PS5 sales expectations lowered as it faces software drought

Sony will not release any major PlayStation 5 exclusive first-party games in any of its existing franchises this year – or before the end of the next financial year in March 2025, the company admitted in its latest financial report.

"In terms of first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games, but although major projects are currently in development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year such as God of War Ragnarök and Marvel's Spider-Man," said Sony President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki. (You can see the full presentation transcript here; Totoki's comments are on pages 6 and 7.)

Sony has been tight-lipped about its post-Spider-Man 2 slate, and Totoki's statement confirms suspicions that the PS5 was facing a long gap in exclusive games in its schedule, similar to what Xbox experienced in 2022. Insomniac's Wolverine game, for example, is known to be a long way off, with a recent hack revealing its estimated release date to be 2026. Naughty Dog's next project is unknown, while its The Last of Us multiplayer game has been scrapped.