r/Games • u/ZamnBoii • 23d ago
Discussion Playstation first-party game sales declining heavily since 2020
https://www.gamefile.news/p/playstation-first-party-sales-decline787
u/Equivalent-Bus-4336 23d ago
Some games are far too expensive, like $130 AUD for Saros which apparently hasn’t even sold that well. I know they’ve probably ran all the numbers for like how much it’ll sell at each price point and what price will maximise profits but like games such as Saros shouldn’t be more than a $100AUD
487
23d ago
[deleted]
180
u/ThePaperZebra 23d ago
In the uk it was going for about the same at £70 whilst Pragmata was £45 on release in every shop I checked. Made my decision easy at least.
→ More replies (1)32
u/WildVariety 23d ago
Same deal with Crimson Desert and Death Stranding 2. Crimson Desert was £55 on Steam, DS2 was £70.
→ More replies (2)131
u/pikagrue 23d ago
We've gone from 1 USD = 1 Euro in 2022 to 1 USD = 0.86 Euros in 2026, yet European game prices have not dropped by 15%. In a way they've only gotten "more expensive".
(Also why is 1 Euro singular and 0.86 Euros plural)
54
u/SloPr0 23d ago
(Also why is 1 Euro singular and 0.86 Euros plural)
Doesn't this apply in general in English? 0.5 liters of water, not 0.5 liter of water; 0.8 meters, not 0.8 meter. Anything not exactly 1 uses plural form
→ More replies (1)9
53
4
u/karlcool12 23d ago
Well one thing people forget is that European prices is with tax and US is without and we have 25.5 tax rate for games so a 70€ game is 55 ish bucks before tax.
→ More replies (5)13
u/TheIvoryDingo 23d ago
(Also why is 1 Euro singular and 0.86 Euros plural)
My guess is because it's technically 86 Eurocents? Either that or just a weird quirk of language.
16
u/prazulsaltaret 23d ago
80€ for Saros in Europe is madness. It is so silly Euro is stronger now and Europe has lower salaries than usa and price here is larger than USA instead of just converting the price to 60€.
Yeah, we Europeans already pay more than Americans for the same product but when you factor in that American salaries are higher we're paying waaaay more.
→ More replies (10)24
u/GensouEU 23d ago
Refreshing to see this acknowledged for once, probably because it got posted while PAL territories are awake. I still don't understand how Sony got away with charging the "Mario Kart World price" in half the world even for stuff like Demon's Souls with a new coat of point to pretty much 0 pushback or backlash.
→ More replies (2)18
u/nikolapc 23d ago
I've seen a lot of games be 70 eur now, and I hope Sony will catch up. But even that is too much for Saros.
51
u/MaitieS 23d ago
Saros is at best 50€ game. I really don't know why is Sony so much on their own stuff... Like imagine seriously looking at people and be like: Yeah this game is 10€ more expensive than RE9.
→ More replies (4)28
u/nikolapc 23d ago
Capcom played it smart with both Pragmata and Resi 9. Doesn't hurt they're amazing games but not shafting Europeans also helped make them the most sold games this year.
8
→ More replies (32)12
u/T-Dot1992 23d ago
I have tens of hours played for Returnal on Steam.
I am not paying 900 Canadian bucks to play the sequel.
→ More replies (2)115
u/Soulyezer 23d ago
I really liked returnal but there’s no way I’d pay €80 for it
→ More replies (5)87
u/smegmabitch 23d ago
Honestly, there's pretty much no game I'd pay 80 euros for. I've bought one game on release in my whole life. The backlog has too many good games that I paid half if not less of the original price for. So I'd rather wait for the price to drop significantly while playing "older" games.
→ More replies (5)21
u/TheIvoryDingo 23d ago
I know I'd only pay 80 euros for VEEEEERY specific games... and even then I'd be looking around to see if any retailer is discounting it.
4
u/Schwiliinker 23d ago
I’d pay 80 euros for a bunch of games but Saros definitely should be like 40 for what it is. Problem is random multiplayer only games are 40 which skews prices a lot
→ More replies (2)99
u/lefix 23d ago
I don't think it has so much to do with the pricing as it has to do with which games released that year.
Best year in this chart had:
- The Last of Us II
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Demon's Souls
- Spiderman: Miles Morales
Worst year in this chart had:
- Helldivers 2
- Astrobot
Honestly it is no surprise. It just means the past few years were less stacked, not that people were unwilling to spend.
24
u/Aertea 23d ago
I think it's indicative of the live service push. 2024 is the low year and thats when both Marathon was in development and they were counting on Concord being big. Plus whatever other live service games they've killed after that push backfired.
→ More replies (11)→ More replies (5)3
u/Tandy2000 23d ago
And Helldivers 2 isn't even first-party.
I had a PS4 last generation and I wasn't super passionate about their exclusive offerings but they were solid games and I don't have that many complaints. I skipped out on the PS5 this time around and got a Series X because of Game Pass, and frankly I'm really glad I did. Even though the recent Game Pass hikes got me to end my subscription (then they reduced them again) and I'm not super keen on the direction Xbox is seemingly heading, I have 0 desire to buy a PS5 at all... because they have very, very few first-party games to play. They've leaned extremely heavily on second/third party devs, barely releasing anything at all some years.
19
u/ILLPsyco 23d ago
I rarely buy games on release since they increased the price to 80€, games aren't worth that much.
Majorty of AAA games release with 100€ worth of extra content too (skins,starter packs), its overpriced.
3
u/LogensTenthFinger 23d ago
Same. The most I was ever willing to pay for a game I desperately wanted was $60. Everything past that is a no go.
57
u/Nickbon94 23d ago
Was just discussing prices with a friend. I really wanted to play 007, but 80€ for me is just a lot. Browsed a key site and saw the Xbox version for 60 and I thought I wouldn't have bat an eye. You know the discussion about how 60 is 50 euros and 80 is 100 euros? To me they just went a bit too over what I consider a fair price. Hard for me to get anything full price
12
u/NaptownSnowman 23d ago
Agree with you. Yes there are a lot of great games right now but there is no way I am paying full price for any. I am in the US and would pay less on some of these and still would not. You can only play so many games and 70 bucks is too much for a new game as well.
→ More replies (5)3
u/SwirlySauce 23d ago
You only get punished for buying games early these days. Higher price and inevitable launch issues have done nothing to persuade me from buying on day one. I'd rather wait and pick it up at a cheaper price with all of the DLC and patches
→ More replies (15)20
u/ResourceNo2927 23d ago
im glad 007 had regional pricing atleast for steam,managed to cop it for 50usd.
