm on console exclusivity for the likes of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon.

PlayStation insiders also told Bloomberg that some people within the company fear that releasing PS5 games on PC is detrimental to the brand, and could harm sales of future PlayStation consoles. Schreier also points out that with the next Xbox expected to be a proper Windows-powered PC that would presumably be able to run Steam and other launchers, Sony might be acting now to ensure that the versatility of such a machine doesn’t enable Xbox players to play future PS5 games on it. (It’s probably galling enough to the suits at Sony that people are already doing this with Steam’s current library of PlayStation games on the Xbox-branded ROG Ally X handheld.)

A PlayStation spokesperson declined Bloomberg’s request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sorry-first-party-playstation-games-arent-coming-to-pc-anymore-152128980.html?src=rss

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As if you needed reminding, next week is March 10, or MAR10 Day, as the marketing wizards at Nintendo have been calling it for the last decade or so. You can usually rely on Mario Day for some plumber-related goodies, and Nintendo has announced that three retro games are coming to Nintendo Switch Online next week.

Those games are Mario’s Tennis and Mario Clash for the newly launched Virtual Boy app, and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy Advance. Both the GBA and Virtual Boy emulators are part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership plan, so you’ll need to be on that tier to play them this Mario Day.

Both of the soon-to-be added Virtual Boy titles originally came out in 1995. Mario Clash is something of a 3D reimagining of the arcade Mario Bros. game, while Mario’s Tennis was actually the first game in the Mario Tennis series, making it a nice companion piece to Mario Tennis Fever, which recently launched on Switch 2. They join 3d Tetris, Galactic Pinball, Golf, The Mansion of Innsmouth, Red Alarm, Teleroboxer and Virtual Boy Wario Land in the Virtual Boy NSO library so far, with more titles on the way. Remember that you’ll need either the $100 Virtual Boy replica or $25 cardboard headset to play them on your Switch.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong for the GBA is a more unexpected addition, not least because Nintendo remade the charming puzzle-platformer for Switch just a few years ago. Having the source material available on the console too via NSO is obviously nice, but there are other still absent Mario games from the iconic handheld’s enviable library that I’d personally have liked to have seen sooner (*cough* Mario Tennis: Power Tour).

All three games will be playable on March 10.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/three-retro-mario-titles-are-coming-to-nintendo-switch-online-on-mario-day-130223937.html?src=rss

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