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Most Sony studios reportedly shifting focus to PlayStation 5

PlayStation 4
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony didn’t hold one of its annual PlayStation Experience events at the end of 2018, and the company recently announced that it would not be attending E3 this coming June, either. We assumed this was because many of its upcoming games would be released on an unannounced PlayStation 5 console, and a new report appears to confirm this.

On the gaming forum ResetEra, industry analyst Daniel Ahmad said that the second half of 2019 is “still in flux” for Sony, and that a few unannounced games would be coming to PlayStation 4. However, he stressed that “most of the focus” for the company’s first-party studios are on the PlayStation 5. Additionally, he said there have also been discussions about making some of the upcoming PlayStation 4 games cross-generational releases, and that PlayStation 5 kits are already available for developers.

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With no release dates yet for big upcoming PlayStation 4 games like The Last of Us: Part II and Death Stranding, it seems likely these games could also come to the next PlayStation system. The first The Last of Us released on PlayStation 3 before arriving on PlayStation 4 the following year, with technical enhancements making it the definitive version of the game.

The Last of Us Part II

However, with Sony skipping E3, it stands to reason that the PlayStation 5 won’t be arriving until 2020. We expect it to launch around the same time as Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox console, which we already know is in the works. With the PlayStation 4 being one of the most successful systems of all time, however, it isn’t a big surprise that Sony is staying tight-lipped about its successor for now.

One of the PlayStation 4’s upcoming exclusives, Dreams, looks to be one of the most ambitious games ever made. It essentially allows players to make any type of game they can imagine within it, and thus far beta users have already created some incredible projects. One is a first-person shooter with science-fiction elements called “Project Zero,” and it’s astounding that the same software can be used to make a knockoff of Super Mario Bros. With Konami’s PT no longer available, one user even took to re-creating it in Dreams, and it looks almost identical.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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