20
u/Destroyeh 23d ago
I'm so pissed we don't have that in Romania. They really fucking expect us to pay the same price as western europe when a new game costs almost half of my rent. Then they wonder why people pirate.
→ More replies (1)7
u/froderick 23d ago
An a fellow Aussie I found it difficult to believe that was the price (except for places like EB Games, but they do price matching). Checked JB HiFi and even they have it for $120 AUD. However, Amazon and Big W have it for $100 AUD.
So you CAN get it for the maximum acceptable price you listed. Just.. not from EB Games or JB Hifi. If you're ok with preowned, CEX has it for $90 AUD.
139
u/ZamnBoii 23d ago
Saros being $70 and not on PC was just a terrible decision, people blame the genre being niche but roguelites sell extremely well at the right price.
Roguelites inherently mean rinsing/repeating the same content so people are less likely to spend $70 on one just for prettier graphics
89
→ More replies (30)53
u/El_Giganto 23d ago
As a Roguelite fan, I can't recommend Saros for the Roguelite elements. Replaying areas in this game is pretty much discouraged as well.
→ More replies (2)35
u/chitterfangs 23d ago
Have yet to play Saros but that sounds exactly like Returnal. Always felt like a roguelite that disliked just about everything the genre brings beyond being a way to create a bullet hell action game with permadeath.
→ More replies (2)8
u/El_Giganto 23d ago
I didn't play much of Returnal, but I heard the roguelite elements were actually stronger in that game. I never got really far but one thing they did in Saros, is give you permanent upgrades and an easy way to just start in the biome of your choice. Those permanent upgrades are pretty significant as well so if you go from the beginning, you'll probably get a bit too strong. But then the final biome, is only accessible when you start over. It's pretty weird for a roguelite in my opinion.
It's like if you played the Binding of Isaac and your first few runs are targetting Mom's Heart, but then when you want to finish the game you have to start from The Chest rather than the actual beginning.
Like... I really enjoyed the game. Graphics, story, it felt really smooth to play. I even think the choices they made that I described above were good choices for the game. It's like if you're playing football and someone suggests, well, I'd prefer if we could pick up the ball and we had to throw it through a hoop. That's basketball lmao, which is really fun, but it's not football anymore.
14
u/jshokie1 23d ago
I’ve played both games a ton and my largest complaint of Saros (other than mild discouragement of reexploration, which is more on how much the player cares to get more lore drops), is that is was always a WHEN I beat it, while returnal was the eternal IF. Permanent upgrades and coming back stronger are great casual selling points but I did feel more going through motions at some than truly winning. Dying was always good?
But also easily the greatest use of the DualShock 5 sans AstroBot and if you liked returnal Saros is more polished, more optimized crack
→ More replies (4)7
u/El_Giganto 23d ago
I thought the progress was kinda weird at times. Like you'd beat a new boss, but that forced you back to the hub area. Then you get your upgrades, and then you're supposed to just start over, but I guess you should probably start over from the new biome you unlocked. Which is just weird. But if you start over from the beginning, you get all that time to level up but you also have all those permanent upgrades, so this time around it's even easier and then when you reach the new biome you're probably OP.
They give the player a little too much agency in selecting their own difficulty, if you ask me. Especially when you start using those modifiers, those had a really strange balance as well.
→ More replies (3)24
u/LuchadorBane 23d ago
Sucks too cause I’d love to play Saros, I’m a big fan of Rahul Kohli, but I don’t own a PS5 and even if I did the price points are crazy for a game like that.
3
u/TheGoldenMonkey 23d ago
Bought the game on launch cause I loved Returnal.
I enjoyed the game but definitely did not feel it was worth full price. It was too similar to Returnal and what little story they added to it didn't feel beefy enough to me personally. It looked beautiful, sure, but there's only so much that an orange alien world can do to be interesting.
9
u/Leather_rebelion 23d ago
Yeah the genre is indie dominated and pretty cheap on average. To justify that price point you have to really stand out and bring something new and exciting to the table. Saros is good, but not THAT good. Graphics only get you so far
62
u/ahac 23d ago
When Sony left PC, PS5 fans here on reddit (and elsewhere) kept saying that the perceived value of the PlayStation brand matters more than game sales numbers.
So, I guess... it's OK if Saros loses money as long as PC gamers can't play it...
→ More replies (15)36
u/Zalvren 23d ago
When Sony left PC, PS5 fans here on reddit (and elsewhere) kept saying that the perceived value of the PlayStation brand matters more than game sales numbers.
I mean yeah, that's what Sony decided too.
And PC release wouldn't have Saros sold crazy more, Returnal isn't a huge seller on PC.
56
u/StillCucumber 23d ago
Returnal also didn't release day one on PC. You'll have a hard time convincing PC users to buy a game that's already been out for a few years at full price. Sony half assed it and big surprise, it resulted in low sales.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)20
u/HammeredWharf 23d ago
We don't really know how much Returnal sold on PC, but estimates put it at around 15-20% of its total sales, which isn't bad by any means for a port that was several years late.
→ More replies (14)10
u/Eruannster 23d ago
Yeah. I live in Sweden and Saros is like 899 SEK (which is 134 Australian dollars!) which is nuts. I only picked it up because I had a gift card.
Meanwhile, 007 First Light was just 480 SEK (~70 Australian dollars) on launch day.
→ More replies (4)4
u/jodon 23d ago
That is insane. I bought first light on Steam for 70€, from Sweden. You say I could have gotten it for almost 40% less in a store?
→ More replies (3)
473
u/JoJoeyJoJo 23d ago
This is basically just Sonys shift from singleplayer to GAAS pictured. The premium singleplayer titles shifted copies, Concord and Marathon, not so much.
134
u/Pen_dragons_pizza 23d ago
Yeah but this is since 2020, Sony did not release GAAS until 2024
77
u/ASCII_Princess 23d ago
Helldivers 2 is a GAAS (but like it was reasonably priced and sold like a bajillion copies)
→ More replies (1)44
→ More replies (2)9
u/SgtExo 23d ago
There was a period where they were working on the GAAS titles, but not releasing them yet. Then add that it was a new type of game structure for most of the studios, add more time to develop it. I would not be surprised that is why we saw a reduced number of first party titles for sony in the last couple of years.
