In a recent, large-scale report on the state of the company and brand, Sony said that the upcoming PlayStation 6 was "top of mind" for the company, with some estimates putting it at a potential 2027 release date. But that raises a question. Despite its solid sales, was this…actually a good generation for PlayStation, namely its PS5 exclusives?
I listed a decent amount of games there, yes. But how many games of true significance? Taking a step back, this entire generation, we did not see a PS5-only game from Guerilla, Sony Santa Monica or Naughty Dog, the last of which became a meme for its endless remasters of its Last of Us games. Naughty Dog has announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but that may not be out until PS6 itself. We have no idea when either new Horizonor God of War games are coming from those studios, much less them branching into potentially new IPs instead of endless sequels. Sony purchased Bungie this generation for $3.6 billion, but it did little except drift on with Destiny 2 and hammer away at a game that seems on the verge of bombing, Marathon. And neither of those games are exclusive, much less PS5-exclusive.
None of this is to say that Xbox, in contrast, had some great console generation. I've devoted a lot of ink to its collapsed hardware sales, and the concept of an Xbox exclusive is close to not existing at all now. But if we're comparing the PS5 to past eras, I'd probably rank it fourth or even fifth in terms of what it has produced in terms of true exclusives. We'll see if the PS6 can change that, whenever it arrives.
Source
Seems like Paul Tassi is a bitter critter too.
I think PS1, 2, and 4 were all definitely better than PS5, but that's more because those were legendary than because the PS5 isn't great. The PS5 is still good, just a victim of a lot of unfortunate circumstances that ended up lining all one after another. No idea if PS6 changes this, since a lot of the issues PS5 faced were fundamental, and even better decision making from Sony (I.e., no live service chasing) would not necessarily have led to a better outcome. But we will see.