If you’re wondering what Sony plans to do after the latest version Presentation on the current state of affairs There haven’t been many first-party games, it sounds like there’s a reason for that. It looks like the PlayStation 5 will have a shortage in 2024 First party games over the next year, as the company has confirmed that it will not be releasing “any new major existing franchise titles” until 2025.
The statement comes from the company’s third quarter 2023 earnings report (thanks, Gematsu), in which Hiroki Totoki, president of Sony Group Corporation, said that the company would not release games on the scale of God of war Ragnarök
“As for first-party software, we want to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,” Totoki said. “While there are major projects currently in development, we do not plan to launch any new major existing franchise titles in the next financial year God of War Ragnarok
This leads to some strange semantics, because what exactly is a “major existing franchise”? Sony is releasing a handful of games in 2024 including Starblade and that Until dawn remake, but these are unlikely to be considered standout titles by those in charge and are not from first-party studios. So it’s not that there’s nothing to expect for the PlayStation 5 in 2024, but it’s likely to be a quieter year for the system overall.
This follows a decline in expected hardware sales for the PlayStation 5 (thanks, Reuters), which led Sony to lower its year-end revenue forecast for the fiscal year from $25 million to $21 million. Sony expects a “gradual decline” in console sales starting next fiscal year, and given that next year seems a bit sparse, it would be surprising if there was an increase between now and the next big game. Totoki continued:
“As the PlayStation 5 hardware enters its fifth year since release, driven in part by entering the second half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with greater emphasis on balance with profits so that we expect a gradual decline in unit numbers from the next financial year. We expect third-party software sales to continue to increase gradually due to the expansion of the PlayStation 5 install base and high levels of user engagement. For network services, due to the impact of the pricing revision we implemented this fiscal year, we expect subscribers to be at the same level as this fiscal year or slightly lower. However, we expect revenues to gradually increase due to the shift to attractive premium services.”
Although Sony’s forecasts are lower than the company expected, the PlayStation 5 is still doing well overall. The system has shipped over 54.8 million units since its launch in 2020 and recently set a new record for PlayStation console sales in Japan.