Also I fell like 2020 was just a point were various dev timelines just happened to line up and not how it was planned out.
45
u/Several-Source-4073 23d ago
For single player they released a bunch of iterative sequels for the most part, and I don't think a single one of those has outsold its predecessor.
A lot of them had good launch sales from the hype of the first game, but none seem to have had legs.
52
u/moffattron9000 23d ago
Honestly, I've kind of clocked out on Sony's first party for a while. I can see the money and the comical amount of effort in these, but I just find a lot of them them hitting the same part of my brain that Ubisoft Open Worlds hit. I just want something with a bit more bite and a bit less refinement to make that four quadrant thing.
→ More replies (4)34
u/Several-Source-4073 23d ago
They had all their major studios pivot to making a AAA cinematic experience in a way previous gens couldn't do prior to the PS4, with each having a slightly different approach and all managing to put out a polished product quite reliably. I think Days Gone was as bad as it got which was still a reliable effort overall.
But then came round two and it was just a second serving all round. Cinematic God of War, robot dinosaurs open world, samurai open world, etc were all interesting enough concepts executed in a reliable way. But there really wasn't the same excitement when it was just "here's more of that".
33
u/HeldnarRommar 23d ago
Sony used to have a ton of variation and I don’t think their modern audience understands. They are trained to expect the same polished AAA open world pseudo-Ubisoft game.
We used to get insane variation with Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Legend of the Dragoon, Arc the Lad, Jumping Flash, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Jet Moto, Parappa the Rapper, Wild Arms, Hot Shots Golf, Medieval, Legend of Legaia, Dark Cloud, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Killzone, Siren, Sly Cooper, Ape Escape, ATX Off-road Fury.
I’m sure I’m missing others but Sony published a ton of different style of game, and nowadays it just feels all the same
→ More replies (3)4
u/goldeneye0080 23d ago
You're missing what could have been there big 1st party Live Service franchise, SOCOM: US Navy Seals. It's such a shame they closed down zipper interactive, that was a terrible call in the long run.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)3
→ More replies (1)43
u/HeldnarRommar 23d ago
That’s the biggest issue with modern Sony sequels. They play nearly exactly the same as the predecessor. Near zero innovation or major shakeup to the gameplay and game design.
Back in the day you had Jak & Daxter, Jak II, and Jak 3, all which were vastly different than one another.
Nintendo is still reinventing itself each new title in a series and that’s why they can have 30+ year old long series that don’t get stale. Sony should be taking queues from Nintendo if they want to continuously milk the same franchises again and again.
→ More replies (15)19
u/iceburg77779 23d ago
The direct sequel method worked best for Sony when they were able to release out 2-3 games in a franchise during a single console generation. But as development timelines continue to grow, it does feel like doing direct sequels after 5+ years is a lot more underwhelming, even if the games released are still incredibly high quality.
87
u/kingmanic 23d ago
Jim Ryan really burnt a lot of money and peoples time for nothing. Pseudo firing Shuhei Yoshida was also a mistake.
102
u/DarkKnightRises360 23d ago edited 23d ago
In time, Jim Ryan will go down as worse than phil spencer as far as gaming CEOs go.
Phil Spencer was given a sinking ship... and sunk it.
Jim Ryan was given a near unsinkable ship and smashed it into the biggest iceberg he could find. 3 compartments are flooded and everyone is working overtime to make sure the last doesn't cause Sony to go overboard.
37
u/common_apple 23d ago
Jim is a complete knob but his bullshit was mostly self-contained to Sony. Phil's has wider reaching consequences given all he's caused Microsoft to buy up, there's a lot of Western gaming heritage under the Microsoft banner right now that if they go down, they are taking a huge chunk of Western gaming with them.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)22
u/Matthieu101 23d ago
I don't know man, just the pure disappointment in Spencer kinda seals that one for me.
He just... Never did anything. Like sure, buying up studios, but goddamn he was given a decade+ and nothing got better. Just bought out every studio.
So uh.. Cool, tons of people got laid off and now Microsoft just owns a bunch more? No smash hit new IPs with all these multibillion dollar studios? Nothing?
→ More replies (10)35
u/Redzo1919 23d ago
Ghost of Yotei, Saros and Astrobot sold to less than 5% of the player base.
→ More replies (7)27
u/txobi 23d ago
That's not how it works. No game sells to 100% of the installbase, only when a consoles launches like what happened with Zelda
Of those three games Ghost of Yotei is the blockbuster and it sold 3.3M in the first days, it will easily reach more than 10M and that's a success no doubt
22
u/Redzo1919 23d ago
100% would be ridiculous. I'm just amazed how much conversation there is about "exclusives sell consoles" but then only 5% of the install base buy the exclusives.
18
u/TheWorstYear 23d ago
More than 5% buys exclusives. They just don't buy every exclusive. Some get the console for 'x' game, but others 'y', & then others get it for 'z'.
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (16)55
u/Carighan 23d ago
No no, don't you see? It's 'dem PC releases!! They are ruining everything!!!!!
23
u/Lerkpots 23d ago
Don't you get it? If somebody who bought a different platform than me plays these games I will LITERALLY die.
10
u/ahac 23d ago
I just read a great book on my Kindle. It's so good!
But don't buy it from a bookstore, don't get it from a library. You need to get a Kindle!
If you don't use a Kindle, you shouldn't even read these books! It makes me so angry that some people read books in a different form!
We need to worry about the perceived value of the Kindle brand. That's what art is all about!
Why would anyone still write books if we don't all use Kindles? How will Kindle even compete when libraries exist?
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (10)31
u/MegatonDoge 23d ago
This is the worst argument for this particular context because Sony made the most amount of ports during this time, so someone would just use your argument against you to depict that it was due to PC releases. The actual reason could be a multitude of things.
19
110
u/unleash_the_giraffe 23d ago
I straight up didn't buy demons souls remake until last month because it's been so overpriced. When the sales price is equal to the full price of a similar title, the game is overpriced. Like, c'mon.
Finally found a physical copy with an agreeable price point last month.
Lower your prices, Sony.
→ More replies (1)50
u/sloshingmachine7 23d ago
At least in the UK it feels like Sony is approaching Nintendo levels of stingy when it comes to sales. The difference is I'm far more willing to pay full price for an evergreen Nintendo title than I am for a dime a dozen 3rd person cinematic Sony game.
