2020's Dreams is like nothing else. The PlayStation game is an incredibly powerful and flexible creation tool, a platform for building art, film, even videogames. Dreams is so cool, it's a shame everything made in it is trapped on the PlayStation.
Before release, one of Dream's lead developers claimed the game would come to PC someday. But as of late 2022, we're still waiting. Here's what we know about Dreams' PC prospects, and whether we should keep dreaming about playing it one day.
2021: Dreams dev says publishing Dreams content off the PlayStation is a work in progress
A year after Dreams released on PlayStation 4, studio director Siobhan Reddy spoke to Kotaku about plans for the game (or at least creations made within Dreams) to exist away from Sony's console.
"It’s complicated, and we have to do it in the right way, and we have to do it in a way that works with Sony because we’re a big organization," Reddy said. "For ages we’ve been saying to the community, 'We’re working on it,' and we’re still at that point."
That was early 2021. There's been no news of a PC port since then.
Dreams wasn't on the leaked list of upcoming Sony PC ports
In September 2021, a list of games in Nvidia's GeForce Now database leaked, and seemingly included a bunch of unreleased upcoming games. Nvidia claimed the games on the list were purely speculative, but since September at least 10 games from the list have been revealed. It's possible some others will be canceled before ever being made public, of course, but the list is definitely legit, and it includes several PlayStation games including Ghosts of Tsushima, Returnal, and Demon's Souls.
Dreams is not on the list. Maybe it'll still arrive eventually, but it seems likely that a PS5 update will arrive before we hear anything about a possible PC version.
2019: Media Molecule co-founder said Dreams will someday come to PC
Speaking to GameIndustry.biz at the View Conference 2019, Media Molecule co-founder and art director Kareem Ettouney said that a PC version is part of the plan for Dreams. Though, we probably shouldn't be holding our breath for it anytime soon.
"The answer to every question is 'yes', but Dreams needs to reach a lot of people first," he said. "Our goal for Dreams is to last for 20 years, and keep expanding it and keep adding to it and keep improving it. But most of the PlayStation model is designed for a game to come out, it hits the market, and it makes most of its returns in the first week, you know? If it's a big game, it survives for maybe two or three sequels.
"We need to reach [an audience] and then grow. But it's definitely in our dreams to do Pro versions that are expanded. It just depends on a lot of things working out for us."
That's not as exact as we'd prefer, but it makes sense considering how long-term Media Molecule's plans are for Dreams. There are no guarantees, but if Dreams gets to where it needs to be, it will eventually expand onto PC and beyond. It won't be the first formerly PS4 exclusive game to make the jump to PC recently. Death Stranding and Horizon: Zero Dawn both came to PC in 2020 and The Last of Us 2 is rumored to be in the works as well.
There's already some incredible stuff in Dreams
Check out this cool Kaiju game, for instance. Or this Cyberpunk PlayStation 1 demake, or this puppet show made by a professional animator. Or my personal favorite, this high-quality recreation of the shooting mechanics in Receiver that other creators can import into their own games. Because the world needs more Receiver-likes.
How would Dreams control on PC?
Dreams on PS4 functions by essentially turning your controller into a mouse cursor (represented by your imp). The camera control is handled with the analog sticks. I can see a similar setup working well with mouse and keyboard.
Though, to many dreams creators, the controller is only half of their toolset. When it comes to fine details, many hook up two Move controllers. The main advantage of the Moves is the addition of depth control, letting you "reach" into the screen and sculpt.
The Move control scheme can't really be mapped to mouse and keyboard, but it could work in VR. PSVR support for Dreams is already in the works, so it's likely that an eventual PC version would support VR or AR and enable the same refined sculpting.
This is Brom
I made him in an hour one day. He's a walking broom (based on the one in my kitchen) with eyes and teeth. He can walk, but he leaves dust balls everywhere he goes. Keep away from his mouth—he bites.
