Sony expects to entirely phase out PS4 releases within three years

Sony's laid out its broad expectations for its first-party PlayStation portfolio all the way up to 2026, and it seems PS4 releases are going to start winding down soon.

In a new business report, a slide titled "evolving shape of first-party portfolio" shows the percentage of releases by platform across three fiscal years. In FY19 (on the calendar, that's April 2019 through March 2020), 90% of those first-party releases were on PS4, with 10% on PC. In FY22 (April 2022 through March 2023), that split is expected to be around 30% PS5, 40% joint PS4 and PS5, 20% PC, and 10% mobile.

By FY25 (April 2025 through March 2026), Sony projects 50% of its releases will be on PS5, 30% on PC, and 20% on mobile. There's no slice on that chart marked for further first-party PS4 games.

We've reached out to Sony for comment and will update if we learn more.

It's little surprise to see evidence of PS4 winding down by this point, since the console will be turning 10 years old as of 2023 - a lifetime in consumer electronics terms. Still, the previous generation of consoles had already lasted far longer than most that had come before, and ongoing supply issues have meant that adoption of the new machines has been slow.

As part of this same report, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said that PS5 demand is far beyond that for PS4 at the same time period in its life, but because of those supply issues the new console's sales haven't been matching up. Sony expects to start closing the gap in 2023, and in 2024 the company projects that PS5 will finally start outdoing its predecessor.

Maybe it's time to start rounding out your library of the best PS4 games.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.