Have you noticed that Sony is doing quite well with its PlayStation 5? In December 2023, 50 million of these consoles were sold.
There are now rumours that some of the best Xbox games of 2024 may also soon be winging their way to the PlayStation 5.
It’s a good time to be a PlayStation gamer. Sony has also recently given us a preview of some of the games coming to the console this year as part of its State of Play event.
We’ve collated the most interesting titles from that event, plus other games coming to PlayStation 5 this year, below. It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are 21 games every PlayStation owner should know about.
- Tomb Raider I-III Remastered (February 14)
- Skull and Bones (February 16)
- Pacific Drive (February 22)
- Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered (February 28)
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (February 29)
- Alone in the Dark (March 20)
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 (March 22)
- Rise of the Ronin (March 22)
- Dave the Diver (April)
- Stellar Blade (April 26)
- Black Myth: Wukong (August)
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (September 8)
- Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl (September 2024)
- Sonic X Shadow Generations (Autumn)
- The Plucky Squire (2024)
- Silent Hill 2 (2024)
- Until Dawn (2024)
- V Rising (2024)
- Zenless Zone Zero (2024)
- Concord (2024)
- Metro Awakening (VR, 2024)
Here's a closer look at what's coming up in 2024.
February
We’re in for a big February this year, and it includes some ghosts from the past. Skull and Bones is a game originally announced back in 2017, a pirate adventure that has gone through multiple gameplay guises since those early days.
Developer/published Ubisoft has reportedly been forced to release the game rather than letting it die on the vine. This is due to the studio being subsidised by the government in Singapore. Still, if you’ve played and enjoyed Sea of Thieves, you may well love it.
We’re set to get two remakes, too. Retro master Nightdive Studios is putting its magic touch on the classic 90s first-person shooter Dark Forces with Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered, due on February 28. The bumper pack of the first three Tomb Raider games is due a couple of weeks earlier on February 14.
It’s not all old stuff, though. One of the most anticipated games of the year, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, lands on February 29. That’s right, 2024 is a leap year so February has an extra day. If you’ve not played the previous Final Fantasy VII Remake, give it a play before tackling Rebirth.
Want something new? Pacific Drive is out on February 22 and is a first-person survival horror game. It’s the first game from Ironwood Studios and looks highly promising.
March
This month brings one of the most important PS5 exclusives of the year, Rise of the Ronin. It’s a samurai action-adventure made by Team Ninja, the folks who made the Ninja Gaiden games and, more recently, the Nioh series. It will be released on March 22.
Our other two big hitters for the month will be familiar names for long-term gamers.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 could/should be one of the best fantasy titles of the year. Previews of the first 10 hours have appeared online and paint the picture of a massive open-world adventure. We can’t wait.
After multiple delays, March should also, fingers crossed, bring us Alone in the Dark. This series has effectively been rebooted three times since its classic 90s instalments — and none has quite been an unalloyed success.
Will this 2024 game do better? Previews suggest it should be superior to the disastrous Alone in the Dark: Illumination from 2015, at the very least. It also stars David Harbor and Jodie Comer, which should make for some great story cut scenes. This one is due on March 20.
April
Stellar Blade is a game more PlayStation 5 owners should note. This is another of the year’s big exclusive titles, an action-packed combat-heavy adventure that takes clear inspiration from the Platinum Games series Bayonetta.
It’s not going to be to all tastes but is worth a closer look.
Dave the Diver is also set to come to PS5 in April. This was one of the big “indie style” breakout hits of 2023. It’s not actually an indie game, as its developer is part of gaming megacorp Nexon. But it sure feels like one in person. That means maxed-out quirkiness and charm. You go fishing during the day and manage a sushi restaurant at night.
Later in 2024 and TBC
Games due out later in the year start to become vaguer, as there’s more chance of a delay when there’s further work still to do.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is pencilled in for September and is an apocalypse shooter with RPG elements. This project was originally announced in 2010 — meaning it’s been a long road to Chernobyl.
Several remakes are on the way too. Silent Hill 2 is the most anticipated, a remake of one of the most beloved horror games of all time — originally released in 2001.
The much more recent Until Dawn, released for PS4 in 2015, could have gotten by with a fairly basic spruce-up, but the PS5 remake sounds much more involved. We’re getting a jump to Unreal Engine 5, which should mean much more advanced graphical effects, a new score and reportedly a “more nuanced and emotional” story.
We’re picturing subtle changes given one of the highlights of the original was good voice acting from a stellar cast including Remi Malek and Hayden Panettiere.
For gaming originals, Plucky Squire has caused some excitement in gaming circles. It’s a great-looking platformer where the action switches from 2D when playing across the pages of a storybook, then into 3D as your character jumps into the “real” world.
