2024 was inarguably been one of the PlayStation 5’s greatest years, with a handful of all-timers providing exceptional additions to its list of platform or console exclusives: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, appearing on Sony’s current-gen console, continues with aplomb Cloud and the gang’s odyssey beyond Midgar, and despite the likely inaccurate rumours that sales have been disappointing, its reputation as one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time cannot be tarnished.
Stellar Blade, despite the odd bit of jank, is a combat-centric sci-fi adventure which borrows elements of its swordplay from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice but remixes it with style and approachability to present one of the most enticing new IPs to emerge in recent years. Our game of the year Silent Hill 2 Remake preserves the original’s relentlessly oppressive atmosphere, music, and sound design to provide an experience worthy of the iconic original’s legacy. Then, of course, there’s Astro Bot, the plucky robot mascot’s latest adventure which crams a ton of ideas into its gameplay and gobbled up a handful of the industry’s leading awards for good measure.
Despite the growing list of exceptional platform and console exclusives (we say console exclusives as, of course, some of these games also appear on PC), it still feels as though PlayStation 5 is underperforming slightly. Sure, it’s taken the console a long time to get to this stage due to the persistent hangover the coronavirus pandemic imposed on the industry, but even with the PS5’s growing library of games, the release of the PS5 Pro, and the reported target-beating sales of PlayStation Portal, Sony’s current generation still isn’t hitting the heights we all expected following the PlayStation 4’s world dominating success. However, Sony’s prior generation excelled thanks to a wealth of incredible exclusives. Given the exclusives confirmed and rumoured for 2025, PlayStation 5 might finally reach its zenith.
Of those with 2025 releases – Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch’s follow up to Ghost of Tsushima, plunges new protagonist Atsu into a still-feudal Japan some 300-years after the events of its predecessor. This one is as guaranteed a hit as Sony is going to get for its upcoming PS5 exclusives. Death Stranding 2 is confirmed for release this year, and sees Sam Porter Bridges, now grey and old, will face a stronger phantasmagorical threat in a sequel sure to be stuffed with overabundance of Kojima cinematics. Then there’s the lesser-known PS5 and PSVR2 exclusive The Midnight Walk coming from Lost in Random developers MoonHood. Here, you’ll take command of the recently exhumed Burnt One to travel down a perilous highway stalked by all manner of nightmarish creatures. There’s a Steam page for this one so it’ll come to PC too. Then there’s action RPG Ballad of Antara coming from developer Tipswork Studio whereby players will command a cast of characters – dubbed Emissaries by the studio – to traverse two cosmic worlds.
Of the other PS5 exclusives that’re tentatively slated but not yet confirmed for release this year (possibly beyond), highlights include Bungie’s sci-fi extraction shooter reboot Marathon, fast-paced hack-and-slash role player Phantom Blade Zero, Insomniac Games’ latest superhero adaption Wolverine, and Fairgame$, a competitive heist game whereby you undertake Robin Hood style missions to steal from the rich to give to the poor.
We also have ‘Journey with hoverboards’ Sword of the Sea, Wuxia open world game Where Winds Meet, and – the game most of you are hotly anticipating – Intergalactic, although it’s touch and go if it’ll emerge from deep space before 2025 is out.
Intergalactic is first-party studio Naughty Dog’s upcoming IP, of course, and whilst their newest title has been announced there’re a handful of Sony’s other first-parties with unannounced titles in the works. Also, if you haven’t heard, Bluepoint and Sony Bend’s games were recently cancelled. So, it would be unwise to expect anything from them this year.
God of War developer Santa Monica Studio teased their first new IP in almost twenty years last August, although this ‘tease’ isn’t confirmation of something brand new. It could be a reboot of their futuristic racer Kinetica, but this seems unlikely. Another God of War title will almost certainly occur, and as it happens Santa Monica Studio are also working on an unannounced narrative combat game as well as this new IP. If this is the next God of War all signs point to it being a PlayStation 6 release, and thus for definite not this year. Hopefully, 2025 at least yields more information on what Santa Monica Studio has under their sleeve. As one of the most revered developers under Sony’s umbrella, any new title in 2025 will propel an already promising year into the biggest year for PS5 on record as per the title of this feature.
Apologies that there’s a lot of speculation in this feature. Alongside the already announced titles, we don’t know for certain what’s coming this year. But instead of just publishing rumours and calling it a day we can end things on an optimistic note. Sony, unlike years gone by, nowadays tend to announce release dates that aren’t too far in the future. Astro Bot’s release date was announced, and low and behold a few months later its upon us. If Sony announce any release dates for their upcoming games before, say, late summer, chances are they’ll be with us before 2025 is out.
Assessing the games in the pipeline, plus the titles in the works from its most storied studios, then 2025 is quite possibly going to surpass the already great year that 2024 was. It could even go down as PlayStation 5’s biggest year for exclusives, if not the greatest in its lifecycle so far.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
