We have a strange rumor about the PlayStation 5’s upcoming first party drought, which still has some interesting details worth learning about.
As shared on reddit by user JohnSalada007, the rumor comes from Spanish language website Areajugones. The writer on this website claimed to have gotten more information on PlayStation’s 2024 releases, following Hiroki Totoki’s statement about it.
Now, let’s be clear about the wording on Totoki’s statement. As we had quoted in our report on it:
“Sony says it plans no new title releases from existing big PlayStation game franchises planned in the next FY and less burden from game unit M&A.”
While we did take it as confirmation that there would be no big AAA PlayStation games, the wording is there are no plans for new titles. It suggests that there’s a window, if unlikely, that they would get some big games out this year.
Areajugones’ claims are that the time frame for Sony not to have AAA game releases doesn’t end at March 2025, but April 2025. So if there are any games, they won’t be arriving until May 2025 at the earliest. They also rule out the return of franchises from their first party studios that aren’t as big or popular as The Last Of Us or Uncharted, but are undeniably first party and from their AAA studios.
This seems to be a narrow selection of titles to fit that description. Perhaps Ratchet and Clank, and then a host of long neglected IPs such as Gravity Rush and Jak & Daxter that would fit it. For those fans who were hoping to see a return to some throwback IPs, this rumor pours water all over that.
Areajugones says smaller games do not count, and then name two interesting titles; the rumored Astro Bot game, and Concord, one of the live service games Sony has announced. Concord is rumored to be releasing this year, so it may be the case that like Helldivers 2, this is a smaller budget title, probably a AA.
The rumor ends with Areajugones pointing out that Sony’s third party exclusives are there, but they are set to finish releasing early in the year. Between Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and Stellar Blade, Sony will have no more exclusives by May of this year.
One item of interest that wasn’t mentioned in this article is the rumored online mode for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. So is this mode delayed beyond April 2025, or does it not count given its smaller scale? We don’t know anything about the online mode, but given that Insomniac will also feel those layoffs, a delay is credible.
Of course, Sony is also rumored to be releasing a PlayStation 5 Pro this year, and maybe exclusives won’t matter if 2024 turns out to be a big year for third party games? But maybe Sony fans should just properly prepare their expectations that this will be a year for the company to rebuild, as they figure out their new path in this industry.
