So, what's the best first-party PS5 game at the moment?

What is the best first-party PS5 game at the moment?

  • Total voters
    363
  • Poll closed .
I would've picked Stellar Blade but that's Shift Up's IP and they are also its developer, so in relation to SIE it's more a 3P game they happened to publish. Similar to how they published stuff like FF VII back inn the day on PS1 in certain regions, and we don't really call that a firt-party game.

So same rules apply here IMO.
 
Tobimacoss said:
Platform holder published games get treated as first party because those games are afforded the full rights as any other first party game, in terms of marketing and control over where they can be published.

For Xbox, it means Play Anywhere, Day One on Gamepass, on xCloud.

That's why we use the word "Technically" to describe the 2nd party to differentiate the game from other first party games.
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I'm not sure it matters. If Sony present their first party lineup of games Stellar Blade, for example, will be there.

You, me, or anyone else can always make up any definition we want for what a first party game is and isn't. But the main source for this will always be Sony/Nintendo/MS themselves.
 
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Voted for Astrobot, but I'd also pick Stellar Blade and R&C Rift Apart for the podium. The list is pretty depressing overall considering it's been almost 5 years. A lot of the BIG releases are very safe sequels and remasters, Returnal didn't click with me despite liking Housemarque's previous work, I don't play MP so can't rate Helldivers.
 
Astro Bot with Ratchet & Clank behind it.

Sony is such garbage this gen and I still don't have a SOCOM 2 remaster! ;_;
 
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Mattyp said:
Unless the studio is OWNED by Sony, I don't consider it first party personally. I do understand funding the game, but not owning the studio and calling it first party? That's a nah from me.

Stalker isn't xbox first party.
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Stalker isn't produced or published by Microsoft, dumb comparison.
Tobimacoss said:
Stellar Blade was neither funded nor produced by Sony, just published. The game was revealed in a Xbox showcase trailer long before Sony got involved, same as WuKong.

It's technically a 2nd party game. Sony owns neither the studio nor IP.
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Yes, it was. Sony funded all the rest of development when they picked it up and they literally produced it via XDev Japan.
Sony was never involved in Wukong, so wrong point of comparison.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
I would've picked Stellar Blade but that's Shift Up's IP and they are also its developer, so in relation to SIE it's more a 3P game they happened to publish. Similar to how they published stuff like FF VII back inn the day on PS1 in certain regions, and we don't really call that a firt-party game.

So same rules apply here IMO.
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No, it's not similar to that, all at, lmao.
Nice try, though.
 
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1) Death Stranding 2;
2) Astro Bot;
3) GOW Ragnarok;
4) Stellar Blade;
5) Returnal.

At least one GOTY every year and people keep saying this gen is bad. lol
 
Guardian Monkey said:
Of course they are going to say that, it makes it sound bigger than they are. Its all marketing, but at the end of the day a 1st party and a 2nd party games are different in ownership. You call call it what you like but there is a term that does specifically define what that is and that is second party or as what Hulst calls "partners". It's not the same thing as first party it never has been.


www.pushsquare.com

Sony Explains How Second-Party Fits into Its Software Slate

It's all PlayStation Studios
www.pushsquare.com www.pushsquare.com
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"second party" is still a term that fanboys/Gamers made up tho, not companies or devs themselves. That is actually a fact.
 
kaizenkko said:
1) Death Stranding 2;
2) Astro Bot;
3) GOW Ragnarok;
4) Stellar Blade;
5) Returnal.

At least one GOTY every year and people keep saying this gen is bad. lol
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People are saying it's bad because of the factual huge drought in-between those releases. Also if you remove the more "niche" Stellar Blade from the list, your options get smaller too. It could've been better, that's the thing, but way too many things got wasted this gen. Their gaming budget, the closed studios, hell even their Best Studio Naughty Dog basically wasted years on something they cancelled anyway. I can't remember such noticeable phases of my Console just collecting dust or just being untouched.
 
