No first party PS5 game sequels until after April 2025 reveals Sony

PlayStation’s first party studios have ground to a halt (Picture: Sony)

Sony has no plans to release any ‘existing major franchise titles’ for over 12 months, as it recommits to more live service games.

Although Microsoft has been hogging all the headlines lately, with its weak response to rumours that it is going at least partially multiformat, Sony has taken the heat off them today with a series of baffling announcements of their own.

They all stem from their latest financial results, which saw record-breaking revenues but will see the company fall short of its goal to sell 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles within the current financial year.

When asked to clarify what was going to happen in the next 12 months, after April 2024, Sony admitted that it expects console sales to slowly decline and that it has ‘no plan for release of major franchise titles’ before April 2025.

Although that means no sequels or spin-offs to established franchises it does seem to leave open the possibility of brand new IP during that time, with everyone from Naughty Dog to Bluepoint Games believed to be working on non-franchise titles at the moment.

The implication, though, seems to be little to no internally made Sony games in the next 12 months, just as there was only Spider-Man 2 last year (Insomniac’s Wolverine is not expected until next autumn).

However, this doesn’t preclude games published by Sony but not made by a first party studio, such as the recent Helldivers 2 and the upcoming Death Stranding 2, or third party games which Sony has paid to make exclusive, such as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

‘Regarding first party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality productions and producing live service games,’ said Sony president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki.

‘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 Ragnarök and Marvel Spider-Man 2.’

The PS5 is reaching middle age (Picture: Sony)

It is now getting on for three years since Sony announced a new single-player first party title, with much speculation about internal infighting over their plans to focus on live service titles.

At one point they were planning 10 to 12 by 2026, which was then later reduced to six. So far though they’ve not released a single one and no gameplay has been shown for any of them. New title Concord was part of Sony’s 2024 preview trailer but it was not featured in the most recent State of Play.

This all seems like a tragic failure in management and scheduling, with Sony’s apparently apathetic attitude to releasing new games seemingly encouraged by the fact that the PlayStation 5 is selling extremely well regardless.

However, Totoki has admitted that as the PlayStation 5 passes the mid-point of its expected lifespan he expects a ‘gradual decline in unit sales from the next fiscal year onwards’.

Totoki has also implied severe cost-cutting measures for the PlayStation business as a whole, while criticising its lack of growth, which all but guarantees job cuts.

All this is happening as the PlayStation division is without a clear leader, with current incumbent Jim Ryan due to leave the company at the end of March.

There’s still no clue who will take over from him, but at the moment it appears to be Totoki, whose background is primarily in finance, who’s pulling the strings.

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