Nearly two years after the launch of the current console cycle, Sony has shared its plans to stop producing PS4 games by 2025.
Detailing its financial expectations for PS5, PC, and other platforms, Sony's latest investor relations briefing has one slide titled “evolving shape of first-party portfolio.” Releasing a detailed percentage breakdown for releases by platform, 2025 doesn't mention the PS4 at all, suggesting Sony expects to wind up support by then.
Since the PS5 arrived, we've seen a few cross-generation games. At launch, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Sackboy: A Big Adventure both made their way to PS4 and PS5. This year alone, Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 joined them, with God of War Ragnarok marking the last major (known) cross-gen release.
For now, Sony is continuing PS4 production into 2022. That doesn't include the more powerful PS4 Pro, but Sony's last-gen best seller isn't disappearing just yet. It's a big difference from Microsoft's strategy, that ended production on the Xbox One console family in 2020.
PS4 support is gradually winding down
Before the PS5's launch, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz "We have always said that we believe in generations.” Sackboy and Spider-Man aside, the first year largely delivered on this. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, Destruction AllStars, and the Demon’s Souls remake are all big games exclusive to the new hardware.
By comparison, Microsoft offered significant cross-generation support between Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. New-gen exclusives like Microsoft Flight Simulator are slowly appearing, sure. But last year, big hitters like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 still arrived on both platforms.
Against this, PlayStation's approach feels more inconsistent. Still, as more PS5 exclusives like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 get confirmed, cross-gen releases appears to be winding up. We don't know if Sony plans any further PS4 releases after Ragnarok but, either way, the writing's on the wall.
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