Dafegamer said:
People are saying it's bad because of the factual huge drought in-between those releases. Also if you remove the more "niche" Stellar Blade from the list, your options get smaller too. It could've been better, that's the thing, but way too many things got wasted this gen. Their gaming budget, the closed studios, hell even their Best Studio Naughty Dog basically wasted years on something they cancelled anyway. I can't remember such noticeable phases of my Console just collecting dust or just being untouched.
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I agree it could be better, but it's still far superior to the output of the previous generation (and nobody used to complain about anything).
 
Jim Ryan announced that exactly 12 Live Service Games were in development. He also said that they chose to spend the majority of their Gaming Budget(I think it was 60 or 70% was dedicated to GAAS) on Live Service Stuff.

That's not all, the 🍒 on top was that they let their Single Player Studios work on those Games, not thinking of potential shortcomings that could happen, if they take the gamble. Even Multiplayer Proficient Studios like Treyarch, Infinity Ward etc took a while to go into Service stuff, cause it's always a huge risk. Your game literally depends on how much money the player base throws into your game on a consistent basis, but nope Sony said "Bluepoint, Naughty Dog, Bend Studios can do the same, it will be fine guys"


This is basically a Rookie Mistake and I'm still mind blown that nobody at the higher ups didn't try to at least talk to Jim Ryan about these decisions and just let all of that happen. Out of 12 GAAS Games, more than 9 of them are already cancelled. The rest in development hell..
 
kaizenkko said:
I agree it could be better, but it's still far superior to the output of the previous generation (and nobody used to complain about anything).
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Not compared to the PS4 and PS2 (Hell Id even put the PS3 too at this point in time )generation. The Cross-Gen stuff also kinda dampens the PS5 generation a bit, if we want to judge a bit stricter(GOW: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West etc would strengthen the PS4 gen as well, not just the PS5 gen.) Then again, it definitely seems like gens will be much longer than before.... So I hope they really impress in the end
 
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Dafegamer said:
Jim Ryan announced that exactly 12 Live Service Games were in development. He also said that they chose to spend the majority of their Gaming Budget(I think it was 60 or 70% was dedicated to GAAS) on Live Service Stuff.

That's not all, the 🍒 on top was that they let their Single Player Studios work on those Games, not thinking of potential shortcomings that could happen, if they take the gamble. Even Multiplayer Proficient Studios like Treyarch, Infinity Ward etc took a while to go into Service stuff, cause it's always a huge risk. Your game literally depends on how much money the player base throws into your game on a consistent basis, but nope Sony said "Bluepoint, Naughty Dog, Bend Studios can do the same, it will be fine guys"


This is basically a Rookie Mistake and I'm still mind blown that nobody at the higher ups didn't try to at least talk to Jim Ryan about these decisions and just let all of that happen. Out of 12 GAAS Games, more than 9 of them are already cancelled. The rest in development hell..
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ND were working on Factions years before the GAAS push, and it was the first to be abandoned. I find it interesting that they didn't consider moving it onto another studio despite the IP value, which suggests to me that it had bigger problems than just time/budget.

Bend were always dubious considering they lost their creative leads in the clusterfuck following Days Gone's launch -apparently sabotaged at the studio end, and a PS4 era issue anyway.

Bluepoint still have no record in doing anything but remasters so would possibly finding pitching a challenge.

The rest, and vast majority, were from external acquisitions.

Its also worth noting that Sony were also trying to prop up PSVR2 throughout.

The big laugh of course is that even if you consider how this compares with the first 5 years of PS4 it actually compares pretty favourably. Unless I guess there are more Knack fans than I thought!

Its especially funny when TLOU2 only came out less than 6 months before PS5 launch, so people acting like ND should have a ton of output thus far in the gen are kinda stretching it.
 
Returnal by a mile.

I thought Astrobot was a turgid low rent Mario game that was so shameless in its thievery (while not even being able to be as good) that I couldn't finish it.
 
it's between demon's souls and TLOU Part 1 for me (because i haven't played TLOU before). going to get astro bot and yotei eventually because i enjoyed GoT. not sure if i should get ragnarok because while i enjoyed the first GoW i didn't think it was amazing and lots of people are saying ragnarok is worse. might get the Horizon games if i can get them really cheap just for the graphics.

man this gen should have been so much better in terms of sony first party. bluepoint should have started working on bloodborne remake a long time, same with TLOU3 (intergalactic doesn't looks that great to me).
 
