Breaking Down PlayStation’s 2021 Lineup

Sony has had a great lineup of games for the PlayStation 5 so far. The console released on day one with Astro’s Playroom packed in, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, all games that were critically well received. That’s an extremely solid set of games to have available on day one (even if two of them are also on PS4), and their 2021 plans look to continue this streak of strong releases. Up until this point, we only knew about solid release dates for some of their games, with some of the bigger ones only having a 2021 release window. But with the announcement of the release date for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, we can start to fill in the missing pieces to predict what the rest of 2021 looks like for PlayStation.

Let’s start with what we know. Sony started the year off with Destruction AllStars, though it wasn’t the hit that many hoped it would be. Next we’ll be getting the space roguelike Returnal which comes out March 19th, then MLB The Show 21 on April 20th, Deathloop on May 21st, and finally Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on June 11th. The farthest title out is Ghostwire: Tokyo in October. As for Sony’s heavy hitting first-party trio of Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and the God of War sequel (which I’ll call God of War: Ragnarok), these games all just have a 2021 release window. It’s with those final three games that the biggest mysteries lie.

I expect Horizon Forbidden West to certainly be locked in for this year. Seeing as how the first game came out in early 2017, it’s very possible that Guerilla Games could hit their 2021 target. If they do, I imagine the game would likely be a summer title, launching in either August or early September. Horizon Zero Dawn was a hit that unfortunately came out just days before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, causing it to lose a lot of mindshare and attention from the gaming community. Sony will want the sequel to have its own moment in the spotlight where it’s not surrounded by other big titles vying for the attention of gamers, so this period seems like a good spot for it. This also puts a good amount of space between it and Rift Apart, allowing both games to have their own time to shine and not cannibalize one another’s sales. Horizon’s placement could potentially be moved to later in the year though (I’ll explain my reasoning behind this in a bit).

Now when it comes to Gran Turismo 7, this game is interesting. Because it’s more of a simulation racing game as opposed to an arcade racer, it fills a more specific niche than most of Sony’s first-party titles. At the same time, it’s an iconic PlayStation franchise that sells off the name alone. Sony could release it close to the more crowded Fall/holiday release season, but again, I imagine that they will want Gran Turismo to have the best chance of success with as few big games surrounding it as possible. So because of that, I think that if it’s coming out this year, it’ll be in the same August/September window as Horizon Forbidden West, with Gran Turismo occupying whichever month Horizon doesn’t. One month isn’t a lot of separation between two first-party titles, but Sony did the same thing last year with Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II. Gran Turismo and Horizon also appeal to different audiences, so there’s less of a chance that they will eat into each other’s sales.

The real wild card that throws all of this up in the air is God of War: Ragnarok. This is undeniably the biggest game that Sony has coming out, and they know this. It’s a game that people will buy a PlayStation 5 for. At this point, if the game is still coming out this year, it’ll likely be during the holiday season. This is a highly competitive period for games to release in, and although Sony knows that people will show up for this game no matter when it comes out, they also want as many people as possible to buy this game when it first releases. Do they put it out in the lucrative holiday season and compete with games like Call of Duty and Microsoft’s own flagship title, Halo Infinite? It’s a move that I could see happening, especially since it would help combat Microsoft and push PlayStation 5 console sales. But that’s all assuming it comes out this year.

I personally don’t think it will. Because Sony knows that expectations are high for the next God of War, they’ll want to give the team at Sony Santa Monica all the time that they need to make the game the best it can possibly be. They won’t rush it out just to make a lot of money. So I think that the game will be moved out of 2021 and launch in 2022, possibly even in the same April slot that the first one held. This way, they can give the game a safer period all to itself where it doesn’t have to compete with other juggernauts in the industry, and more importantly, ensure that there are even more PS5 consoles in the hands of players to play the game on.

If this ends up being the case, then perhaps Sony has Horizon Forbidden West as their big holiday game and lets Gran Turismo 7 have August and September all to itself. Sure, Forbidden West is currently still planned for release on both PS4 and PS5, and the majority of players would most likely get it on PS4, but it’s a title that could push people to get a PS5 so they can experience the next-gen version of the game. It won’t be big enough to stave off the mass appeal of Halo, but it’s strong enough to keep its name on the table.

And this is all without even mentioning Final Fantasy XVI. While the game isn’t a first-party title, it is a PlayStation 5 console exclusive which is a huge deal. The game doesn’t have a release window, but we do know that we’ll be getting more information about it this year. Industry insider Jason Schrier has heard that the game could come out sooner than we expect, though he guesses that it’ll come out early 2022. If it’s actually set for later this year, then perhaps it will tag team with Horizon Forbidden West as the two big PS5 games for the holiday season, with God of War: Ragnarok moving out of their way into 2022.

When you put all the pieces down and take a step back, it’s clear what could possibly end up happening later this year with PlayStation’s games lineup. It’s just a matter of whether or not any of it ends up playing out as predicted. While I think this all makes sense and is very realistic, Sony could throw a wrench in things and delay both Horizon and God of War to next year. Anything is truly possible. I’ll keep my fingers crossed though and hope that things play out as I predicted here.