We’re going to talk about the PS5 for a bit, and for good reason. The main reason is that the system is in a curious place right now. You might even argue it’s a “tale of two systems,” if you will. On the one hand, it’s selling rather well, far greater than its Microsoft rival, and people have been getting it at a good clip. However, when it comes to the games department, the system has been struggling in various ways. Sure, it’s gotten big titles released, as proven by 2024 in certain respects, but it’s also had some big bombs and other titles that “underperformed” on the platform despite lots of hype and build toward it.
That’s in contrast to Nintendo, who, even in the last year of the Switch, is cranking out games for its players to enjoy. The sad thing here is that gamers know the PlayStation brand has plenty of franchises to pick and choose from to help bolster the lineup, but for whatever reason, Sony isn’t doing that. However, there might be hope on the horizon.
In the latest episode of the VGC podcast, one of the hosts, Andy Robinson, claimed that he had some insight into this problem and stated that he knew that certain dormant IPs were being brought back to life by Sony:
Is that a big vague? Absolutely, but he was never going to tell exactly what the IP he heard about was or could be. Still, if this is true, there might be hope for the PS5 yet.
If you’re looking into just how bare bones the PlayStation 5 is regarding its standout titles, you need only look at the “Game of the Year” in some people’s minds from 2024: Astro Bot. That game was built to be a celebration of gaming titles past that were on the PlayStation brand, which was an adorable and unique way to build a 3D platformer. Obviously, it worked enough to get a bunch of accolades.
However, as one person broke down in a video, there was only one game referenced in the title that you absolutely needed a PlayStation to play right now. Think about that. There were dozens of characters in that game, and yet, you didn’t need the console that many of those characters “helped bring to life” to play their titles.
That’s why Sony needs to get back into things and make the PlayStation 5 stand out again, especially since a certain other rival of theirs will be dropping a new console soon that’ll likely be packed with big games.
