PlayStation’s 2025 was a relatively quiet, but promising, year for Sony

PlayStation in 2025 shows that Sony’s in cruise control, and that’s fine Features (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Sony/PlayStation/Sucker Punch) (Image credit: Firewalk Studios) Lloyd Coombes published A quiet year, but a largely inoffensive one While Microsoft did what it could to trip over price hikes and Xbox Game Pass changes , PlayStation had a less controversial year. With no Concord -style flops, PlayStation 5 just kept on trucking with a relatively slim lineup of exclusives. Sony even felt charitable enough to publish Helldivers 2 on Xbox, seemingly marking the end of the console wars, while getting Gears of War and in return, but 2026 and beyond will see returns for Insomniac Games, Housemarque, and potentially Naughty Dog - suggesting the quiet period won’t last long. Forza Horizon 5 Still, with layoffs across multiple studios tallying over 1,500 in recent years, big questions over the future of Bungie, and the rise of the Nintendo Switch 2 , it’s not exactly been a spotless 2025. Minimal hardware changes Last year saw the launch of the PS5 Pro , and the console certainly got some love with enhancements for big titles like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach , , Ghost of Yotei , Monster Hunter Wilds , and Battlefield 6 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 , making the console much easier to recommend. Expect upcoming titles like 007: First Light , Saros , and more to (hopefully) get even better on the newest hardware. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how Microsoft’s games have adopted the PS5 Pro. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5 are both PS5 Pro-enhanced, meaning they’re better than they were on Microsoft’s own console. Other than the supercharged console coming into its own, though, hardware news was quiet on Sony’s side. The company announced its own speakers coming in 2026 , while there was a subtle DualSense revision that improved the battery life. A new PS5 Pro arrived , too, one that’s lighter and runs cooler, while the FlexStrike fight stick is slated for next year . PSVR 2 got some new games like Hitman and Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked , but it really does feel as though Sony has stepped away from VR for the time being. That’s a shame, given that the headset is a massive step up from the first-generation version on PS4, but we’ll see if the company tries to make VR a bigger part of its output in 2026. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Faring better is the PlayStation Portal . Sony’s remote player is a far cry from the PSP of yesteryear, but it now has the option to play games from the cloud - no PS5 required. It’s still tied to PlayStation Plus Premium (the priciest membership tier), but it’s now available for all players as of November, having been in beta for much of the year. Finally, there’s no new DualSense , but between Icon Blue, the God...

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