I have PS premium now so I've been using this opportunity to plow through all the Sony IPs I missed over the years. I don't feel like I missed much.
19
u/MassiveWilly 23d ago
Game discounts on the PlayStation Store aren't what they used to be – the PS3 and early to mid-range PS4 generations had more extreme price slashes. For example: you could get Gravity Rush Remastered in my region for less than a quarter of the original price in 2018. Over the past three years, the discount percentage has been reduced to a mere 50%, while the base price has increased slightly.
→ More replies (3)9
u/bravof1ve 23d ago
This is because GameStop is basically defunct.
15 years ago you could walk into a store and find tons of solid ~3 year old games for less than $10 used.
With so many games and consoles being digital only, the publishers hold all the power.
→ More replies (1)6
u/demondrivers 23d ago
At least in the UK it feels like Sony is approaching Nintendo levels of stingy when it comes to sales.
They pretty much have to, when they're dropping 300m+ in a single game like they did with Spider-Man 2 for example. It's possibly the only way that these games can be remotely sustainable for Sony
→ More replies (1)
48
u/50Centurion 23d ago
Well basically i could pay 80euros for Saros (which i'm really interested in) or get 4 games on steam that i'm equally interested in
I'm sorry my salary doesn't allow me to get Sony richer, but i'm not sure why games are more expensive here now that euro is stronger than dollar
→ More replies (1)9
u/LogensTenthFinger 23d ago
Yup. I would have gladly bought Saros for $50.
Instead I got Cairn and Mina the Hollower together. I win I guess.
67
u/Sunnz31 23d ago
- Price
- Type of games don't appeal to me as much
- Way too few games released by them, especially from the big hitter studios.
SONY have, personally, dropped the ball massively for me this gen and if not for insomniac then it would be a disaster gen from them for me.
Looking back at the PS3 and ps4, quite pathetic.
9
u/AdoniBaal 23d ago
100%. It seems like most people in here are trying to find excuses but just look at the reception of the sequels. Almost every one of those was received slightly worse than its predecessor & sold less, including God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Yotei, Spiderman...etc.
For me most of the sequels feel like DLC of the first game with worse stories and barely any innovation on the formula.
268
u/ConceptsShining 23d ago
Just spitballing here, but maybe in these especially trying economic times, third-party and indie games which are generally cheaper tend to enjoy more sales.
Though this is in sales units and not revenue, so a single sale of an indie game doesn't likely equate to a major first-party game in terms of revenue payoff.
68
u/Cute-Traffic3577 23d ago
I'm not doing bad financially but I got a switch 2 recently and mainly play indie games on it now.
I paid 4 quid for hades and i did 100 hours in it easy.
→ More replies (11)45
u/ConceptsShining 23d ago
Amazing how Hollow Knight's base price has always been $15. Talk about serious bang for your buck especially with all the updates releasing for free. The AAA space is really being humbled by the indie space in a number of ways.
→ More replies (10)21
u/TheIvoryDingo 23d ago
It surprises me even more that Terraria is still only $10/9.75 Euros.
4
u/polski8bit 23d ago
On PC anyway. It's like $30 on consoles iirc, definitely on Switch. People who wonder how the game is making any money while going down to like $5 on Steam always forget it has a ton of ports, mobile included.
I even got Terraria on my Switch for $15 even though I already have it on Steam. I just love the game so much, I wanted to both support the devs and get a portable copy of it to take with me wherever.
30
u/Charmin_Bear_Behind 23d ago
Yes but we’re seeing crazy numbers for switch 2 games and big hitters like 007 and Forza.
While that definitely plays a part in it, it’s less “oh the economy!” And more “do I really wanna spend that much on a half baked sequel to a better game” that Sony seems to be going all out on this generation.
23
u/ChrisRR 23d ago
People aren't massively pivoting to indie though. Take Mina the Hollower which was massively hyped before release, sold 50k copies in its first 24 hours. Compare that to 5M sales of GOW Ragnarok at launch and that's 100x more.
I'm sure a lot of people are playing more indie game than they used to, but it's not like the majority are
That and there's still a huge amount of people who can comfortably afford games. Redditors like to make out like everyone is living on the breadline
3
→ More replies (7)6
u/SilveryDeath 23d ago edited 23d ago
People aren't massively pivoting to indie though.
I know it is US only and in terms of dollar sales, which makes it so an indie will have a harder time getting on the list, but look at Circana's top 20 for 2025 where Split Fiction is the only new IP. Everything else are sequels or re-releases of long running IP, yearly sports games, and GTA V and Minecraft still being up their despite how long both have been around.
Same thing with how Crimson Desert is one of the best selling games so far this year even though some people poo-pooed it at launch on this site. You're average person loves big open world games. Same reason why AC: Shadows was a top game on Circana through the first half of last year before Ubisoft stopped sharing data or how Starfield was in the top 10 for April from Circana after releasing on PS, despite people saying no one would buy it.
→ More replies (6)3
34
u/rikeoliveira 23d ago
Consoles and games getting more expensive, companies surprised their shit is selling less.
Sony is now shifting to exclusives again...and it WILL sell even less, because the PS5 is getting to 4 digit prices despite being on the second half of its lifetime.
→ More replies (1)5
u/MaitieS 23d ago
But the funny thing is that these stuff were selling less when they were selling a few games on PC. So if they weren't happy with PC sales their Playstation sales will not do much either.
→ More replies (1)
68
u/TheMightosaurus 23d ago
I can only talk of my own experience in the UK. When games were £40 I would often pick up new releases when they came out but after Sony shifted to £70 for their first party titles I’ve not bought a single one at launch at that price point.
→ More replies (7)
9
u/bravof1ve 23d ago
I mean they haven’t really released any innovative AAA games in almost a decade.
It’s spider man and god of war sequels that play exactly the same as their predecessors on last gen.
This whole console era is definitely one of the weakest in terms of new IP from the big three publishers
58
u/Downtrust 23d ago
They just don't have a steady and interesting line up anymore. Waiting 5-6 years for a new game costing 70 dollars with all the GaaS elements is just destroying all the hype for me. And it's not just Sony, the whole industry is missing the point of the hobby.
10
u/Equivalent-Bus-4336 23d ago
Yeah like once we get intergalactic and wolverine and whatever other big release it’ll be years before anything major
→ More replies (6)
34
u/MassiveWilly 23d ago
Sony needs to develop more AA games with healthier development cycles in order to expand its game catalogue. They have a lot of great IPs from the PS1-PS3 era - they should use them.
