The PlayStation 4 is on a roll for the last few months. The console has seen a number of high profile exclusives such as Nioh, Gravity Rush 2, Horizon Zero Dawn and Yakuza 0. All of them have been critically acclaimed and will most likely achieve their sales target as well. However, if one looks closely at Sony’s line-up since 2015 there is an interesting pattern to be found.
An interesting notion about Sony’s exclusive game lineup comes to light if one spends just a little time observing it- every year, Sony seems to have at least one major exclusive title to greatly push PS4 sales. In 2015, it was From Software’s excellent Bloodborne; last year, it was the brilliant Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End from Naughty Dog. This year, we’ve already got Guerrilla Games’ magnum opus with Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Sport is also allegedly still due for this year end which will push the console’s sales even further.
Going forward, we see 2018 possibly having God of War, with The Last of Us Part 2 and Death Stranding for beyond- this represents some phenomenal planning on Sony’s end. It seems to demonstrate that each year, Sony has at least one major title which is most likely going to be critically acclaimed along with mass commercial appeal to add to the PS4’s library. Moreover, these games are all varied, across different genres, and have the possibility of attracting new kinds of users into the PS4’s fold. In short, these games are potentially system sellers…these games are the reason why anyone would pick up a new PlayStation 4.
This isn’t even considering the smaller tier exclusives that Sony has- games like inFamous, Ratchet and Clank, Until Dawn, Nioh, Detroit: Become Human– just the massive blockbuster titles. We are sure that Sony will receive many more exclusives in the future but if we talk about really high profile ones, Sony has it covered with the PlayStation 4.
What further amazes us is that the PlayStation 4 is getting the best of both worlds. Whether it be Japanese games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Shenmue 3 or be it western developed games like Days Gone and Detroit Become Human, the PlayStation 4’s library is getting stronger and stronger each year.
Somewhat related, this is a situation that needs to be remedied by Microsoft, and fast. Maybe with the Scorpio, Microsoft can find itself back in a position of strength, and be more willing to take risks and chances, but as it stands right now, this is another example of Sony’s fantastic long term planning for positioning the PS4 as a system that a player of any kind can ultimately enjoy.
