Five years after its launch, the PlayStation 5 continues to achieve strong sales figures, outpacing rivals like Microsoft in the console market. However, many feel ambivalence toward the console due to factors including hardware missteps and a lack of innovative exclusives. An analysis compares its output to the PS4 era, revealing fewer 'proper' exclusives.
Overview of PS5's Fifth Year
The PlayStation 5, launched in November 2020, has mirrored the PS4's trajectory with robust sales and hardware iterations like a VR headset, Pro model, and Slim variant. Sony boasts continuous excellent sales, positioning the PS5 as the dominant console amid Microsoft's retreat from the race and Nintendo's independent path. Despite this, discussions often reveal lukewarm praise or ambivalence, contrasting the PS4's captivating impact.
Factors Contributing to Mixed Perceptions
Hardware advancements have underdelivered in excitement. The PSVR 2 was abandoned shortly after release despite its quality, bundled with a pack-in game. The £700 PS5 Pro lacks a stand and carries a high price, while the Slim model matches base console costs amid rising prices due to pandemic supply constraints, inflation, and global events.
Broader influences include the pandemic's role in gaming's all-consuming phase, followed by Gen Z's complex online relationship, diminishing gaming's trendiness. Industry malaise—layoffs, inflated budgets, longer development times—has led to fewer big releases and cultural hits, fostering a sense of unease despite profits.
Hardware like the SSD enables seamless experiences, as in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, but such innovations quickly become normalized, offering diminishing returns after initial wow factor.
Exclusives Comparison
The core issue lies in Sony's output. In the PS5's first five years, Sony published 30 console-exclusive games, with 11 'proper' exclusives (exclusive to the console for at least six months, excluding VR-only, remakes, or cross-platform titles). This contrasts sharply with the PS4's 86 exclusives, including 44 proper ones, featuring bold risks like Driveclub, The Last Guardian, and Until Dawn.
PS5 titles lean toward safe sequels (God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-Man 2), remakes (Demon's Souls), and remasters, lacking the PS4's variety of innovative mid-tier games. Returnal stands out as a rare next-gen innovation, blending bullet hell with SSD-enabled speed and DualSense features, but it's an outlier. Sony's approach prioritizes consumer access via cross-platform releases but sacrifices authentic novelty, eroding the platform's 'weirdness' legacy.
This risk aversion, amplified by industry pressures, explains why the PS5 succeeds commercially yet fails to fully captivate.