PS5 will not receive exclusive games from major franchises until 2025; understand
Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will not have “titles from major existing franchises” released throughout 2025. This means that we will not see exclusive releases from the company’s consolidated names, which usually drive console sales, such as God of War, The Last of Us and Spider-Man.
The information was shared by the Japanese company itself during the release of its fiscal report for the last quarter of 2023. According to the executive, the company’s plan now is to focus on games as a service, such as the recently released Helldivers 2, available on PS5 and PRAÇA.
“About software made in-house, we continue to focus on producing high quality work and developing games in the format live service“, quoted Sony Group interim president Hiroki Totoki. Specifically, he commented that Games as big as franchises like God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man will not be released at least until April 2025.
Will the PS5 run out of exclusives in 2024?
Despite the lack of releases of consolidated PlayStation series, the company will still have exclusive games in 2024 through partnerships. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, for example, will now be released in February only on PS5.
While franchises like God of War are “saucing”, PlayStation will still have exclusives in 2024.
Furthermore, other titles have already been announced for 2024 with release only on PS5, at least initially. Stellar Blade will arrive on console as an exclusive in April, while Rise of the Ronin will be available in March.
Still in 2024, Konami will also release Silent Hill 2, which arrives first on the PS5 in the console market. In fact, the horror franchise received a free, short-lived game, which is currently only available on the PlayStation 5.
Sony expects drop in PS5 revenue
In the survey, Sony not only revealed this information about the delay in the delivery of exclusive games. The company also already foresees some negative consequences of this break in the calendar of releases.
According to the brand, console sales are expected to fall in the next fiscal year and impact the revenue generated by the PlayStation division. The expectation of selling 25 million PS5s in the fiscal year — which ends on March 31, 2024 — was reduced to 21 million.
The PlayStation 5.Source: GettyImages
According to the brand itself, the console need to have another 4.6 million devices sold by the deadline to reach the new established target. Revenue from the Games & Network Services segment expectations were reduced by 5%, as this number is directly impacted by fewer consoles being purchased.
Interestingly, Totoki also commented that the company already sees the current generation as being in the final half of their lives. For this reason, now the company “focuses on optimizing sales with a greater emphasis on profit management” and is already facing a decline in sales of the console as a whole.
Spider-Man 2 was the highlight of games at the end of 2023.Source: Sony
Sony’s numbers at the end of 2023
In the last quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, Sony declared that it had broken a new record in revenue in the games division.
Service revenue, which includes the PlayStation Plus platform, also broke records for income and monthly active users — 123 million subscribers were registered11% more than in the same period of the previous year.
Furthermore, in total, the PlayStation 5 arrived at 54.7 million units sold, something driven by the arrival of the Slim model. In terms of games, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was seen as the highlight of the end of 2023: the hero’s adventure already reached 10 million units sold.
