We are on the final stages of 2022. A year full of noteworthy events. In the exclusive and first-party field, at least for this year, Sony has kept faith with the words spoken by Jim Ryan and other executives in 2020, shortly before the launch of PS5. Even then, the CEO of the Interactive Entertainment division promised that PS4 support would continue. So it was. The first big name linked to the PlayStation world is that of Horizon Forbidden West. The continuation of the story of Aloy, the character created by Guerrilla Games, cheered up the first part of the year, shortly before being ‘obscured’ by FromSoftware’s Senza Luce that with Elden Ring (cross-platform) has monopolized the social discussion since March.
We are still at the beginning of March when Polyphony Digital offers us Gran Turismo 7. In the year that marks the 25th anniversary of the brand, among other things, GT7 manages to bring the total sales of Gran Turismo to 90 million copies, a pretty good result for the genre. A little over three weeks go by, the month hasn’t expired yet, and here comes Ghostwire Tokyo on the shelves. The game signed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda, debuts on PS5 and PC exclusively for a year. Fast forward to July to deal with Stray. Blue12 and Annapurna offer us a game that quickly becomes a social phenomenon. The images and memes go around just enough to earn the kitten a nomination at the Game Awards where he will fight Horizon Forbidden West for the GOTY.
In that same category – we have to make a time skip until November – a certain one also competes God of War Ragnarok, the latest PlayStation exclusive for 2022. According to Dualshockers, also last first-party to grace PS4. Of course, both Kratos and Aloy and the cat will have to surrender to the supremacy of Elden Ring for the last big prize of 2022, but that’s another story. Just as another story is the non-participation – but justified – of The Last of Us Part 1. Naughty Dog, in September, offered us the remake of the story of Ellie and Joel, exclusively on PS5 and soon also on PC.
Expanding the concept a bit, we can – we must – remember that the last 12 months have already been in a certain sense dedicated to the next-gen, not only for PlayStation. CD Projekt RED, alone, has taken steps to update Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 to versions that do them justice even on the most powerful machines. Same thing also from Rockstar Games with the blockbuster GTA 5, while still waiting for news on the sixth chapter.
However, while 2023 is fast approaching – as we write there is just over a week left – many are starting to wonder (wrongly or rightly we leave it up to you to decide) whether for Sony, as well as for Microsoft, it is not the case to concentrate exclusively on the latest consoles on the market. In short, one wonders if the transition period between old and current-gen (and specifically, from PS4 to PS5) hasn’t run its course.
Although there isn’t a completely definitive answer (at least for third parties who may or may not decide to also dedicate themselves to Xbox One and PS4) the Sony first-party already seem to be directed towards the progressive farewell to the black console that has been with us since 2013.
In the next 12 months, among the already announced projects we have a further expansion of Aloy’s story with the Horizon Burning Shores DLC, available only on PlayStation 5. But if this is only an optional DLC, the same cannot be said for the rest of the line-up which, at various stages in 2023, will enrich the offer of the latest Sony console.
Among the most talked about projects, one cannot fail to mention Forspoken, Fantasy RPG developed by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix. The developers have decided to focus only on the latest console and PC. “Impossible to think of it on old-gen” says Luminous. Furthermore, Square will also enrich its most famous IP with two releases. On the one hand we have Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second part of the three planned to conclude the revival operation started with Remake. On the other hand we have FFXVI one of – perhaps “the” – more mature chapters of the entire series which for the first six months will be available only for owners of the Japanese console.
Let’s stay in the third party field but let’s move on to the real horror: Silent Hill 2 Remake. Although it does not have a precise release date, it is possible to expect it during the next year (let’s venture the hypothesis of seeing it during the second half of 2023 in order to avoid the competition of Resident Evil 4 Remake, expected instead on a greater number of platforms).
Like Guerrilla Games, Insomniac is now part of the internal PlayStation stable. After the first game, dated 2018, and after a Miles Morales, stand-alone and cross-gen DLC (accompanied by a PS5 remastered of the previous one) released in 2020, comic book lovers with super-heroes will be able to rejoice in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Among other things, Insomniac is also working on a game dedicated to Wolverine.
The last internal project at Sony to mention – for the moment – is Stellar Blade, initially known as Project Eve.
Speaking of 2023, let’s remember that Xbox has also promised 12 extraordinary months. Aaron Greenberg talked about it a few days ago.
Source: ign