A few years stand out to me as being fairly weak for Sony as a Publisher:

• 1994 - This is here on a technicality, since the PS1 was only launched in December, and only in Japan.
• 2000 - This was an awkward transition year. Tons of games DID come out this year, but considering how strong Nintendo and Sega's lineups were this year, Sony's weakness was notable. Only Spyro 3 stands out. That said, Sony DID have a lot of games under their name back in these days.
• 2006 - This year isn't so bad when you factor in the PSP, with games like Daxter, LocoRoco, and Syphon Filter standing out. However, if you focus on just the PS2 and PS3, it was a weak transition period, with only Resistance on the PS3 standing out. Bad as 2007 may seem in retrospect, it gave us God of War 2, Uncharted, and R&C Future.
• 2019 - By this point, Sony's modern strategy of focusing on a smaller number of big games per year was in full effect. 2017 had Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nioh, and Gran Turismo Sport, 2018 had Spider-Man, GoW 2018, and Detroit Become Human, and even 202 had Ghost of Tsushima and TLOU2. 2019's lineup was not only small, it lacked any big hits, with even Death Stranding being a divisive game that sold far less than many would have expected.

And just for positivity, shoutouts to PS3 era Sony.

Depends 2013-2015 had it's early games of Killzone Shadowfall, Knack 1, Driveclub, Infamous Second Son, Order 1886, Bloodbourne even if exclusive or Japan Studio support it counts and remasters then 2016+ everyone PS4 era remembers the notable games of the PS4 era. Then again who remember Song of the Deep? Oh right a lot came out 2016.

PS3 was hmm. I mean 2006+ was fine of Resistance, Uncharted, Ratchet Tools of Destruction (many every year of Quest, Crack, All 4 One, Full Frontal/QForce, Nexus), Heavenly Sword, and more in 2007+, can't remember 2008 besides GT5 Prologue, whenever Little Big Planet came out. Warhawk. Genji had PS2/3 entries.

But 2009-2013 was filled pretty sure whether 3D, HD classics, Infamous, GT5 & 6, PS Allstars, Starhawk, MAG, sequels to others listed, God of War 3/Ascension, MotorStorm had many throughout, Puppeteer, White Knight Chronicles, Siren the PS3 remake of the first game, and many others, PS3 had many Minis too so that was a thing from Indies but I don't know enough about first party in that area of PSN games. Last Guy, Mainichi Issho/Everyday Together (has Toro)

Vita had it's obvious 2011-2014 period of first party and dropped off of course or PS4 remasters/ports/collections.

PS2/PSP always got releases after their obvious major games per year of the PS3 period. But with Daxter, Ratchet/Secret Agent Clank, Jak Lost Frontier, God of War, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Artic Edge, Resistance Retribution, LocoRoco, EchoChrome/EchoShift, Parappa port, Ape Escape, Killzone Liberation, Pursuit Force 1 & 2.... others I can't remember.

PS2 might have had not many to start as many 2001-2005 or 2007 titles were an area where I don't know besides releases then more notable came out in those years than 2000/part of 2001. Like Fantavision (Boom Boom Rocket on 360 I confuse it with sometimes) in 2000, maybe some other stuff in 2000/2001. Like Jak, GT3 & 4, Ratchet, Sly, Primal, Mark of Kri, Socom, Ghost Hunter, 24 the game (yes it's surprisingly not bad, RIP Guerilla Cambridge that made so many games I come across later PS2/PSP/Vita), The Getaway, Dark Cloud, Ape Escape, Singstar, Genji, Buzz, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War 1, I remember enough of the 2001-2005 period. Okagi Shadow King anyone?

PS1 is an area I'm not too familiar with on first party as so many still I haven't uncovered as well notable were third parties (Crash & Spyro Universal deals for ND/Insomniac so third party for example, otherwise notable publishers third party games) not first party while PS2 had some more memorable notable first party.

Anyone remember Blasto or Jumping Flash? Probably tons I'd have to research still. Psygnosis I know had a part to play with WipEout, Destruction Derby, and tons more. Sports games maybe from some studios? Warhawk. It's still a grey area. Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Omega Boost (Polyphony's mech game), MotorTown Grand Prix 1 & 2, Ape Escape, Legend of Dragoon, probably Toro games throughout PS1-3/PSP I think. Twisted Metal.

So much of 989, Incognito, Liverpool and more to think back on.

