Housemarque GDC talk further hints toward a possible Returnal PC port

As you probably already know, Sony recently began porting several of its high-profile PlayStation exclusives to PC platforms. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that players have rumored about a potential PC port of Returnal for a long time, with a few apparent clues adding fuel to the speculation. One of these clues came in the form of a SteamDB listing that featured references to Returnal‘s world and genre. That same listing received an update two months later that implemented Steam Deck support. Now, another potential hint has come to the surface, this time coming from a recent GDC talk held by Risto Jankkila and Sharman Jagadeesan, who both work for Returnal studio Housemarque.

This GDC presentation, which centered around Returnal‘s use of VFX, featured screenshots and clips of the game that, according to Alex Battaglia of Digital Foundry, ran on a PC and utilized a debug readout. This doesn’t mean much by itself, but the debug menu specifically references mouse and keyboard support in addition to dynamic resolution, a feature unavailable in the PS5 release.

A potentially significant release

So far, all PlayStation exclusives that have made their way to PC were previously on the PS4. This means that, assuming a port is coming relatively soon, Returnal would serve as one of the first true PS5 exclusives to come to PC. We know for sure that Sony plans on releasing a PC port of The Last of Us Part I. But being an original PS5 exclusive rather than a remake, Returnal would definitely serve as the bigger milestone.

The PS5 still remains fairly difficult to get, so a PC port would make Returnal much more accessible to the average consumer. Hopefully, a PC port won’t come with a $69.99 USD price tag, as we really do not need games to be even more expensive than they already are.