PlayStation Japan recently posted a clean, year-by-year timeline highlighting the biggest PS5 releases from 2020 to 2025. It is basically a “5 years of PS5” recap, from Demon’s Souls and Miles Morales at launch to FFVII Rebirth, Stellar Blade, Elden Ring, and the latest 2025 lineup.
You can take a look at it here:
The chart is simple, but the reactions definitely were not. Players immediately jumped into a debate that has been running since early in the generation.
Has the PS5 actually been a great era for PlayStation, or is it the weakest one so far?
Let’s break down both sides.
What the Timeline Actually Shows
Across the five years, the PS5 had:
- A strong launch window (Demon’s Souls, Miles Morales, Astro Bot)
- Several huge third-party hits (Elden Ring, FF16, Armored Core VI, RE4 Remake, Helldivers 2)
- A handful of big first-party games (Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us, Rise of the Ronin)
- Consistent support every single year, even when Sony itself was quieter
Basically, if you own a PS5, you have not really had a “dry” year, but that might not be enough to make it the best generation so far.
The “This Was Actually a Great Generation” Side
A lot of players pointed out that the lineup looks pretty strong when you see it all in one place. Their main arguments:
- Tons of high-quality games
Even if not all were first-party exclusives, the console had a reliable flow of big, nice releases that defined gaming over the last few years.
- Third-party support was excellent
Elden Ring, FF16, RE Village, RE4 Remake, AC6, Wo Long, Gran Turismo 7, PS5 was basically the “main platform” for many huge games. Yes, those were also released on PC, and if you have a good setup, you most likely played all of those on your PC. However, given the price of gaming right now, a ton of people, especially families, prefer to invest in a PS5, rather than in a high-end PC.
- Performance and convenience mattered
Fast loading, DualSense, and the simple fact you can play on your couch are still major features for many gamers. Even if the performance sometimes cannot compete with a really good PC, the PS5 still has a very good performance. More often than not, you will have fewer issues with crashes or games not running on your PS5 than on a PC, where multiple different builds can cause a ton of different issues.
The “Weakest PlayStation Generation” Side
On the other hand, the timeline also reminded players of what did not happen. This console generation is far from perfect, and the PS5 is no exception.
- Fewer first-party blockbuster years
Some years were dominated by third-party games, not Sony releases. Compared to PS3 → PS4, the output pace slowed down a lot.
- Many “PS5 exclusives” later came to PC
For people who value exclusivity as part of the PlayStation identity, this generation felt less special. Most games release day one on PC now, and worst case they are only exclusive 1 year. For a lot of players, this is a major down point of today’s generation of consoles.
- Cross-gen lasted too long
The first two years relied heavily on PS4/PS5 shared releases, and that also fed the feeling that the gen took a too long to truly “start.” This was mainly due to the pandemic, but the fact games are still made for the PS4 today, makes a lot of people feels like the PS5 is a bit useless. Why upgrade if you can still play new games on the previous generation?
So… Which Side Is Right?
Honestly, both have a point.
The PS5 did not have the explosive, exclusives-heavy momentum the previous consoles became famous for, and Sony clearly shifted toward slower releases, PC ports, and live-service experiments.
But the console also got some of the most acclaimed games of the last decade, delivered consistently every year, and kept strong hardware upgrades at the center of it all.
In short:
- Great library
- Less “PlayStation-defined” than past gens
- Still a very solid 5 years overall
It is hard to say if that is “great” or “the worst,” since this heavily depends on what you value as a PlayStation player.
Is it exclusivity and variety, or simply innovation and having great games to play on your couch?
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