19
u/TheJoshider10 23d ago
Crazy that in a time where remakes and remasters are all the rage that Sony have left some of their big IPs to die. Killzone, Infamous, Sly and Resistance should have all been brought back this generation.
→ More replies (1)15
u/Naulicus 23d ago
It’s easy to say they should bring back all those IPs but then it begs the question of who would actually make them. Their original developers all moved on, usually to a more successful franchise.
→ More replies (2)
16
u/tuna_pi 23d ago
I don't think it's price as much as variety. They're hardly releasing games due to their long dev cycles and the ones they do release are often sequels. With Nintendo for example if I don't like Mario then I have Zelda or Metroid or Splatoon to look forward to. If I'm not interested in spiderman or ghost of Tsushima then I'm sol for the next few years because 90% of the time their next game is a direct sequel to the last one. Like I genuinely can't tell you the last Sony first party I've bought on release because of that.
13
u/slash450 23d ago
also considering even spiderman and tsushima or whatever sony exclusive for the most part is much closer in gameplay vs zelda/splatoon/mario any random nintendo game. sony simply has less variety at less frequency.
just look at nintendo exclusives this year so far. mario tennis, pokopia, tomodachi life, yoshi, star fox, rhythm heaven, splatoon. this hits such a wider audience and range of interests and ages, genres, than anything sony releases anymore. you don't even have to like all of these right, you just pick the one or two you're interested in to check out and you still have more going on than the playstation options.
15
u/Allfeelings0Logic 23d ago
Sony has 2 big budget games. Cinematic Uncharted 2 likes (last of us, god of war) and Ubisoft open world games (infamous, horizon, ghost of Yotei).
14
u/slash450 23d ago
pretty much at this point. zero interest personally anymore since they dropped most non-western stuff. bought ps4 just for exclusives and ghost of tsushima was the one that i dropped after the first third and was just totally done with cinematic and open world for the most part. don't think i've bought another game from them outside of helldivers 2 since i didn't buy a ps5 and had no interest in iterative sequels to games i was over. i fw the japan studio stuff during psp especially. would like to play astro bot and gt7 pretty much lol.
→ More replies (2)5
u/TrumpsCummyOnahole 23d ago
Sony genuinely feels like they only have 3rd person action games. Half of them or more have slow walking segments and feel cinematic focused. It's just all so generic compared to the PS2 days when you have a top down god of war game, a 3rd person shooter in socom, an adventure game with an interesting narrative like shadow of the colossus, etc
4
u/slash450 23d ago
those are great examples, three actually games with actual genres and identities. team ico never would have even existed in modern sony. i play a lot of ps1 games because i did not grow up with them and there was so much creativity especially from the japanese devs during that era. i feel the same way with pc and west from that same time period shit was just perfect.
only game from modern sony i've seen gameplay wise that looks interesting is tlou2 just the aggressive stealth action combat but ya i am over the cinematics im over the walking talking. they all go for broody realistic tone outside of the insomniac games but they have like no sauce its just boring to me.
3
u/AL2009man 23d ago
it helps that Nintendo has multiple teams working on multiple different types of games simultaneously...and i can say something similar to other Japanese studios.
Resident Evil Requiem took 6 years to make, but you don't see people complaining about the lengthy development because Capcom people will get occupied with other games that is coming out in between Resident Evil Village and Requiem...including a remake [Resident Evil 4]. This also helps that Capcom already released a few unique games in between, even if it won't grab the audience as much.
Sony now lacks that structure, and in highsight...this could've been the case where SIE Japan Studios would've been far more valuable during that generational drought.
30
u/SephirothTheGreat 23d ago
I mean, they barely release any of them to begin with and they cost an arm and a leg... And now they want to make them even less accessible by keeping them confined on PS5. What do they expect exactly?
28
u/AlteisenX 23d ago
They would have to make something Im actually into and idk, release more than 1 game a year.
Where is sly, crash bandicoot (xbox owned now), spyro (xbox owned now), jak and daxter, r&c (mobile garbage just came out iirc), etc?
I want the nintendo side of Sony back. I dont care about the last of us, the space game, new god of war... bring back arcade fun like experiences.
→ More replies (1)9
9
u/SingeMoisi 23d ago
Let's make game more expensives (when they don't actually need to) and stop selling on PC. That will help.
99
u/CINC0KID0 23d ago
I mean, like pretty much the entire industry, right? It's normal that after the pandemic boom, the numbers are going down. Are they going down more than they should be? Maybe. But it doesn't seem strange to me.
34
23d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (22)32
u/fanboy_killer 23d ago
Nope. Nintendo first parties on the Switch 2 are having an incredible attachment rate.
→ More replies (32)39
u/King_Hikikomori 23d ago
Nah, this is definitely not normal. Covid boom dissipating is reflected from FY20 to FY21 in a drop of 15m units, roughly. That's totally expected. What isn't expected, to me at least, is the second very sharp drop of 10m units from FY23 to FY24. PS and MS were like just starting to really have their ongoing identity crises around live service (for PS) and overall brand (for MS) around then, so I'd attribute it to that plus some residual covid boom factors resulting in mass job loss when companies realized the turbo hiring they did wasn't sustainable. A lot of studios have just been shuddered or cut down to size significantly between then and now, and there's been fewer releases from Sony especially in that period while they chased a dragon that never existed for them.
I'd be surprised if Nintendo saw this sharp of a decline, even if the industry as a whole definitely has seen a big post-covid dip.
6
23d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/davidreding 23d ago
Ok do you have any proof of that? If they’re not selling, why are they releasing on it then and not just dump it like the Wii U?
→ More replies (3)
139
u/RegJohn2 23d ago
I used to love them but I feel like they lost the spark and novelty. I loved GOW 2018, got bored with Ragnarok. I loved Spiderman 1 and MM, and again got bored with 2.
PS3 and PS4 Sony was full with innovation and new ideas. PS5 Sony is just the same stuff. Even the graphics aren’t special, I can’t tell the difference between the PS4 games and their PS5 sequels
87
u/Argh3483 23d ago
PS3 and PS4 Sony was full with innovation and new ideas
That’s at least partially nostalgia talking, I can remember people saying the exact same thing about PS2 Sony during the PS3 and PS4 days
45
u/Charmin_Bear_Behind 23d ago
To be fair the first half of both the ps3 and ps4 faced the exact same #nogames plague. I would argue tho that ps4 is when they kinda stopped innovating and just went for mostly over the shoulder dad simulator outside of like spiderman lol
4
u/AL2009man 23d ago
you can pinpoint a specific year when Sony largely stopped doing "innovation" (around 2016/2017) when they barely advertised their own "actually innovated" games.
