The first half of the PS5’s life has seen Sony continuing to release major first-party exclusives with the same impressive momentum that defined much of the PS4’s life, but it looks like things have certainly slowed down. In 2023, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was the only major flagship first-party title to release for the PlayStation 5, and as some have expected, Sony has now confirmed that it won’t be releasing any games on that scale until the end of the next fiscal year (i.e. until at least April 1, 2025).
During Sony’s recent quarterly earnings call, Sony Group president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki said that though major first-party titles are currently in development, the company won’t be releasing any new titles in “existing major franchises” in the coming fiscal year (April 2024-March 2025).
“Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,” Totoki said (transcription via Gematsu). “But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”
Helldivers 2 was Sony’s first first-party release of 2024, and has enjoyed widespread critical and commercial acclaim. The company has three more first-party titles confirmed to be lined up for launch in 2024, with Rise of the Ronin releasing in March, Stellar Blade in April, and an enhanced Until Dawn remaster later in the year.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is officially set to launch sometime in 2025, though Totoki’s comments would suggest it won’t be out in the year’s first quarter. Meanwhile, leaks emerging from Insomniac Games’ data breach in December also revealed that the developer was planning on releasing Marvel’s Venom in 2025, though that, of course, hasn’t yet been officially announced.
Meanwhile, Totoki also said during the earnings call that with the PS5 set to enter the latter half of its active lifecycle, Sony is also expecting a “gradual decline” in the console’s hardware sales starting with the coming fiscal year, which kicks off on April 1, 2024.
“Regarding the PlayStation 5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch, partially due to its entering the latter half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on balance with profits, so we anticipate a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards,” Totoki said. “We expect third-party software sales to continue to expand gradually due to the expansion of the PlayStation 5 install base and the high level of user engagement. In network services, we expect subscribers to be on par with this fiscal year or slightly less due to the impact of price revision we implemented in this fiscal year, but we expect sales to gradually expand due to a shift to attractive premium services.”
As of December 31, PlayStation 5 has shipped 54.8 million units worldwide.