Kevin Kennedy of This is Xbox writes, "Everyone loves a good twist right? A turn in the tale that nobody (save a few smart alecs) saw coming. If I were to pose you the question of “what are your favorite gaming moments?” I’m sure that there would be a few good twists in there. The same can be said of TV shows and movies."
In honour of PlayStation's 30th birthday yesterday in the US, data company Circana has dug out figures showing the top 20 best-selling PlayStation video games ever (date-range Jan 1995 to July 2025). Don't get too excited.
This is a great reminder of how game sales have become more concentrated in a smaller number of games/series over time. In the PS1/PS2 era a game was a success if it sold a million or a few million copies. The GTA games (3/Vice City/San Andreas) were pretty big outliers in selling as much as they did during the PS2 era. So in the minds of a lot of gamers something like FF VII feels like it was as big of a PS1 game as God of War 2018 was for PS4, but in reality far fewer people bought it (though it has obviously reached additional people through remasters, etc.).
What this says to me is, not many people are buying a PS to play PS exclusives. Like so many false narratives, like Xbox gamers don't buy games! It seems Playstation as a default system is a vanilla system to play call of duty, Minecraft, GTA games and a sports games.
if you look back into the PS history, it has always been the 3rd parties who sells the most games. it was just that the PS1 and PS2 were so dominant that many of those 3rd party games were exclusives. so, back during the PS1 and PS2 days, the strategy was "to sell as many consoles as possible in order to sell more 1st party exclusives" to ride on that wave. The strategy to push many 1st party exclusives to sell consoles only started with the PS3 when many of those prior 3rd party exclusives went multiplat but more accurately, it started with the PSP.
Sony saw with the PSP, which was being trounced in sales by the DS, that 3rd party exclusives are hard to come by if you're not dominating the market. So they started building more 1st party games and when the PS3 were facing difficulties in sales, they knew they had to rely on their own to differentiate the PS3 from the 360. So the strategy back then changed to "release more 1st party exclusives in order to sell more consoles".
the only manufacturer that is still consistently selling their hardware to play 1st party exclusives, is Nintendo, and that was because they gave up the armrace for power thus they can't rely on 3rd parties anymore as all multiplats play better on competing consoles. AND that's also why they are the most ominous in going after emulators and also patent trolling!
so, you're not wrong there, but not an "aha!" moment or anything. it has been this way since the last, at least, 15 years for Playstation.
@zerobalance
So... what this tells you is that Call of duty, being the absolute check writer that it is, has been outsold by Last of us, God of war, 2 Spider man games..... Saying Playstation exclusives doesn't sell is like saying call of duty doesn't sell because they have outsold some of iterations. Does that make sense to you?
The fourth game in the ‘BioShock’ series has been in development for more than a decade
Bioshock is one of my favourites franchises. I love all 3 games and have played each several times. I even have a room in my house that is loosely decorated around the theme of Bioshock (with a Lighthouse, coral models and postcards styled as though they are from both Rapture and Columbus).
And yet I am going to find it extremely difficult to get even remotely excited about any future episode in the series after all the problems this has had in its development cycle.
Leave the franchise alone. Remaster them again if you have to. Then put whatever talent you have to use on something brand new.
Since ken levine isn't involved i'm not surprised what's going on. i'm more excited for his next game which looks like bioshock. Yet he still works under take2 and they are making bioshock 4 without him, strange situation.
Yes. Judas. Looks brilliant, but it's one of those games that seems to never have had a release date. Instead it's had release windows that keep getting pushed back.
Once it's ready, I'll be there for it though. Ken Levine is an excellent developer.
I get the feeling he dissolved Irrational Games simply so that 2k couldn't tell him what to do. It seems it will pay off, but I feel sorry for those who worked as part of Irrational before it was dissolved, who hadn't independently made a name for themselves.
"Remaster them again if you have to"
Well apparently they were doing a remake but that got cancelled
It sucks this game is in development hell because I love BioShock and would love a 4th game. I hope it turns out great, but I guess we'll see.
It's been in development hell since 2014. This is nothing new. It saddens me because it's one of my favorite series. At this point, Judas may end up releasing first.
Bioshock 4 (if it ever comes out) will probably still look and play like a Bioshock game, but without Kevin, it might miss that spark that made the originals so special. Honestly, Judas might end up feeling more like the real spiritual successor.
This February, Prime members can claim a fresh lineup of free games, including BioShock Infinite Complete Edition, Surf World Series, AK-xolotl: Together, Sands of Aura, The Talos Principle: Gold Edition, Stunt Kite Party, The Smurfs 2 — The Prisoner of the Green Stone, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior, Dark Sky, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, El Hijo — A Wild West Tale, Colt Canyon, Republic of Jungle, Royal Romances: Cursed Hearts Collector’s Edition, Deus Ex: Human Revolution — Director’s Cut, Night Reverie, Sine Mora EX, Redemption Reapers and Yes, Your Grace.