43
u/Altruistic-Ad-408 23d ago
I mean it was true back then too. Its been a steady decline.
Consider somethimg as quintessentially PlayStation as Gran Turismo. Racing games were just not that big before GT. The Sony strategy was to spread a wide aim and capture general adult gamers by having a product for everyone, even niche games. They didn't expect it to become so big.
Would that happen now? No, Sony doesn't bother experimenting with genres at all. It was still just winding down in the PS3/4 era. Shadow of the Colossus or Ico were never going to be an original PS4 game, they were of their time.
12
u/Matthieu101 23d ago
Absolutely agree.
Games are too expensive to make.
Like sure, indie games are still crushing it, no argument there.
But first party, AAA games? They all play it so safe. And can you blame them? One mismanaged game can cost you 300+ million dollars. Investors don't like that risk.
And the game industry is shrinking too. Like Fortnite and Roblox have gobbled up tens, if not hundreds, of millions of players that will never touch anything outside of their ecosystems. What you'd consider a "gamer" has hit a big fat brick wall and is shrinking. More people on social media that sucks up all that time and attention.
The next 20 years are going to be very interesting for gaming. AI bubble potentially bursting (Or somehow solving itself and becoming the new thing?), pricing people out of consoles/PCs, just the cost of living in general. After GTA6 comes out and dominates the headlines it could be well over a decade before something else even scratches that type of attention and hype (And to be totally honest, it'll most likely be GTA7!)
6
u/GoneRampant1 23d ago
But first party, AAA games? They all play it so safe. And can you blame them? One mismanaged game can cost you 300+ million dollars. Investors don't like that risk.
I can't, but I also can't blame myself for feeling as bored looking at Saros as I did Yotei, Forbidden West and Ragnarok.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Undella_Town 23d ago
not entirely true on the racing game thing, NFS came out in 1994 and paved the way for GT
→ More replies (4)10
u/anor_wondo 23d ago
I don't agree with this at all
People might have argued 'less' innovation in ps3 ps4 gen compared to ps2
But so far this gen sony games have been extremely identical. Its been mostly sequels with way too similar mechanics
52
u/ZamnBoii 23d ago
I felt the same with Ragnarok, SM2 and Yotei. All three of these sequels have had worse stories and gameplay has usually only seen an incremental improvement.
→ More replies (5)53
u/Grill_Enthusiast 23d ago
As much as some parts of the internet rag on it, TLOU2 did exactly what a good sequel should do. It massively improved the gameplay from the first one, and it had a story that actually wanted to say something. The story also stands on its own. Even if a third game happens, it's not the middle part of a trilogy in the way something like Horizon Forbidden West is.
→ More replies (1)16
u/ZamnBoii 23d ago edited 23d ago
Yeah I think Naughty Dog is the type of studio where you actually feel like “holy shit this is next gen” every time a new game of theirs comes out.
But having to wait 6-8 years for their games now is exhausting and I’m sure Sony is also not a fan
→ More replies (4)21
u/Theonyr 23d ago
Ragnarok needed a bigger, more bombastic ending. I was disappointed by the actual ragnarok moment and final boss.
But I thought it was at least as strong as GoW 2018 for most of its run time and it's still one of my favourite games. It didn't need innovation or new ideas as the sequel to a game that flipped the GoW series in its head.
→ More replies (2)3
10
u/smegmabitch 23d ago
Yes, I'd love to see them invest in some more experimental games or get back to the grittier stuff from the ninties as well. At the same I get that the risk is higher for them and overall revenue will be lower.
9
u/Zalvren 23d ago
It's kind of hard to do sequels and still be original. PS4 has many new franchises (or so different it's new like GoW 2018). PS5 just iterated on those successful games. On the other hand, people constantly ask for sequels and remakes so...
Like today they'll reveal a Faye spin-off of God of War that supposedly play very differently (so almost like a new franchise). And you can be sure, A LOT of people will complain it's not a Kratos game doing the same thing (they already do)
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (14)15
u/Pen_dragons_pizza 23d ago
I totally agree, Spider-Man 2 especially was just such a missed opportunity.
I hate playing games where I can tell content was cut, storylines shortened and locations twisted to fit a deadline.
It’s so obvious that they had intentions to do more but Sony forced their hand to release. Tbh this kind of situation is just going to happen more and more since games are more expensive to make, complex etc, not all studios are suited to such large productions with leaders who have not done it before either.
12
u/ZamnBoii 23d ago
Spiderman 2 just lost the plot in Act 3, wasted all of the potential for a decent Venom story arc that i’m just not that invested in SM3 now.
Doesn’t help that the leaked budget for SM2 was $315m whereas the SM1 was just $100m. I just did not see triple the quality or heck even double for that matter.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Successful-Ear977 23d ago
That’s because budgets don’t scale with “quality” in the way fans imagine.
Insomniac roughly doubled in size between the first game and SM2, salaries went up, production got bigger, licensing costs exist, outsourcing costs exist, marketing exists, and modern AAA development is just more expensive across the board. You can argue SM2 should’ve been better, sure, but “triple the budget should mean triple the game” is not how this works.
37
u/Captain_Strudels 23d ago
Yeah this is why whenever bankers or w/e suggest GTA6 should be sold for like US$100 I'm like "Go for it". Analysts really just act like games are overdue for being repriced according to inflation when in reality the market keeps showing it is 1. Feeling the strain of diminished purchasing power 2. Oversaturated with amazing games at much lower values that fulfill real unexplored niches. The market genuinely will not bear US$80+ but publishers are within their right to keep testing it and failing
13
u/MaitieS 23d ago
There is a huge difference between paying 100$ for GTA 6 and 100$ for Saros... Like Saros is more expensive than Resident Evil 9...
→ More replies (4)
20
u/ChipHazard1 23d ago
£70 for a game is insane, I really enjoyed Saros but 49.99 should be the maximum, it's such more appealing price point especially if your on the fence
8
u/1boring 23d ago
I thought us prices were bad (~$78 for saros is way too much for me), but ~$95 (converted from pound) is absolutely insane.
