PS5 exclusive sequels won’t launch until 2025
As part of Sony’s latest earnings reports, it’s been revealed that major franchise sequels won’t be heading to PS5 any time soon.
Making AAA video games is getting harder. You only need to look at the number of exclusives released on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 so far, compared to the console generation before. Whereas the PS4 and Xbox One times were awash with the likes of Halo 5 and Sunset Overdrive on the Xbox side and Marvel’s Spider-Man, Bloodborne, and Uncharted 4 on the PlayStation side, big first-party console exclusives are now few and far between. The shortage is set to continue on PS5 throughout the rest of this year too, Sony’s latest earnings report reveals.
The third-quarter earnings report in question, archived in full on Sony’s site, states that PlayStation won’t be releasing any updates or sequels to “major existing franchise titles” until March, 2025. Of course, this doesn’t discount that we could see a new first-party IP launch on PS5 before then, but it does discount the likes of, say, a hypothetical Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 or Ghost of Tsushima 2.
The report goes on to say that the focus is instead on “producing high-quality works and developing live service games” before explicitly stating that “we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnarok or Marvel’s Spider-Man 2”. In a sense, then, that either means all we’re getting by way of PS5 first-party exclusives this year is either something totally new, or nothing at all. As of right now, no PlayStation Studios team has a game scheduled to release in 2024.
Quality comes first
While it may be disappointing to learn that PlayStation doesn’t expect to release a sequel to any of its major hit franchises before early next year, this of course doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to play. On February 29, 2024, for example, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches as a third-party PS5 exclusive from Square Enix. Then there’s the banquet of other non-Sony published titles showcased in the PlayStation State of Play January 2024 livestream, such as Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, and the Silent Hill 2 remake.
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Knowing now that, say, Ghost of Tsushima 2 is all but confirmed to not release this holiday (as I'd personally hoped for) makes PlayStation’s nature to partner up with other publishers make even more sense. All the games listed above still mean players on PS5 will be eating well by way of exclusives this year – even if none of them are made by a studio that PlayStation either directly owns or is in control of.
Despite the lack of first-party PS5 exclusives for the rest of this year and early next, then, I still find myself excited about the other types of exclusive titles that are coming to the platform. The expense of AAA games has clearly risen since this generation of consoles kicked off, so it’s good to see PlayStation find a workaround by establishing publishing partners that ensure PS5 is still a healthy place to play.
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