Clear said:
ND were working on Factions years before the GAAS push, and it was the first to be abandoned. I find it interesting that they didn't consider moving it onto another studio despite the IP value, which suggests to me that it had bigger problems than just time/budget.

Bend were always dubious considering they lost their creative leads in the clusterfuck following Days Gone's launch -apparently sabotaged at the studio end, and a PS4 era issue anyway.

Bluepoint still have no record in doing anything but remasters so would possibly finding pitching a challenge.

The rest, and vast majority, were from external acquisitions.

Its also worth noting that Sony were also trying to prop up PSVR2 throughout.

The big laugh of course is that even if you consider how this compares with the first 5 years of PS4 it actually compares pretty favourably. Unless I guess there are more Knack fans than I thought!

Its especially funny when TLOU2 only came out less than 6 months before PS5 launch, so people acting like ND should have a ton of output thus far in the gen are kinda stretching it.
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After the GAAS push tho, ND said They wanted to do more with Factions and release it as its own Game. I know about the Factions story already, but it was supposed to be part of TLOU2 tho. It's basically the Jim Ryan stain that made them decide to do it.(Behind the closed doors, definitely)
 
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TastyPastry said:
it's between demon's souls and TLOU Part 1 for me (because i haven't played TLOU before). going to get astro bot and yotei eventually because i enjoyed GoT. not sure if i should get ragnarok because while i enjoyed the first GoW i didn't think it was amazing and lots of people are saying ragnarok is worse. might get the Horizon games if i can get them really cheap just for the graphics.

man this gen should have been so much better in terms of sony first party. bluepoint should have started working on bloodborne remake a long time, same with TLOU3 (intergalactic doesn't looks that great to me).
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It's the cancellations man 😔 8+ ga(a)s games were cancelled over the years, some Studios survived, some sadly succumbed to the decisions by a Corporate First Hack(Jim Ryan). Many started from fresh again and the drought is noticeable. It's probably the reason why Sony stopped appearing at event shows to actually showcase for a while, only doing small state of plays here and there. Can't show stuff when so much is basically starting over from beginning 🥲
 
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Returnal was my most played 1st party game. SAROS is my most anticipated for next year.

Astro Bot was creative/fun Team Asobi deserves all their accolades

God of War Ragnarok
Horizon Forbidden West
Spider-Man 2

Were all enjoyable and impressive to experience.


I voted Returnal because there's nothing else really like it
 
Personally and I'm currently on the last world but it has to be Astro Bot and it's my choice because I never want it to end, it's just pure joy.
Also give Sackboy Adventure a try, it's a really fun game too, similar to Super Mario 3D World but better.
 
Baemono said:
Nintendo do that all the time. Mario + Luigi or Zelda Echoes of Wisdom are developped by third party devs using 1st party IP
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Eh Nintendo completely own the IPs but and are just outsourcing labor at this point.

nial said:
Stalker isn't produced or published by Microsoft, dumb comparison.
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'Produced' in what way? Sony doesn't own the IPs, they don't own the Studios, it's always timed exclusives in the end.

It's in no way different than Stalker because at most they fund it.

I think it's a clear definition of something that's actually created by Sonys in house studios than not.
 
I voted LEGO Horizon because i'm so childish i was sure a lot of people would be as puerile as me and troll vote.

Result for LEGO Horizon at the time of writing this comment : 1

So i'm the only idiot here in the end. Congrats Neogaf.
 
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Rivdoric said:
I voted LEGO Horizon because i'm so childish i was sure a lot of people would be as puerile as me and troll vote.

Result for LEGO Horizon at the time of writing this comment : 1

So i'm the only idiot here in the end. Congrats Neogaf.
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Don't worry, i voted Until Dawn so you don't have to feel stupid alone.
 
Dafegamer said:
After the GAAS push tho, ND said They wanted to do more with Factions and release it as its own Game. I know about the Factions story already, but it was supposed to be part of TLOU2 tho. It's basically the Jim Ryan stain that made them decide to do it.(Behind the closed doors, definitely)
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That's highly speculative.

