Returnal is one of the biggest Ps5 exclusives of 2021, but is it coming to PC in the future? Returnal has received a lot of attention, by virtue of the fact that it's the first major PS5 exclusive of the year, as FF7 Remake Intergrade and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart won't be released until next month.
The response to Returnal has been mostly positive, with reviewers discussing how well it utilizes the PS5 hardware. The visuals in Returnal are gorgeous, with ray tracing active while at 4K/60 fps. The game has almost no load times, especially when traveling through portals within a stage. The most impressive thing about Returnal is how well it utilizes the DualSense controller, with haptic feedback bombarding the player's hands with different sensations, and the adaptive triggers adding a satisfying feeling to the gunplay.
The fact that Returnal is so closely associated with the PlayStation 5's hardware raises the question of how well it will run on other systems. Xbox Series X/S exclusive The Medium had a number of gimmicks that were linked to the hardware, but a suitably beefy PC could run the game without issue. Is Returnal coming to PC in the future, and would it even run properly?
The Future Of Returnal On Steam & PC
As of the time of writing, there are no plans to release Returnal on PC or Steam. Sony might not have a problem turning its coveted PS5 games into cross-gen titles, but releasing the first major exclusive of 2021 on PC would diminish its value, at least at first. It's unlikely that Returnal will come to PC in the near future. A suitably strong computer could run it and DualSense controllers work on PC, so there wouldn't be too many technical problems holding it back. It's just a case of Sony keeping the game on its own platform.
Returnal might be a PS5 exclusive at the moment, but it probably won't stay that way. Sony has started releasing its older exclusives on PC, including Days Gone. The key word here is "older," as the games that have come to PC have been PS4 titles. It seems that Sony's strategy involves porting less-new exclusives to PC after their value has diminished, in order to expose them to a new audience. It might take a couple of years, but it would make sense for Sony to release Returnal on PC eventually. As it stands, the game is currently a PS5 exclusive, with no word on when that might change.
Returnal is available now for PS5.