PlayStation Faces Growing Criticism as its First-Party Output Falls Behind

Sony’s focus on live-service games and slower development cycles has left longtime fans questioning the direction of the PlayStation 5.

PlayStation’s current generation has left some longtime fans wondering how the company reached this point. The PlayStation 5 has sold strongly and has a huge library of third-party games, but its first-party output has become a major source of criticism. 

Compared with previous generations, Sony’s current lineup has felt much smaller, especially when it comes to new games and returning franchises. That has led even some of the platform’s most dedicated fans to question the direction PlayStation is taking.

Looking back at PlayStation’s history makes the contrast even more noticeable. 

The original PlayStation built a strong library of first-party and third-party games, while the PlayStation 2 expanded that foundation with both returning franchises and a steady stream of new intellectual properties. The PlayStation 3 had a rocky start, partly because of its high launch price, but Sony recovered and delivered a number of memorable games. 

That’s a completely unique direction for the PlayStation 5. Sony has taken a slower approach this generation instead of regularly introducing new franchises or bringing back older ones through first-party games.

Some of the most well-known series for the PlayStation have yet to make an appearance on the console, leaving fans to wonder why Sony appears to have abandoned franchises that helped define its identity. Series such as Siphon Filter, Resistance, Killzone, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, and LittleBigPlanet remain absent from the current generation.

Siphon Filter is an especially compelling example because its basic concept still fits the kind of single-player action games PlayStation has built its reputation around. The original series had stealth, shooting, and a story-driven structure that could be brought up to date for today's hardware. Sony wouldn’t need to completely retool the formula for a new entry. 

The same applies to Killzone and Resistance. Both franchises were big PlayStation first-person shooters, but neither has had a new mainline entry in the PlayStation 5 generation. Platformers have also fallen by the wayside, with LittleBigPlanet and other legacy properties no longer fitting into Sony’s current strategy. 

A big part of the answer is Sony’s move to live-service games. Seeing the huge success of games like Fortnite and Roblox, the company began to heavily invest in the live-service market. The strategy was built to create games that would have large communities of players who would keep buying things and thus generate revenue over a long period of time. 

PlayStation has already had that problem firsthand. 

Concord became the clearest example of this issue after it launched and was taken offline shortly afterward due to an extremely weak response. Other live-service projects have also faced cancellations, including games connected to established PlayStation properties. 

The decision to pursue new multiplayer experiences therefore came with a significant opportunity cost, particularly when development teams were spending years working on projects that ultimately never reached players.

The criticism becomes stronger when considering the games Sony chose to cancel. A multiplayer project based on The Last of Us had been in development for years, while a Twisted Metal live-service project was also reportedly in development. Both were tied to established franchises with existing audiences. 

That situation highlights one of the biggest complaints surrounding Sony's recent strategy. The company already owns a large collection of recognizable franchises that have proven audiences, yet it has spent significant resources attempting to create new live-service properties. 

Building a successful free-to-play game requires more than simply having a large budget. People have games they already play and are committed to. A new game needs to have a strong identity and enough unique features that people want to switch from the games they already like.

The financial risk is also significant. 

A large live-service project can require years of development, a major team, and substantial marketing before launch. If the game fails to build a sustainable audience, much of that investment becomes difficult to recover. The development time also means studios are not working on other projects that might have had a more reliable audience. 

Meanwhile, PlayStation's traditional first-party games have taken much longer to arrive. Naughty Dog provides one of the clearest examples of this changing development cycle. The studio produced several games during the PlayStation 3 era and continued to produce major titles throughout the PlayStation 4 generation. 

That would leave a large gap between Naughty Dog’s major releases. It's not the only developer grappling with longer production times, but its situation is illustrative of just how expensive and time-consuming blockbuster development has become nowadays. 

First-party games these days often require giant teams of writers, artists, programmers, animators, and other specialists. But the criticism is that not every PlayStation project has to follow the same massive cinematic formula.

Sony could also do smaller games, remakes, collections, or projects built on existing gameplay foundations. Older franchises have pre-existing characters, worlds, mechanics, and audiences that developers are able to build on. 

For example, a modern Siphon Filter game doesn't have to completely change everything about the series. Revisiting the original concept with updated controls, settings, animation, and presentation would offer Sony another way to expand its first-party roster without having to create a whole new universe.

Another source of frustration for some fans has been the company’s attitude toward physical media. 

Sony has been focusing more and more on digital purchases and online services, and questions are being asked about the future of physical games. The shift is a big change for gamers who want to own physical copies, compared to past PlayStation generations. 

All of this raises questions about what the next PlayStation generation will offer. If Sony is already struggling to release a consistent stream of first-party games on PlayStation 5, fans have reason to question how the company plans to support its next console. 

The expectation that PlayStation 6 will immediately receive a large selection of new games becomes harder to accept when current development timelines are already stretching across several years. Without a major change in how Sony manages its studios and projects, the same release gaps could continue into the next generation.

The PlayStation Classics catalog has also become part of that criticism. Fans who want access to older games have expected Sony to make better use of its enormous back catalog. Instead, new additions have arrived relatively slowly, leaving many classic franchises unavailable on modern hardware. 

Bringing older games forward would not replace new releases, but it would provide another way for Sony to strengthen the PlayStation ecosystem while its major first-party projects remain in development.

There is still an opportunity for Sony to change direction. There are already signs that the company is moving away from live-service projects, following a series of cancelations and failures. Sony has enough material to draw from, thanks to established franchises like Twisted Metal, The Last of Us, Killzone, Resistance, Siphon Filter, and others. 

In the end the criticism is less about the PlayStation 5 itself and more about what PlayStation has become this generation. 

Third-party developers have kept the console flush with blockbuster releases, but Sony's own output has not kept pace with the momentum that defined previous generations. The long waits between first-party games and a number of canceled projects have left some longtime players estranged from the platform they grew up with.

Sony still has some major releases ahead, including Wolverine and other high-profile projects, while major third-party games will continue filling the gaps between first-party launches. However, once those games arrive, the same question remains about what comes next. 

If Sony wants the PlayStation brand to maintain the reputation it built across its first four generations, it will need to show that its current strategy can deliver more than a handful of major releases each year. For longtime fans, the expectation is simple: PlayStation needs to start making better use of the franchises and studios that made the platform successful in the first place.