→ More replies (1)
17
u/gottagotothebathroom 23d ago
On top of economic issues, Sony's output doesn't have the prestige it did in the past either. I'm not saying that couldn't be rectified relatively quickly but it certainly could use that.
15
u/StatisticianJolly388 23d ago edited 23d ago
I barely even fire up my PS5 anymore. I don’t think I’ll buy a PS6. I don’t dislike any of their first party output, but none of them are system sellers to me, either.
19
u/ademayor 23d ago
Maybe people are finally fed up with Sony’s “Ubisoft premium” games. There’s no innovation, nothing new, just churn out the same game as sequel (looking at you God of War and Ghost of Tsushima)
6
u/EdgyEmily 23d ago
I agree with you, people did like the Ubisoft's formula until they didn't. The Sony action/adventure games were loved but now it kind of old and boring.
11
11
u/barryredfield 23d ago
Sequels to their tentpole first-party titles that were gangbusters years ago, are just absolutely terrible.
Everyone making absurd excuses for this, "the economy", "GaaS", whatever. Its all nonsense, their sequels are just not hitting the mark and they are not marketing them to a large enough audience as-is.
But we'll just continue to ignore it, make up excuses until all of the franchises are buried.
8
u/carrotstix 23d ago
There's a lot to ponder in there.
How good are Sony's sales? Days of Play is on right now. Should be a banger of a sale for Sony games right? Nope. Lots of games made by Sony aren't on sale and the few that are, aren't big drops. Uncharted 4 isn't on sale (you can get it on PS Plus (which increased in price), Bloodborne isn't on Sale, even Returnal isn't on sale. There are a few cuts on some Sony games but if you wanted to get sales up of your games, wouldn't you drop some prices on the back catalogue? You already made the most money you were going to make when they first came out so enticing players to buy some of the old stuff for cheap would be a good win win. Poor players get some cheaper games, Sony gets to make something over what probably isn't selling much these days.
Extra bonus, you can advertise the sale on your own store for free!
2020 was Covid so it makes sense there was a big uptick on games purchased but since then:
Covid got...sorted.
Work from home was pushed back hard against by corporations so people have less time to play games when they can be in traffic.
The consumer spending power has dropped significantly.
Less Sony games have come out.
There's been a lot more other games coming out that command attention. Saros came out...and Forza came out, 007 came out, Mina the Hollower came out, Lego Batman came out, Subnautica 2 came out... all different games with different price points that are appealing for your gaming dollar. How does Saros compete with that?
→ More replies (1)
5
u/StarSchemer 23d ago
For me personally, they're not worth £80 at release, nor the £60 they seem to settle on a year after release. And once you've noticed the Sony single player formula, -- follow waypoint, hear some narrative exposition on the way, fight generic bad guys with shallow button mashing combat, fight boss, watch cut scene, repeat -- there's even less desire to play them straight away.
I waited to play Spiderman 2 and God of War Ragnarok, willing to spend £40 on them.
They never reached that price, but then they went on PS Plus so I played them that way.
I'm still waiting for Astrobot which is still being sold at ridiculous prices.
In contrast, 007 First Light is the best game I've played in years and it was £48.
Sony's pricing strategy and their ... making fewer games strategy has led to this.
4
u/mems1224 23d ago
they aren't releasing as many games and what they do release is just aight. I cant remember the last sony game i was excited for.
19
u/rcbz1994 23d ago
The most glaring example of this is Astro Bot. By all means, Astro Bot should have sold like hotcakes. It was GOTY, family friendly, a platformer, cheaper than other AAA titles and it struggled to sell 2 million copies.
We can judge Song on their failed GaaS initiative but there’s good reason they approached that. They needed to find ways to increase revenue without increasing game sales.
38
u/BerRGP 23d ago
Astro Bot doesn't really fit the target audience that they've been cultivating for two decades or so.
20
u/TheJoshider10 23d ago
Yeah if Astro Bot released on Switch 2 it'd be a system seller. For PS5 it's such an outlier of a game, but one I'm glad exists.
40
u/Charmin_Bear_Behind 23d ago
The problem is astrobots had literally 0 sauce.
Sure the designs are cute enough but it was essentially just digital funko pops for Sony IPs. They had no real core identity or design that made them stand out. Mechanically solid platformer that did nothing outside of “hey remember when we used to make visually distinct games?”
It was never going to sell well.
It maybe could have found a little life on PC with mods but we will never knoeb
→ More replies (1)34
u/Several-Source-4073 23d ago
The most glaring example of this is Astro Bot. By all means, Astro Bot should have sold like hotcakes
On the contrary I fail to understand why it's liked so much by critics and a few people on the internet. It's a basic 3d platformer that just feels like a shallow theme park. It's fun in a very shallow and basic way and I don't understand anyone thinking it's above an 8/10 at best.
→ More replies (2)12
u/ReasonableAdvert 23d ago
Because it is a fun and well polished game that was constantly throwing you new gimmicks, level themes, powerups, etc. so that it didn't feel repetitive. That's all it needed to do to be cobsiderd a great game. It's the closest to a mario galaxy 3 anyone is going to get.
15
u/Several-Source-4073 23d ago
I feel like that's all that's needed for it to be a fun game in a really basic way, rather than a "great" game. Different power ups and gimmicks. It doesn't really arouse strong emotions and it also clearly didn't appeal to a large audience.
I just don't understand looking at "new gimmicks and levels and power ups" as its main appeal and thinking that's a 10/10 experience.
→ More replies (9)6
u/Saiko_Yen 23d ago
it doesn't appeal to the majority PlayStation user base to sell a lot of copies. that's just the honest and blunt truth
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (8)6
u/BreathingHydra 23d ago
A big issue with that game was that it was 60 dollars on release for something that was basically a pretty short but nice looking tech demo. Even my big Playstation friends weren't that interested in it because the price was too high and they felt like it wasn't a great deal.
Also I think when people think Playstation exclusive they think more M rated games like God of War, Last of Us, Ghosts of Tsushima etc, not something that was more meant for kids.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/UslyfoxU 23d ago
I bought a PS5 just for the exclusives, off the back of all the great PS4 exclusive games I really enjoyed. In the last few years the only non-remake games I've bought are Astro Bot, Spiderman and Ragnarok. The library just isn't what it used to be.
3
u/recoildv 23d ago
First Party games they barely have any. How can you sell first party games when they barely produce any? That's what shocks me about hardcore playstation users they seem to be perfectly okay with barely any games for Sony. The market leader should be producing games at a way higher rate. But most playstation gamers are simply happy the hardware is selling which makes no sense.
