30 years ago, a little grey box changed the world forever. It pulled a niche hobby away from being marketed primarily to children, and to an adult pastime of the future just as at home in the back of a nightclub as tucked away under your (extremely heavy) television. Forget the impact of the Sony PlayStation on gaming, it was an impact on culture that changed the trajectory of millions of lives. So all these years later – grey box turned to white obelisk – where does PlayStation find itself with the PS5 and the rest of its gaming suite in 2025?
For starters, with some truly excellent games. There's no denying that. From first-party big wins to canny third-party partnerships, our best games of 2024 list is stacked with console exclusives. At the same time, it's been a year absent of PlayStation's most bankable franchises. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means we feel poised on the edge of huge new updates, all while PlayStation has proved it can still make an impact without trotting out fast releases of purely the first-party big names.
