The decade-old PlayStation 4, released all the way back in 2013, has continued to receive big, new exclusives from Sony, even if those old-gen ports feel outdated or inferior. But now, it finally seems like Sony is ready to move on and leave the aging PS4 behind. Well, almost ready…
It’s somewhat hard to believe, but the PlayStation 5 was released over two years ago on November 12, 2020. Yet, the last few massive Sony exclusives—Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarök—were released on the PS5 as well as the elderly PS4. And while it was nice that more folks got a chance to play these big games, it also felt odd to see Sony still supporting this weird era of cross-gen games into 2023. This was the same company whose boss, Jim Ryan, infamously said in 2020 that Sony had always believed in “generations” in response to Microsoft promising long-term support for cross-gen games, meaning you can only be in one era at a time. Fast forward to early 2023, and while Microsoft in 2022 failed to really ship…anything for any generation of Xbox, Sony did publish a few big titles. But most launched on both PS4 and PS5, seemingly going against Sony’s belief in separate, distinct generations.
However, that finally seems to be changing based on a new trailer from PlayStation. In the new video published yesterday, we see a montage of 23 games coming out in 2023. And only eight of them are coming to both PS4 and PS5. And all of Sony’s exclusive games, including Spider-Man 2 and the Horizon VR spin-off, are skipping PS4 entirely.
Here are all the games and DLC expansions shown in the video:
- Final Fantasy 16 - PS5 Only
- Horizon 2 DLC - PS5 Only
- Spider-Man 2 - PS5 Only
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage - PS5/PS4
- Resident Evil 4 (Remake) - PS5/PS4
- Forspoken - PS5 Only
- Suicide Squad - PS5 Only
- Dead Space - PS5 Only
- Stellar Blade - PS5 Only
- Street Fighter 6 - PS4/PS5
- Star Wars Jedi Survivor - PS5 Only
- Alone In The Dark - PS5 Only
- Firewall Ultra - PS5/PSVR 2 Only
- Pacific Drive - PS5 Only
- The Lords of the Fallen (2023) - PS5 Only
- Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain - PS5/PSVR Only
- Destiny 2: Lightfall - PS5/PS4
- Eternights - PS5/PS4
- Tchia - PS5/PS4
- Season A Letter To The Future - PS5/PS4
- SynDuality - PS5 Only
- Hogwarts Legacy - PS5/PS4
- Wildhearts - PS5 Only
If you’ve been paying attention over the last year, you’ve likely noticed that many third-party publishers and developers are starting to make the transition to the current-gen, leaving behind the Xbox One and PS4 in the process. So on the one hand, it’s not surprising that Sony is too.
But then again, it was just a few weeks ago that Sony released one of the biggest games of 2022—the new God of War—for both its shiny new PS5 and the aging PS4. And sure, the PS4 port of the game was great. In fact, it might be one of the most technically impressive games released on the old console, a perfect swan song for Sony’s machine. But after playing it for a few hours, it felt like the PS4 (and its fans) were struggling to keep up. So while I’m not shocked to see Sony signaling so publicly that it is finally ditching the PS4, I’m still happy about the news.
I have to imagine many devs are also ready to move forward, without having to balance so many different console specs among the PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, One X, One S, and Series X/S, and just focus on a few, bigger, nicer-looking versions of games that are becoming increasingly difficult to make for even one platform.
It’s likely that Sony was hesitant to move forward into a PS5-only future while it was impossible for most to even buy the console. Things are starting to change on that front, and it’s getting easier and easier to snag a PS5. And as more people buy the upgraded console, it becomes easier and easier to finally look forward into the next generation of gaming.