This time last year, PlayStation gave us a roadmap for the future direction of the brand. The company has made big commitments to live service titles, invested heavily in a mobile initiative, and continues to release new hardware. If you were to judge PlayStation’s 2024 by the rubric it set for itself, it would have been a failure. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

PlayStation’s 2024 felt like a period of restructuring. On the software front, we saw PlayStation welcoming young gamers again, a decision that gave the game its big Game of the Year win. Behind the games we saw even bigger changes, particularly with the appointment of two new co-CEOs, Herman Hulst and Hideaki Nishino, which could have a radical impact on the brand going forward. All of this sets the stage for the necessary turning point for a brand that was flirting with disaster in 2024. The only problem? This new vision has not yet been communicated and fan goodwill may be in short supply after a year full of ups and downs.

Change of strategy

Sony had a lot of pots on the stove this year, making it a roller coaster ride for fans. If there was one message PlayStation wanted to communicate as clearly as possible in 2023, it was the commitment to finding a live service hit. At the time, twelve such titles were reportedly in development and scheduled for release between 2024 and 2026. So far, this project has had difficulty getting off the ground. Naughty Dog made the smart decision to cancel it The Last of Us online The project focuses on single-player IPs like the upcoming one Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet, but the real sacrifice was Concord.

There has perhaps never been a game release as bad as Concord. Many games have been launched with great ambitions only to be canceled in a few months, but Concord was a high-budget first-party game that was canceled just weeks after release, was permanently canceled shortly after, and its entire studio was disbanded. The fallout from that game’s failure led Sony president Hiroki Totoki to reduce the company’s live service ambitions to just six of the original twelve planned titles by March 2026. Whether the remaining games even see the light of day will likely depend on the performance of the current roster. Concord has seemingly, and perhaps rightly, shaken PlayStation’s confidence in creating its own live service hit. Given the enormous risk involved in producing – and maintaining – even a single live service game, a more measured approach might be a wiser strategy.

But if we take a broader look at the other PlayStation titles in 2024, things don’t look so bleak. Where Concord failed, Helldivers 2 Sony’s gamble paid off. The co-op shooter was a hit that neither players nor PlayStation expected. This underdog mentality gave Sony the live service victory it desperately needed to prove its strategy was justified. We’ll have to see if it lasts beyond its first year, but it was able to survive its PlayStation Network controversy through sheer goodwill and the support of the developers, who reversed the decision after fan backlash. Finding a way to adequately integrate PSN into its PC ports remains an unnecessary thorn in PlayStation’s side that it needs to address as the gap between exclusive titles available on the platform continues to narrow.

The live service was a mixed success, but Sony has made a breakthrough in its mobile ambitions. It’s easy to forget that there’s an entire arm within the company dedicated to bringing new and existing IP to mobile, but the only time this was mentioned was when developer Neon Koi was shut down before it published his first title for the publisher. Even then, the news was somewhat hidden under the news that Concord The developer Firewalk Studios was also closed.

At this point, this PlayStation mobile attempt feels like a non-starter that they want to sweep under the rug. Hopefully that’s not the case and it’s waiting to surprise us all with a range of mobile titles in 2025, but this wouldn’t be the first time PlayStation has failed to follow through on something it claims to be a pillar its strategy – just look at the PlayStation VR2, which has been virtually abandoned in 2024.

Speaking of hardware, 2024 was the year the long-rumored PS5 Pro was revealed and released. For the people who appreciate the graphical improvement and have the money for it, it’s a big (though not massive) improvement over the base model. The only problem is that the high price makes many people think a little more critically about whether these improvements are really worth it. Regardless of whether the device is right for you, it’s a positive signal that PlayStation isn’t ready to say goodbye to hardware as quickly as Xbox seems to be.

What has gained value is the underrated PlayStation Portal. It launched in 2023 as a remote play companion screen, but has essentially become a new device thanks to a 2024 update that allows games to be streamed from the cloud without being tethered to a PS5 console. Given this device’s great potential as a cost-effective and straightforward way to get into the PlayStation ecosystem, it’s puzzling why it isn’t being touted as such.

You can’t talk about PlayStation’s victories this year without mentioning the biggest one: AstroBot. It was rightly praised by fans and critics alike, winning our own Game of the Year award among many others. Aside from being an impeccably crafted 3D platformer, it celebrates PlayStation history with respect and optimism without falling into complacency. PlayStation has found a natural mascot here that it would be foolish to abandon. It shows that Sony can offer us more than the dark, dramatic epics that it has known for a generation and a half.

Targeting this wider audience is a fantastic return to the days when PlayStation was willing to be friendlier and more experimental, but also a lower-risk endeavor. Astro was created in just three years by a team of around 60 people, which is a far cry from the hundreds of developers who spend five or six years working on the biggest AAA titles.

Find focus

After struggling to fully implement its overall plans, AstroBot could prove to be an existentially important victory for Sony – if the company learns the right lessons from it. In my experience, the main reason many PlayStation fans are dismayed by the brand is its constant reversal. All of 2024’s highs didn’t feel telegraphed, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It only becomes a sticking point when PlayStation has already made its decision, only to then retract most or all of these claims.

The new leadership should be shown a certain amount of patience when taking over the brand – a lot has been set in motion that cannot be undone. However, 2024 felt like an attempt to put the brakes on a lot of promises without a clear idea of ​​how the car should be retuned. Thankfully, we’re starting to get a better idea of ​​the upcoming PS5 games we can look forward to in 2025 and beyond, but the larger direction remains unclear.

Is PlayStation still willing to make big bets on live services? Is mobile a path the company will seriously pursue? Even refocusing on single-player offerings isn’t that easy, as development timelines and budgets are no longer sustainable. It will take a few years for Sony to truly develop and execute a comprehensive vision AstroThe success.

2025 may be a new beginning for PlayStation under its new leadership, but it needs to let its players in on that vision soon. If it can’t tell fans exactly what kind of games they can expect in the second half of the PS5’s life, who knows how long they’ll stick around?