Leaked PlayStation store files suggest that Sony could be exploring cross-buy between PC and PS5

Sony appears to be exploring potential cross-buy games between PC and PS5, according to recent leaks from the PlayStation store.

The leak first appeared on X, where user Amethxst posted an image purportedly showing new, hidden symbols that have been added to the PlayStation store. One icon reads "Cross-Buy", while the second reads PS5/PC. "New Symbols will be added soon (website & tool), but here [are] some nice new features from PlayStation", Amethxst wrote. "A kind of 'echo mode' 'PS5/PC games' and 'Cross-Buy'."

While this initial post was difficult to verify, later, Amethxst followed this up with a video, in which they locate the symbols within the PS5's user menu, and it is much more convincing.

Elsewhere, a French website Dealabs (via Gamespot) provided further evidence of the symbols' authenticity, discovering the words "crossbuy-tag" within some CSS files on the PlayStation Store. Since the term "Cross-Buy" has been used by Sony since the PS-Vita days, Dealabs also checked when the new symbols were added to the store, and discovered they first appeared in June this year.

Sony has yet to confirm the authenticity of these symbols. But PC/PS5 cross-buy would certainly fall in line with Sony's increasingly PC friendly attitude. Sony has been releasing its first-party exclusive games onto PC for years, while last year brought us the first concurrent PC/PS5 launch in Helldivers 2.

Earlier this year, former head of PlayStation Studios Shuhei Yoshida explained that releasing its exclusives on PC is "almost like printing money". If that's the case, then Cross-Buy would seem to stop the presses somewhat, as it means Sony would lose that second bite of the apple.

However, Yoshida also pointed out that Sony believes when players are exposed to a new PlayStation game via PC, "those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation." By this line of thinking, cross-buy would make it easier to expose those players to the PlayStation ecosystem, possibly encouraging PC-only players to pick up a PS5.

Then again, it might have the opposite effect. Microsoft already facilitates Cross-Buy for most of its Xbox games, allowing them to be played on Xbox, PC, as well as its new handheld PC, the ROG Ally X. But as James Bentley recently pointed out, between this and putting its games on PS5, Xbox has made pretty much everything an Xbox, and consequently has lost much of its brand identity. The most recent reports indicate that Xbox sales are in decline, though Microsoft insists that it is still making a next-gen console.

Not that this matters much to PC gamers—having more games we can play on more systems is all gravy for us. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder where Xbox and Sony's strategies ultimately lead, and what the shape of the gaming landscape will look like in five years' time.