This generation of consoles has been weird. Not only did it begin during the midst of a pandemic, but we’ve now reached a point of visual photorealism that the only way forward is more iterative than revolutionary. PS5 came out the gate boasting better loading times and higher resolutions, aiming to make our existing games more enjoyable instead of blowing what came before out of the water. But even with instant load times, the immersion of a DualSense, and the gorgeous reflections of ray tracing, there has yet to be a defining moment for the platform.

Xbox Series X/S are just as guilty of this shortcoming, but Microsoft has long downplayed the importance of flagship exclusives in favour of Xbox Game Pass and the convenience it brings. I’m sure its tune will change when its studio acquisitions start bearing fruit, but right now Sony is falling short of its potential, the weighty prestige of its catalogue often seen as more of a flaw than a boon. Two years later, and I can count the exclusive games the PS5 has on one hand, which is not where I expected us to be at the end of 2022.

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Maybe I’m being selfish and playing armchair game developer by moaning about the lack of video games to play on an expensive box I got for free because of my job, but I’m echoing the sentiment of countless others who jumped through hoops to purchase a PS5 at launch only to be stuck with a glorified paperweight. Don’t get me wrong, I use my console every day and it’s my go-to platform for playing games for work and leisure, yet it lacks a killer app to make it essential. God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Gran Turismo 7 all arrived on both generations, while nobody was frothing at the mouth to play Gotham Knights, which launched on PC and Xbox too anyway. If you were, I hope you’re holding up okay.

Horizon Forbidden West

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was over a year ago, and the niche if impressive Returnal is rumoured to receive a PC release pretty soon too. The days of pure console exclusives and hardware sold on the back of a single game is over. Ironically enough, the only console able to fully boast that right now is the Nintendo Switch, the Switzerland of the console war, and its power is way behind the competition. I can still enjoy

Ragnarok with a lower framerate and resolution on a box that came out nine years ago, but where else can I experience Tears of the Kingdom when it drops next year?

PlayStation and Xbox are coming to realise that the future is service-based, and there is less and less value in the idea of a pure exclusive than ever before, since how we consume games and discuss them is changing more and more. There are far fewer limitations now with the advancement of cloud streaming and increased proliferation of PC ports, and profits will only grow when this isolationary attitude is abandoned. Sony isn’t quite there yet, and would love to keep telling you in adverts that PS5 is the only place to play, but it really isn’t, and never will be.

clive from final fantasy 16

I had to look back on everything, but here are the exclusives that only came to PS5 so far. Final Fantasy 16, the next big gun up, is also coming to PC too, so it’s these five for the foreseeable future.

  • Astro’s Playroom
  • Demon’s Souls
  • Destruction All-Stars
  • Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
  • Returnal

That’s even less than I thought. We only have five core exclusives, and two of which were freebies, on a platform that has been out in the wild for two whole years. That’s a poor showing, and I feel for those still waiting in the wings for a certified banger to justify their big purchase. Maybe we have reached a point where less value should be placed on exclusives as a concept, but that can’t be properly argued until Sony stops marketing its console on the basis of games you can’t play anywhere else.

Even Microsoft is tiptoeing around the idea of Starfield, Redfall, and Elder Scrolls 6 as exclusives after spending billions on the company making them, and they’re all at least coming to PC even if they’re console exclusives.

I’m reluctant to say that PS5 has been disappointing given how much I use it, but the console is yet to reach its full potential, and given where we are right now, likely never will. We will see an upgraded model come along soon enough with a different design and lower price despite the fact there is still so little out there to play on it. Here’s hoping the third year will change everything and I’ll be eating my DualSense come next Christmas.

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