The PS5 has its fifth anniversary today – these are its five best exclusives

The PlayStation 5 is five years old today and we’ve looked back through its portfolio of exclusive games to see which are the best of the best.

On November 12, 2020 the PlayStation 5 was released to the world, even though it was still the middle of the Covid pandemic. Despite that not inconsiderable problem the console had a pretty good launch line-up of games, with Demon’s Souls, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and the free Astro’s Playroom.

At that point it seemed as if the generation would continue in the normal fashion, with Sony releasing multiple big budget, predominately single-player, exclusives each year. But within a year or so it was clear that they had changed tactics and while to this day they’ve never explained themselves, the obsession with live service games has claimed one CEO, several game studios, and a whole bunch of failed or cancelled games.

The PlayStation 5 might only be five years old but in that time the entire nature of the console industry has changed; not because of success but because of failure: of Sony’s live service aspirations and Microsoft’s fumbled attempts to make a success of Game Pass and their unhealthy number of developer acquisitions.

Over the course of those five years it’s become clear that triple-A video games are now almost prohibitively expensive to make and even if they weren’t they take too long and involve far too many people. Despite these problems being the hot topic of the entire generation, no publisher, including Sony, has done a thing about it. If anything, their policies are only making things worse.

For many, it seems as if the generation has barely begun and yet already there are whispers of the PlayStation 6, and a likely release date of 2027 or 2028. What that will bring nobody currently knows but it’s unlikely to see any major change in software policy. The bottom line is that the PlayStation 5 has sold very well without many exclusives, so there’s very little incentive to create a lot more, especially when Xbox is no longer a competitor.

Many have questioned the importance of exclusives, and not just in this generation, but with Xbox essentially now multiformat and Nintendo not a direct rival to PlayStation, there is inarguably less impetuous for Sony to make its own games – even if that’s exactly the sort of thinking that started Xbox on its road to ruin.

They might not be as necessary as they once were, but an exclusive game is still a chance for a console manufacturer to show off, to take full advantage of the hardware in a way that third parties often can’t, and to set the tone for the whole format. If that went away it wouldn’t be the end of console gaming, but it would be a real shame.

5. Stellar Blade

At a time when video games have broken free of the stereotype, of being solely for horny teenagers to ogle hypersexualised women, Stellar Blade’s Barbie doll protagonist and obsession with T&A is frustratingly regressive.

It’s all the more unfortunate because the game itself is excellent; successfully marrying elements from the fast-paced Bayonetta and the more methodical Dark Souls. It also boasts some very impressive graphics, which help to hide the fact that the game isn’t actually all that original.

But for Korean developer Shift Up’s first crack at a home console release, it’s an incredibly self-assured action game that instantly puts them in the top tier of action game developers, along with obvious inspiration PlatinumGames.

4. God Of War Ragnarök

After 2018’s God Of War successfully reinvented the franchise for the PlayStation 4, there were high hopes for its PlayStation 5 (but still cross-gen) sequel. Some will say that the earlier game is still the best one, but God Of War Ragnarök is still one of the finest action games of the generation, with some great storytelling.

Between multiple weapons and a variety of attacks and techniques at your disposal, the combat offers plenty of depth and thankfully never gets old, as you explore the massive game world and all its many side quests.

Rather than the action though, the game’s greatest strength is its character writing. The actual plot is all over the place, but Kratos and Atreus’ personal arcs are superb, with the former well and truly earning his redemption after his hyper-violent days in Ancient Greece.

3. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

We sense we may be in the minority on this, but of all of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, we consider the more bite-sized Miles Morales to be the best of the bunch. The superior Spider-Man, if you will.

Its smaller scale is to its benefit, allowing for a far more focused experience and more compelling story than what came before and after it, especially when it comes to two of the game’s antagonists and their dynamics with Miles.

And while this was a cross-gen launch for the PlayStation 4, as one of Sony’s first games for the PlayStation 5, it made a fantastic first impression for the console’s capabilities, introducing the joys of instant loading and ray-traced graphics.

2. Astro Bot

A lot of what makes Astro Bot so beloved is down to timing. Coming off the heels of the embarrassment that was Concord, which doomed Sony’s live service game plans before they even began, Astro Bot was a reminder of what made people fall in love with the PlayStation brand to begin with.

It owes a great deal to the Super Mario 3D platformers, which Team Asobi acknowledged in their acceptance speech at The Game Awards 2024, but what better series to draw inspiration from? Astro Bot is proof that imitation in video games isn’t always a bad thing.

Between fantastic level design, a great array of fun power-ups, a lot of PlayStation fanservice spanning even the most niche games, and superb presentation throughout, the PlayStation 5 definitely needs more Astro Bots than it does Concords.

1. Returnal

When Returnal launched in 2021, we deemed it the best exclusive the PlayStation 5 had to offer. The fact that it’s still the best one says as much about Sony’s first party output as it does the game itself.

That’s not to take anything away from Returnal though, which is a fantastic sci-fi roguelike by Super Stardust developer Housemarque. It’s their first proper third person game but the gunplay and movement is absolutely top tier – a magnificent mix of bullet hell shooter and Metroid Prime style exploration.

The plot may be a little too opaque for some but the Lovecraftian atmosphere is wonderfully oppressive and the boss battles are some of the best of the modern era. If Housemarque’s next game, Saros, is even half as good as Returnal, we’ll be very happy indeed.

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