Hiroki Totoki, the president of Sony, delineated the brand’s ambitions for the upcoming fiscal year and the future of PlayStation in an enlightening financial report and earnings call. As disclosed, the PS5 looks to be gradually losing value since it “is entering the latter half of the console cycle,” and Sony has shifted its attention to place “a greater emphasis on the balance with profits” as a result.
Sony announced that throughout this fiscal year, fans shouldn’t anticipate any new entries in any of its first-party series. Sony president Hiroki Totoki stated in the company’s most recent fiscal report that the company will not be releasing “any new major existing franchise titles” until April 2025, such as God of War Ragnarök or Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. First-party PlayStation games are released on a rather regular schedule. Typically, it releases two big titles annually; in 2022, those titles will be Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West.
In his speech, Totoki stated that Sony will “continue to focus on producing high-quality works and live-service games.” Apart from that, its studios are working on “major projects.” Right now, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, scheduled for release in 2025, is the most recent exclusive PlayStation 5.
For a time now, PlayStation has required a skip year.
In general, Sony isn’t as transparent about the products it doesn’t release. This candor means that games like the upcoming Sucker Punch game or Marvel’s Wolverine will probably be released in 2025 at the latest. Several PlayStation developers have reportedly felt restricted by the emphasis on high-profile triple-A titles. The budgets for these films are constantly growing, and a few of them hardly make any money at all.
It looks like significant first-party and exclusive releases will take a backseat in the upcoming fiscal year, even if there will still be significant game releases inside the PlayStation ecosystem, such as Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. Though not shocking, the news is somewhat depressing given that several of Sony’s largest partners and companies have already delivered significant titles recently. It takes time to get big releases like Marvel’s Wolverine and the upcoming Death Stranding 2. That will result in a brief pause in the PS5’s release timetable for now.
PlayStation’s Future: Balancing Quality and Cost
Sony is optimistic about the PlayStation’s future despite this obstacle because of its loyal user base and the continued popularity of its new franchise games. As previously mentioned, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 just achieved a 10 million copy sales milestone, bringing the franchise’s total sales on PlayStation and PC to 50 million units. Ragnarök, the god of war, is also said to have “major contributions to profits.”
In essence, he wants PlayStation to maintain its high caliber without going over budget. Although triple-A development generally is acknowledged to have this issue, it’s not apparent what the real remedy is other than doing more with less money. It looks like the firm won’t have a significant flagship game to maintain this success in the upcoming year, but that probably promises huge things from PlayStation in 2025 and beyond.
