PlayStation’s first half of 2024 has been quietly successful without necessarily setting the world alight. Helldivers 2 proved a surprise megahit in both a critical and commercial sense, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of the best RPGs of the year so far – even if it hasn’t quite sold the number of copies both Square Enix and Sony may have been hoping for – and, as recently as a few weeks ago, both Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade launched, bringing with them exciting brands of sharp action.
These exclusives have been bright spots in an industry otherwise plagued by layoffs and studio closures (of which Sony has played no small part in), but when it comes to what else to expect to play on your PS5 in the back half of 2024, there’s a worrying lack of announced games and dates – especially compared to the strong first-party offerings Xbox currently has lined up. Of course, this could all change soon as we rapidly approach the summer showcase season where exciting new reveals will undoubtedly steal the headlines. Sony will, presumably, want something shiny to show alongside a potential unveiling of the heavily rumored PS5 Pro. But how many of those fresh announcements will actually be playable within the next six months is another question, though. My guess is very few.
Beyond this year’s upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake, Death Stranding 2 in 2025, Bungie’s Marathon, and a couple of other first-party releases we’ll cover shortly, PlayStation’s cupboard is looking relatively bare, especially when it comes to games from those keystone PlayStation Studios. It begs the question of what each of these teams – those that helped build the PlayStation library into the strong place to play it is today – are up to now, and how long before we get to both see and play them. So let’s take a look at what each of those developers (not including support studios) are doing, and when we can realistically expect to see new games from them.
Naughty Dog
Arguably the jewel in the PlayStations Studios crown, Naughty Dog’s last full release was 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2. The Uncharted developer hasn’t been completely quiet since then, releasing both remastered versions of The Last of Us Part 1 (in collaboration with Iron Galaxy) and Part 2 as recently as this January. But Naughty Dog’s most notable recent announcement wasn’t a new launch, but the cancellation of a multiplayer entry in the series that the studio had spent many years on before deciding to turn its attention back to where its proven skills lie: single-player adventures.
In March 2023, co-studio head Neil Druckmann stated the developer had chosen its next project but didn’t confirm if it was The Last of Us Part 3 or something else. In the 14 months since we’ve heard very little, aside from a small tease in The Last of Us Part 2 making-of documentary where Druckmann stated he has a “concept” in mind and that there's "probably one more chapter to this story."
Could we see a reveal of this new project soon? Whether it’s a continuation of Ellie’s story, a return to Nathan Drake’s adventures, or something completely new entirely, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see an announcement this year, even if playing it is still a way off. The relatively short two-to-three-year gaps between Uncharted and The Last of Us games are long gone, sadly, with four already having passed since Naughty Dog’s last.
Santa Monica Studio
Santa Monica Studio released God of War Ragnarok to huge success in late 2022 and followed up with the surprisingly lengthy free Valhalla DLC in December of last year. However, what’s next for the studio is a mystery, although we do know Cory Barlog – game director of 2018’s God of War – moved on to helm a new project in 2021 after leaving Eric Williams to fill Ragnarok’s director seat. Little to nothing is known about that new project, but given it’s been in development for a number of years already it wouldn’t be beyond belief to see it revealed this year.
As for a new God of War game, well, we likely can’t expect that as quickly. Despite the gap between Ragnarok and its predecessor being only four years, the end of Kratos’ Norse saga signals a new direction for the series which, naturally, means it’ll require a lot more work from the ground up. We can hope, of course, but don’t expect to see everyone’s favourite angry dad any time soon. That said, we wouldn’t say no to a remake of the original trilogy…
Insomniac Games
Insomniac is arguably Sony’s most prolific studio, releasing either a Spider-Man or Ratchet and Clank game every couple of years for almost a decade now, most recently last year with the hugely successful Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. But in a worrying sign of the fragile state of the games industry, even a game of that magnitude couldn’t prevent layoffs from occurring this year in what turned out to be a doubly damaging couple of months for the developer, following a huge data breach and subsequent theft.
The data theft revealed that the highly anticipated Wolverine game is not expected until 2026 at the earliest, but also that a Venom game may arrive before it in 2025. Either way, it’s highly unlikely Insomniac will be springing any surprise games this year, and after all the studio has gone through recently I think it's fair to allow it as much of a break as anyone.
Sucker Punch Productions
Sucker Punch has been very quiet since 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima. Work is presumably underway on its next game but, truth be told, we have little idea what exactly that is. Common wisdom would suggest a direct sequel would be the most logical move due to the success of the first game, and a 2022 job listing might be a small clue towards this notion.
A posting on the studio’s career page looking for an Encounter Designer noted that responsibilities would include delivering “interesting and varied encounters in an open-world game, with a particular focus on melee combat and stealth”. This certainly suggests a return to Japan, but could easily also suggest (to an admittedly lesser extent) a new Infamous or Sly Cooper game, or something altogether different. The truth is we have no real idea, but let’s just hope that silence is broken soon.
Guerrilla Games
Guerrilla followed up 2022’s Horizon: Forbidden West with last year’s Burning Shores DLC as it continued to build out Aloy’s story. With the West Coast-set sequel ending on a cliffhanger, it’s not a stretch to expect the Amsterdam-based studio to be working on the third part of the trilogy next. We wouldn’t expect any news on that one soon however – the development time between Zero Dawn and Forbidden West was five years so we’re likely a little while away from seeing Aloy and her metal dinosaur friends again soon.
