After 5 years of owning a PS5, mine is off to a new home after gathering dust on a shelf for a year. I have had PlayStation’s since the PS2 era, and this is the first generation where it felt like a dead experience on PlayStation.
Playstation used to have great single player games and I still played those, but those games were all from the PS4 era. Instead Sony tried to do live service garbage and it was a disaster. Honestly if the PS5 did not have backward comparability to PS4, I don’t think I would have played anything notable on it. Add on that I have to pay a subscription for online play and it just feels like a waste of money to have a PS5.
I bought a used PC for under $200 and installed Bazzite on it. This little thing has crushed the PS5 for me. Huge catalogue of games and free multiplayer. Add emulation on top of that and my PlayStation could not compete.
Feels like the end of an era. Consoles are dead and PC’s and Linux gaming is the future.
This is great for the industry.
When you also factor in that Valve is releasing the Steam machine, maybe Sony will have to actually compete with somebody and offer a better value. Price cuts. More storage. Bluetooth audio compatibility (seriously how is that acceptable in 2025???). More PSVR2 games, or even provide some tools or incentives to release PSVR2 versions of PSVR games.
Heck, this incentivizes Sony to just develop and publish better games as a whole too. Not that they’re bad or anything now, but it has seemed like a lot of what they’ve done has been safe. 3rd person, over-the shoulder, cinematic experiences. I’ve played God of War, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, and Uncharted for the PS4 and PS5 and they all kind of feel like the same games just re-skinned. I miss the days when insomniac did unique and creative stuff instead of just cranking out Marvel tie-in games.