PlayStation’s own game sales have fallen sharply since their pandemic peak, according to Sony’s most recent earnings reports analysed by the industry publication Game File. In the 2018 financial year, Sony sold approximately 54.1 million copies of games it either developed or published. By 2025 that figure had dropped to 32.1 million – a decline of more than 40 per cent. Although the PlayStation 5 has sold well and remains profitable, the brand is no longer the runaway market leader it was during the PlayStation 2 era.
Sony’s struggles with first-party output have been well documented. Since the PS5 launched in 2020, the company has released celebrated titles such as Astro Bot and Ghost of Yōtei, but it has also suffered expensive, high‑profile failures and cancellations. Former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who retired in 2024, bet heavily on live‑service games; only a handful – most notably Helldivers – succeeded. Meanwhile, Sony appears to have rolled back its strategy of releasing single‑player PS5 games on PC after a polite interval, suggesting it now wants to preserve what exclusivity advantage it still has.
At the PlayStation State of Play livestream on 2 June 2026, Sony unveiled a slate of upcoming titles intended to revive momentum. The most anticipated is God of War: Laufey (release date to be confirmed), developed by Santa Monica Studio. The game opens with Kratos cremating his wife Laufey – also known as Faye, one of the last Norse giants – as their son Atreus watches. She reconstitutes as stardust and enters the afterlife, and players will for the first time control her. Laufey can fight alongside a talking gelatinous cube called Phranque, punch gigantic demonic creatures and squeeze through narrow gaps. A 20‑minute teaser was shown.
Marvel’s Wolverine, from Insomniac Games, is set for release on 15 September 2026. The game is described as “exceptionally violent”, with brutal combat set in the same continuity as Insomniac’s Spider‑Man titles. Pre‑order bonuses include early access to the Classic Brown Suit and Reflective Claws; the Digital Deluxe Edition adds exclusive suits, claws and technique points. A comic‑book‑style fighting game, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, arrives on 6 August.
Other major announcements include Silent Hill: Townfall (24 September 2026), developed by Scottish studio Screen Burn and set in a misty seaside town on Scotland’s east coast; Onimusha: Way of the Sword (25 September 2026) from Capcom, a revival of the Japanese‑mythology action series with katana combat against demons – a demo is available now; and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (12 February 2027), a remake of the original 1996 game developed by Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog, featuring Lara Croft in a modernised version of her classic outfit and also coming to PC, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. The Collector’s Edition is priced at $199.99.
Horror fans will see The Lost Wild (2027), a first‑person survival game from Great Ape Games in which players evade dinosaurs that behave like wild animals rather than monsters, inspired by Alien: Isolation; Until Dawn 2 (2027) from Firesprite, which follows ghost‑hunters on an abandoned tropical island and brings back actor Peter Stormare as Dr Hill; and Ill (2027) from Team Clout, a first‑person survival horror with realistic gore described as “the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in a game showcase”.
Further announcements include Ace Combat (2 October 2026), Stuntman: Hollywood (an extravagantly nostalgic stunt‑driving revival), Control: Resonant from Finnish developer Remedy (due September 2026), Rayman Legends Retold from Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan (1 October 2026, with pre‑order bonus Hoodlum Havoc Pack – a Steam listing suggests a separate date of 26 August 2026), Chef Bancho (a prequel to Dave the Diver), and Kemuri (2027) from UNSEEN, led by Ikumi Nakamura, an action game about an eternally reincarnating ghost hunter that supports co‑op for up to three players. Finally, the absurd PS2 music game Gitaroo Man is coming to PlayStation Plus’s classic catalogue.
The competitive landscape
While Sony plots its comeback, its two main console rivals present contrasting challenges. Microsoft’s Xbox Series S/X has been outsold by the PS5 by roughly three to one, but Xbox has transformed itself into a formidable publishing competitor. Over the past few years it has acquired Bethesda, Activision and dozens of development studios, giving it a deep stable of exclusive and multiplatform content that can appear on Game Pass on day one.
Nintendo, meanwhile, continues to dominate in exclusive game sales. The top‑selling Sony‑developed PS4 title was Spider‑Man at 22.68 million copies. By contrast, the top‑selling Nintendo‑developed Switch game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, has sold 71 million copies – more than three times as many. Nintendo’s Switch and its successor, Switch 2, have consistently generated blockbuster first‑party titles, and the company recently released Pictonico, a smartphone game that uses photos from a user’s device to create WarioWare‑style micro‑games. It costs £6.99 for the first pack of 50 games and is available on Android and iPhone.
Outside the console war, PC gaming hardware is also making news. Valve has increased the price of the Steam Deck OLED models by more than 40 per cent: the 512 GB model now costs $789 (up from $549), and the 1 TB model costs $949 (up from $649). The price rise, attributed to rising memory and storage costs, has fuelled speculation about the potential cost of future Valve hardware such as the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.
The motion‑controlled family gaming gadget Nex Playground, described as a spiritual successor to the Wii, has gained popularity and retails for £269 ($299) with a £90‑per‑year Play Pass subscription for over 50 games. Meanwhile, Summer Game Fest livestreams begin this weekend, offering a look at what developers have lined up for the next year or two.
Other notable gaming news
CD Projekt Red has announced that surprise new content for The Witcher 3 is coming in 2027, much to the delight of players who have sunk hundreds of hours into the gothic‑fantasy adventure. In a piece for Teen Vogue, Nicole Carpenter questioned why there is so little body diversity in video games. A Washington Post story by Gene Park detailed how the fighting‑game community rallied to support champion player Ludovic Mbock after he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in February. More than $100,000 was raised for his legal defence, and his asylum hearing has been scheduled for December 2028. Mbock faces potential deportation to Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal. Also in the news, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 reportedly imagines a revived Korean War, and a column by Dominik Diamond mused on running a first marathon in one’s fifties – with a little help from zombies.