The reason it was even considered is that when TLOU2 came out in June '20 it wasn't close to being finished in its original form and they were still talking about it being an add-on or DLC for quite some afterwards.

Then they pivoted towards blowing it out into a bigger, more cinematic multiplayer before it was cancelled in December '23. Basically they spent less time on it post pivot, than before. Maybe a couple of years, and like I said, if it was purely a logistical decision on ND's part not to proceed then they (Sony) should have handed it off to another team.

Evidently it wasn't close to being releasable in any form, which is pretty bad considering it was originally planned to be part of TLOU2 and therefore its fair to assume that they had something playable and at least partially mechanically complete. From this I conclude that its issues pre-date the GAAS push and it really should be treated separately.

As usual the problem for me is that people who have never worked in the industry assuming that effort/headcount is uniform across the cycle, when in actuality a project in turnaround tends to drop to a skeleton crew while the new direction is decided. Hence the actual impact across the studio can be actually far less than it'd seem based on time spent as a single metric.

ND have actually put out a fair amount of work since 2020, so pretending that the whole studio was tied down with Factions 2 to the exclusion of progress on anything else is unsupportable.
 
nial said:
There's only one winner. Vote with your heart, don't be ashamed of supporting Stellar Blade. I trust in you, GAF.

jv1vtxTnGcQ7jbCL.jpg
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Always forgot that stellar blade is a song first party game… I choose astro bot because I can only choose one but stellar blade is a close 2nd for me.
 
Kagoshima_Luke said:
Poll is shocking. This is the list we have to work with? Worst Sony gen by far.
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It's incredibly disappointing for a console that's three months away from its fifth anniversary. It still feels like this console generation has hardly started, but we're actually close to the end.
 
Clear said:
Its especially funny when TLOU2 only came out less than 6 months before PS5 launch, so people acting like ND should have a ton of output thus far in the gen are kinda stretching it.
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ND released three games for the PS4: Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us II.

We're lucky if we get one ND game this gen.
 
kruis said:
ND released three games for the PS4: Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us II.

We're lucky if we get one ND game this gen.
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Uncharted 4's production was infamously a crunch nightmare with something like 70% of the team quitting after completion, including Bruce Straley. Lost Legacy was an oversized DLC.

TLOU2 was released in June 2020, PS5 was launched November 2020, so frankly its as deserving of being treated as cross gen just as much as PS4/PS5 titles released *after* PS5 launch like GOW Ragnarok or Forbidden West especially considering Covid.
 
I can't believe I'm saying this but it's Astrobot for me. Other than that, I thought Demon's Souls remake was pretty good and I'm not even into souls games - it's still the only one I've played. Also Gran Turismo 7 is fine IMO. Last of Us is great, but I've already played it on both PS3 and PS4 - not gonna buy it again. I tried Returnal but I guess the genre isn't for me. All in all, pretty disappointing gen to me.
 
Clear said:
TLOU2 was released in June 2020, PS5 was launched November 2020, so frankly its as deserving of being treated as cross gen just as much as PS4/PS5 titles released *after* PS5 launch like GOW Ragnarok or Forbidden West especially considering Covid.
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Laugh Lol GIF
 
kruis said:
Laugh Lol GIF
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Yeah I am serious. A 12 month overlap on projects on 5 year cycles is not consequential as the overwhelming majority of the work has to be done prior to the new hardware launch. You aren't refactoring tech post-Alpha, you are tuning and debugging so the distinction is irrelevant.

Try again idiot.
 
Clear said:
Uncharted 4's production was infamously a crunch nightmare with something like 70% of the team quitting after completion,
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Not true. That was shit Shrierer said in his ND hit piece and it was 70% of one group who worked on the game. A whopping 14 people.

Ever since, people have been spreading this lie that 70% left Naughty Dog.
 
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kruis said:
ND released three games for the PS4: Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us II.

We're lucky if we get one ND game this gen.
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Wouldn't be surprised if Intergalactic is a cross gen PS5/PS6 game at this point.
 
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