Returnal was released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on April 30, 2021. The third-person shooter with rogue-like elements is developer Housemarque's most ambitious project to date, the was bought by Sony about a year ago. There are now increasing indications of an imminent PC port.
Back in May, a game codenamed Oregon appeared in the unofficial Steam database SteamDB. Some of the localization strings that bear the names of areas or locations in the science fiction game have betrayed the returnal port. In addition, there has been speculation about a potential PC version since a major leak from the GeForce Now database last year.
On the Steam -Version is worked daily
Now the indications of a release date not too distant in the future are growing. The change history of the project shows new updates almost every day, even yesterday, Saturday, there were changes. On Thursday, for example, translations of the in-game achievements were added in a total of 19 languages, as initially reported by VGC. Although the majority of the history and data on the SteamDB entry cannot be viewed, they nevertheless reveal that the PC version is currently being worked on at full speed. A corresponding announcement could therefore be forthcoming soon.
Returnal is a single-player shooter with a sci-fi setting. The space pilot Selen strands her spaceship on a remote planet and is then stuck in a time warp. While exploring the unknown world, players will encounter the ruins of an alien culture and hostile creatures. If Selen dies, she finds herself aboard her spaceship shortly afterwards – with her memory of what happened intact, but without any weapons or other objects she might have collected. The aim of the game is to find out the cause of the time warp and, in doing so, to reconstruct the history of the planet. Returnal has been praised by critics and gamers alike.
Sony wants to bring more games to the PC
The fact that Sony in all likelihood now intends to break up the previous PlayStation 5 exclusivity in favor of the PC shouldn't come as a surprise, given the commitment to the platform that has meanwhile been repeatedly confirmed. Most recently, the publisher announced to investors that it would massively expand its commitment to PC and mobile; in 2025, half of all new releases will be available on PC and mobile devices. So far, Horizon Zero Dawn (test) and God of War (test) have made the jump from PlayStation to Steam, and a port of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and the spin-off The Lost Legacy have already been officially announced.