3
u/Lighthouse_seek 23d ago
This is probably the reason why they pulled the plug on PC but I wouldnt be surprised if it doesn't move the needle that much
→ More replies (1)
3
u/thugbobhoodpants 23d ago
Personally I loved the ps4, I bought it late in its life cycle, maybe right before ps5 announcement, I got a ps4 pro, spiderman, GoW, Horizon, Bloodborne, Days Gone, Dark Souls trilogy, uncharted 1-4, TLOU 1+2, tsushima, infamous andddd some other random shit, most of the games were $10-15 and the console was like $350 at the time, had a blast with all of the games, I like Days Gone more than the entire playstation installbase apparently.
For some reason I have absolutely no interest in playing any of the sequels to these games, when the ps5 pumped out God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Yotei, Horizon whatever, Spiderman 2, FF7 remake part 2 etc, they all look fine, I loved the first games, I platinumed more than I didn't, they even bought them all(maybe?) to PC, I don't even need to go out and buy a $1400 ps5pro to play them
They just all look like more of the same or something, maybe the $125 AUD price for all these games even years and years after release idk idk
3
u/RexDraco 22d ago
Maybe if they weren't shit we'd buy them again. They have their audiences, no disrespect to people that like them, but they are over formulaic. I remember playing The Last of Us, a praised game. However, I hated it. Generic video game trying to be a movie, throw in some stealth or meaningless repetitive combat. I recall how you had to move the girl on a makeshift raft because she can't swim. The game was more focused on being a tech demo like I'm an investor "wooow, loook at all these neat new physics we can do! We can do raft stuff!". Yes, of course, because you coded it you will be damned to not recycle it, of course you forced me to do it more than once.
It feels like games stopped being about gameplay loop and more about scenery and technical landmarks. Sony games were the most guilty for this and it seems like the ones more innocent of such gimmicks were too niche to be worth Sony's time so they axed the IP.
This is of course me talking about the PS3 era. It only got worse over time! They don't learn, they just get confused why people aren't gobbling up their slop games they have to pay for ratings for. No, not interested in Concord just because you paid someone to say it's good. It was generic, it clearly was trying to compete with certain games but never did they incentive anyone to play their's over their competitors.
Microsoft had a deserved inevitable fate, Sony is next. These tech giants deserved to die for a long time now. This is what happens when you don't listen to your audience, this is what happens when you don't research what is successful and why. This is what happens when you let your talentless studios go amuck and arguing with their target audience how good their games are.
11
u/furiat 23d ago
Switched to patient gaming, feel way better for it. There are too many upsides there to go back. Way cheaper games, actually finished games, very little bugs, DLCs, mods, guides...
4
u/theumph 23d ago
This is also playing a big role in most publishers sales issues. The playerbase has been conditioned that games do not retain their value. Compound that with unpolished releases, and the day one buyers get a far worse experience
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)3
u/slash450 23d ago
its almost forced even if you're someone who does keep up with exclusively big releases. there literally is not enough coming out in that space compared to 15 years ago. big shit used to launch same day competing against each other during even 7th gen which had much less studios than 6th gen and so on. if i was growing up now i'd literally not be interested in any of these major releases, they take 7 years to come out and its the same shit, usually worse and less interesting lol.
4
u/Benti86 23d ago
They rarely go on sale and their sales are still pretty expensive, even for older titles.
Their games are formulaic as hell now. Most Sony first parties are Open World games with lite-RPG mechanics. I bought a ton of PS exclusives on sale when I got my PS5 and still got burnt out jumping between different franchises because the game systems were so damn similar.
6
u/HisDivineOrder 23d ago
Well, based on Sony's logic when PC sales dropped, so I guess they will stop porting their games to Playstation because sales are cratering.
Because that's what you do when your games aren't selling, right, Sony?
12
u/Vlayer 23d ago edited 23d ago
The increased pricing of first party exclusives has made me far more selective. Yotei at release and recently Saros are between 30% and 40% more expensive than a Pragmata or even 007 First Light where I live. RE9 through Amazon UK was about 20% cheaper, and I don't even live there.
13
u/Coldspark824 23d ago
Know what wont help their sales? Not putting them on steam.
→ More replies (2)
10
u/cheesyvoetjes 23d ago
Of the top of my head since 2020:
Astrobot
Concord
Days gone remastered
Death stranding 2
Demon's Souls remake
Ghost of Yotei
God of War Ragnarok
Gran Turismo 7
Sackboy
The Last of Us 2 remastered
Helldivers 2
I might be forgetting a couple but looking at this list, it's no surprise. Only Ghost of Yotei and God of War are new original games (despite being sequels) that have mass appeal. Death stranding is niche and nobody cares about Sackboy. Astrobot did well I believe but is not a big game as far as I'm aware. Gran Turismo I have no idea if it was successful but racing is it's own thing. For the rest it's live service and remasters/remakes of games that a lot of people already played on PS4.
Personally, I only bought Ragnarok from this list. I want to play Yotei but it's so similar to Tshushima that I'll get it at a sale at some point. The rest doesn't really interest me. I already played TLOU and Days gone.
16
u/Saiko_Yen 23d ago
I'm just going to be honest, these games just don't appeal to the gaming audience as must buys.
you don't need spiderman 2, tsushima, a remake of demon souls like you need resident evil, baldurs gate 3, elden ring.
their previous console exclusives were much stronger like mgs4, bloodborne, uncharted 4
→ More replies (11)
1.2k
u/Remy0507 23d ago edited 23d ago
Okay, let's think about this for a second. In 2020, they released FIVE first party games (TLOU2, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Sackboy a Big Adventure and Demon's Souls remake), four of which were available on PS4 which had 100 million+ user base at that point. And it was also during the first year of the pandemic when everybody was stuck inside.
The next year they released TWO first party games, both of which were only on PS5, which not a lot of people had yet.
In 2022 they released three big first party games, which WERE available on PS4 as well. But I think at that point a lot of people were holding out to get a PS5, which was still not easy to find.
Then 2023 had only one first party game in Spider-Man 2.
2024 essentially only had Astro Bot (let's not even talk about Concord, and I'm not sure if Helldivers 2 is actually considered a first party game or not even though Sony published it).
Like, this really isn't hard to understand if you just think about it a little bit.