We do know that a multiplayer Horizon game is currently in the works, though, starring “a new cast of characters and a unique stylized look”. Perhaps this is something we can hope to see more of sooner rather than later, although this year may be a stretch.
Housemarque
Returnal brought Housemarque a level of mainstream appeal that had previously evaded the Finnish studio, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it returned to that world. However, that seemingly won’t be the developer’s next game as back in 2022 it confirmed it had started work on a new project that was in the “early days with us starting a new game, a new IP.” It’s currently unclear how the departure of Returnal director Harry Krueger – who had been at Housemarque for 14 years – has affected the development though. For now, this new game remains a mystery but maybe we’ll hear something soon.
Firewalk Studios
Firewalk is the first studio listed here to actually have a game (albeit tentatively) listed for a 2024 release. Revealed last May, Concord is a PvP multiplayer shooter with a retro-futuristic sci-fi aesthetic that can be gleaned from its CGI announcement trailer. But, we’ve heard practically nothing since. We’re hoping to see some gameplay soon, otherwise that 2024 date might start to look a little shaky.
Haven Studios
Fairgame$ is set to be the first game from Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios and is a competitive heist game we’ve seen little of beyond a stylish CGI trailer. With no release window as yet, we’d be surprised to see it drop later this year – last November, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said it was reducing the number of live service games due for release before March 2026 from 12 to six.
With the continuing success of Helldivers 2, PSN/Steam hiccups aside, I’m sure PlayStation will look to learn the positive lessons from its development and apply them to future projects such as Fairgame$. The next step will be seeing a gameplay reveal, which is something we can realistically hope for this year.
Bend Studio
Bend has been pretty quiet since the release of Days Gone way back in 2019 but in 2022 a few slithers of detail were revealed about what the Oregon studio is currently working on. It shared that its new game will “build upon the open-world systems of Days Gone” but won’t be announced until “the time is right”. Apart from knowing it won’t be a continuation of Deacon St. John’s story, we really know nothing. Enough time has passed, though, that hopefully new info isn’t too far away.
Media Molecule
Media Molecule spent most of the past decade working on Dreams, the game creation and curation project that was released in 2020. But as a result of significant layoffs at the studio earlier in 2024, live support for the game will soon end as MM aims to ensure “Dreams transitions into a self-sustaining platform”. There has since been no news on what the developer’s next project will be.
Team Asobi
Team Asobi has brought everyone’s favourite little robot, Astrobot, to both traditional and VR platformers for the entirety of its 12-year existence. Previously part of Japan Studio, in 2021 it became a standalone studio following the success of PS5 launch game, Astro’s Playroom. What’s next though is yet to be revealed, but in 2022 studio director Nicolas Doucet revealed it would be Asobi’s “biggest to date."
This is one we could theoretically see soon as plenty of time has passed since the developer’s last release and we know development has been in the works for multiple years now. Hopefully, the long-rumored PS5 Pro would be a perfect place for Asobi to replicate the success of Astro’s Playroom as a technical showcase for a new console that was also incredibly fun. Fingers crossed we get a reveal this year at the very least.
Bluepoint Games
Following the success of both the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls remakes, Sony acquired Bluepoint Games as a first-party studio in 2021. We don’t know what its first project since joining the PlayStation Studios family is, though, but we do know that the developer has expressed its desire to create an original game, rather than reimagining another classic. Perhaps we could see a reveal this year.
Polyphony Digital
Polyphony has been making Gran Turismo for 25 years now so it would certainly be a shock to see it veer from that path in the near future. Having only released GT7 less than two years ago, it’s unrealistic to expect anything new from the racing masters any time soon. Let’s come back to this when the PlayStation 6 arrives.
San Diego Studio
Similarly, San Diego is well established as the MLB The Show studio. This year’s entry only dropped in March, so we can expect to see another next Spring if history is anything to go by.
Firesprite
Having recently focussed on VR games, Firesprite most recently developed Horizon: Call of the Mountain for PSVR 2. What’s next is anyone’s guess, however. A new VR game would be the educated guess, but given Sony’s lack of commitment to creating games for its second headset, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the UK studio pivot to something more traditional.
With recent reports of layoffs and unrest at the developer, a live-service Twisted Metal game was reportedly canceled, with the studio supposedly working on a new PlayStation game called Project Heartbreak. Details are thin on what this is though, and when we can expect to see it.
That’s everything we know about upcoming first-party PlayStation games, and the truth is very few release dates look to be coming up quickly. Of course, this can and likely will change soon, and with GTA 6 looming on the horizon in 2025, it does make sense that many publishers are waiting for Rockstar to make the first move when picking a window. That said, that doesn’t prevent 2024 from still looking relatively empty when it comes to PS5 exclusives. Let’s hope that after a summer of reveals the outlook will look a lot brighter, not only for players waiting for new games to play, but for the developers who work so hard to deliver them to us.
Simon Cardy would love nothing more than another adventure with his little Astro Bot friend. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.
