“It’s important to realize that we’re really thoughtful about bringing our franchises off console to reach new audiences and that we’re taking a very measured, very deliberate approach in doing that.” That’s how PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst described Sony’s approach to porting its first-party exclusives to PC earlier this year. But recently discovered references to PC gaming and a possible “cross-buy” feature on the PlayStation 5 storefront have some wondering if the company’s about to do something more bold when its PS6 console lineup arrives in the not-too-distant future.
According to dataminer Amethxst (and corroborated by others), new symbols have recently been added to the PlayStation Store backend for PS5. One is a shared “PS5/PC” icon and the other reads “Cross-Buy.” They add that the new symbols use official Sony fonts and aren’t found on PS4. While these new icons aren’t yet proof of anything, they suggest Sony is exploring new features that would expand the PlayStation ecosystem beyond a single console, much like Microsoft has been doing with its “Play Anywhere” initiative and recent movement into PC gaming handhelds with the full-screen Windows gaming experience for the ROG Xbox Ally X.
I didn’t think this and @Zuby_Tech‘s post would go viral, so:
– The screen is real (see video below)
– The symbols are present on PS5 (not PS4)
– The symbols are official Sony ‘fonts’ (uf-code: EF5B to EF61)You can see them yourself by searching for my ID: yAmethxst https://t.co/abU35ihfHG pic.twitter.com/xz6e5u14v6
— Amethxst (@yAmethxst) November 4, 2025
One thing we do know is that Sony has been exploring how to expand its reach into PC gaming for years by bringing its biggest blockbusters to Steam and the Epic Games Store. That effort began with Horizon Zero Dawn in 2021 and has seen major PS5 exclusives like Spider-Man 2 arrive on PC in as little as 15 months after the console version released. At that pace, Astro Bot should arrive by early next year. But Sony has stopped short of going full day-and-date on PC with its releases, outside of online multiplayer games like Helldivers 2.
Sony’s rumored PlayStation PC launcher
It’s also struggled to navigate how to bring those games to another platform while still getting new players to join its existing PlayStation Network service. Sony has added trophy support and other features to Steam versions of games like Ghost of Tsushima but has also faced backlash over PSN login requirements for even its single-player blockbusters. It’s a tricky tightrope to walk that comes with obvious downsides for Sony, the most significant of which is that other companies get a cut of the sales when PlayStation games are sold on PC.
One obvious solution to that problem would be a full-blown PlayStation PC launcher like Ubisoft and other third-party publishers have. Indeed, Sony was reportedly exploring exactly that based on references found in the files for Spider-Man Remastered. While the company eventually opted to integrate PSN directly into the Steam versions of games, the newly discovered references to “PS5/PC” and “Cross-Buy” make it seem like a bespoke PlayStation PC launcher might still be on the table.
A PC launcher seems like the most obvious way that Sony could allow players to purchase a game like God of War on console and then redeem the PC version of it at no extra cost, or vice versa. Microsoft’s “Play Anywhere” initiative works similarly. Buying Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series X doesn’t qualify you for the Steam version of the game but it does get you access to the Windows version, because Microsoft owns that storefront and has worked out the licensing agreements with third-party publishers.
The new platform wars
But this isn’t the first time Sony has supported “Cross-Buy” in the PlayStation ecosystem, and these new references could also be hinting at potential plans for the company’s rumored handheld. A big selling point of the PlayStation Vita back in the day was that some games only had to be purchased once to play them across both the portable and PS3. One of those was the original Helldivers. It was a neat idea that abruptly ended thanks to the Vita’s quick demise.
A new high-end gaming handheld that approaches the power of a PlayStation 5, however, would bring “Cross-Buy” back in a big way. There are two interesting possibilities here. The first and most expected is that Sony’s rumored next-gen handheld would have access to all of the games players already have in the PS5 and PS4 libraries. But “Cross-Buy” would also give players coming from PC who are otherwise new to the PlayStation console ecosystem a better foothold if their existing Sony purchases can be redeemed across both platforms.
Or maybe Sony is exploring a more hybrid PC gaming handheld approach in the vein of the Xbox Ally X. It’s easy to speculate but hard to say with no concrete info to go on. The most interesting takeaway, however, is that Microsoft’s recent moves might be forcing Sony to compete in unexpected ways. The tech giant might be retreating from the traditional console hardware market, but its wider platform initiatives could still be pushing PlayStation to offer players better features in the future.