If going by 'quality' then quantity (any can think of at all compared to later years more defined releases) sure but for just any times, quality/relevance or not I'm not sure what we got in some years.

Just listing IPs I'd have to check the years more.

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Modern and not looking at past years.

For 2023/2024 yeah it's a bit light on quantity of releases and the quality is hit and miss depending on PSVR2 or PS5. Third parties from Square and more have filled in gaps at least, DLC has come up for Horizon Forbidden West  (complete edition planned as well), forget if God of War Ragnarok had some DLC or not besides it's updates. So yeah it will be a while back some game releases. Insomniac getting Spiderman 2 out, Wolverine when ever, another project/next Ratchet who knows. The rest working for 3-5 years on the next game likely. Maybe small stuff inbetween but I doubt it.

Next year will probably be worse since there is no big game that has been announced to be published by PlayStation. Only small ones like Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade might release next year. Both aren't first party though.

I'm kinda tempted to say 2023. I bought a PS5 in August and have yet to find a game that I want to play on that thing. I only played through RDR2 again so far. But when it comes to first party titles, I'm kinda disappointed. I know Spider-Man 2 is a thing, but that doesn't interest me personally one bit.

I miss the PS3 days when it felt like there were heavy hitters releasing left and right. But well, maybe that's just nostalgia painting the past brighter for me than it acutally was, I don't know.

Anyhow, I'm sure Naughty Dog is working on something and maybe, just maybe Guerilla Games will find back to Killzone someday which I find a lot more appealing than Horizon. In any case, I'm certain that my PS5 will get some playtime sooner or later.

Even if a lot of people end up loving Spider-Man 2, 2023 will probably be a year in the bottom 5-10 for most.
All it has is...
Horizon Call of the Mountain (PSVR2)
Firewall Ultra (PSVR2)
MLB The Show 23
Marvel's Spider-Man 2

If Stellar Blade is still coming out this year, why on Earth would the release date not be given yet? 99% chance it's delayed into 2024 or beyond.

? There's FinalFantasy 16 and Spiderman2, 2 huge games. How's that a bad year by any standards?

Sony has been spacing out their AAA games so they have 2-3 per year and FF16 is obviously within their plans (even if it is not 1st party, it is within Sony's stragetic planning in their exclusive offerings).

I do think the shift in live services games could slowed down the output of first party AAA games somewhat, but that remains to be seen. May be we will get surprised. We already have FF7 Part 2 coming in less than 4 months.

To be honest, I've never noticed this phenomenon, so it'd be difficult for me to answer.
Because I play few 1st party games, and I'm much more focused on third party titles.

But Spiderman 2 seems like a really good one to get.

Indeed, a very weak year for Sony. Luckily I don't place much importance on 1st party titles so it doesn't really bother me when PlayStation (or Xbox) have dry years.

I imagine it would be the same, probably different. We were expecting Stellar Blade and Convollaria after all. I also imagine Insomniac and Spider-Man 2 gave Sony enough breathing space to let those 2 fall back into 2024.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Insomniac's efficiency is what led Sony to get them. Allows Sony to generate consistent content while other teams are taking longer to get games out the door (which is an industry reality) while also allowing calls to internally delay games to be made a little easier.

Insomniac has been widely more efficient at releasing games than ND has ever been. By the time ND had released UC2, Insomniac had already churned out Resistance 1 and 2, as well as Ratchet ToD, QFB and a CiT.

They released 10 games in 8 years on the PS3 (with 1 year of no releases). They continued that into the PS4 era and now into the PS5. No real surprise. 

ND also released one of the greats with TLoU2 back in 2020. The earliest their next game would've hit would've been 2023 (which seemed like when TloU Online was going to hit). I feel like with the remaster of UC4/ LL and a remake of TLoU1 since then means we might be waiting a little bit longer, but I don't think that's surprising considering the nature of the games they make now. 

By the time PS6 arrives, we could easily have TLoU3, a new IP, the co-development of a new UC and TLoU Factions. That would be a pretty successful release slate for ND.

U

It seems like a less busier year than other years, but on terms of games it delivered.

I was hoping to get Stellar Blade this year, but hopefully that will be next year.

I really enjoyed the Horizon DLC and Spidey is looking really good too.

Not sure how much of the silence is due to the MS acquisition and Sony not wanting to show their hand and how much of it is ND messing up, deejays at Sucker Punch, delays at Bend, Team Asobi etc.

It would be nice if we got a proper Playstation Showcase before the year bows out now that the acquisition has gone through.