Sam Hill is a news writer at Polygon covering gaming and entertainment. He’s a Portland, Oregon–based journalist known for covering gaming, the outdoors, national parks, tech, food, and internet culture. He has written for a range of publications including Outside Magazine, Boston Magazine, Vice, the Seattle Times and Digital Trends.
Sony says hardly anyone uses its PC streaming app
Sony is making another change to how PlayStation users access its games outside its consoles, with the company preparing to shut down the PlayStation Plus app on PC next month.
In a November update announcing the latest PlayStation Plus Game Catalog additions, Sony confirmed that the PC app will be retired on Dec. 10. The change means PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers will no longer be able to stream games from the service’s cloud catalog on PC.
Sony said the decision came after reviewing how members use the service, claiming that fewer than 0.4% of eligible PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers use the PC app. The company added that retiring it will allow Sony to focus on improving experiences that more members use.
The shutdown will not affect PlayStation Plus memberships or benefits on PS5 and PS4. Sony also said it will notify affected users directly.
Sony has had a difficult year with PlayStation fans
The decision to retire the PC app is another sign of Sony narrowing its ambitions outside the PlayStation console experience. It also arrives amid several other controversial decisions that have frustrated players.
Earlier this year, Sony increased the monthly prices of all three PlayStation Plus subscription tiers. The company has also raised PS5 prices multiple times, with the company recently offering some existing console owners up to $400 through a trade-in partnership with refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market.
Perhaps most controversially, Sony announced in July that it would stop producing physical game discs for new PlayStation releases beginning in January 2028. New games will still be sold through retailers, but only as digital download codes rather than physical copies.
Taken together, these decisions suggest Sony is increasingly prioritizing its digital ecosystem and console business, even as some longtime PlayStation customers question the direction of the brand.