Let me paint you a picture: the year is 2020, in the month where everyone (depending on what country you’re in) stuffs their faces and says thanks (November 2020). Back to the picture – Sony launches their latest console, the PlayStation 5. Mind you, this is during a worldwide pandemic and console production is in a rut. The big 3 (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) are all having production problems due to Covid-19. In fact, every company in the world that does mass production was having a problem with this.
Everyone’s home and gaming and streaming media has gone as high as Mount Everest. Animal Crossing is literally taking the world by storm, home consoles are being bought and sold on eBay, companies such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and every other major retailer is selling these consoles like hot cakes. They just can’t keep anything on the shelves! According to Matt Piscatella, Executive Director & Video Game Industry Advisor, The NPD Group, spending in the video game industry has seen an 18% increase over last year with hardware, software, and accessories reaching $5.6 Billion as of March 2021.
Sony has sold 7.8 Million in both consoles and games worldwide – again during a global pandemic, and made it the biggest console launch in U.S. history. That’s very impressive, given that it’s only been out for 6 months (at the time of NPD release). The question now is this: can they maintain a steady pace with their games’ releases? With only a few first party titles releasing at launch with the PS5, we now look to the future of gaming on their platform to see if Sony can maintain the pace of releasing more fantastic titles. So far we’ve had Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy’s Big Adventure, and Demon Souls. With the latest release from Sony and Housemarque Studios’ Returnal that actually utilizes the lightning fast loading times of the PS5 console and haptic feedback of its dualsense controller being a success – we as gamers are wondering what else Sony has up it’s sleeve. Next month is the launch of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart coming straight out of Insomniac Studios – which also demonstrates in greater detail what the PS5 is capable of.
According to Herman Hulst (co-founder of Guerilla Games) Sony has 25 other titles in the pipeline which consists of both original and pre-existing IPs. This is what he had to say, according to Wired:
There’s an incredible amount of variety originating from different regions…Big, small, different genres.
Horizon Zero West is still slated to be released this year, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits from Ember Lab is dated to launch August 24,2021. Sony recently announced they’re working on a new multiplayer IP with Firewalk Studios, and various indie developers are partnering with the gaming giant to release their games on the console. What’s even more surprising is that players are opting for the PS5 a bit more instead of it’s competitor the Xbox Series X. Don’t get me wrong, both consoles are great and have their merits – but PS5 is knocking it out of the park. According to The Verge PS5 consoles have been outperforming the Xbox Series X with third party games at launch. In my opinion, it’s still very early to see which system is better since Xbox doesn’t really have any first party games to demonstrate the console’s power and capabilities. However, if you want to see just how good the PS5 is 6 months later, click here.
Hey! I’m Lais a.k.a. Chipz-N-Stix and I love video games and nerd culture overall. I typically do reviews and impressions on video games as well as offer some helpful tips and tricks to enhance your gaming experience. From time to time I tend to touch on certain topics that get you thinking – things that would matter to the individual. I’m also a self-proclaimed Pokemon Master but that doesn’t mean you can outright challenge me. I have to “motivate” my team for that!
