Saros Has Me Worried About Future PlayStation Games

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With the PlayStation 5 nearing the end of its life cycle, games like Saros are particularly significant. They demonstrate the console’s capabilities and serve as a strong send-off, especially considering the limited number of exclusive games available for it. Saros stands out as a remarkable game, and it’s important because it’s a smaller, lower-budget title. This highlights Sony’s continued commitment to offering a variety of gaming experiences, even during challenging times for the industry.

I’ve been seeing so much hype around Saros – a lot of people are already predicting it’ll be Game of the Year in 2026! So I figured it would be a huge hit right out of the gate. But it sounds like sales aren’t quite living up to expectations, which is a little worrying. It’s not a disaster yet, but combined with all the recent game cancellations, studio shutdowns, and PlayStation backing away from live service games, it does make me a bit concerned about what the future holds for their first-party games.

Saros Isn’t A Commercial Success, At Least Yet

Let me start by saying I don’t think Saros is a bad game, and the early sales figures don’t necessarily mean it’s a commercial flop. While sales haven’t been great so far, they could still improve, so it’s too soon to call it a failure. However, Saros doesn’t seem to be performing as well as some of us – particularly fans of Returnal – had hoped for.

According to the official PlayStation Blog, Saros debuted at 11th place in North America and 17th in Europe on the PlayStation Store charts in April. While the game officially launched on April 30th, early access began two days prior, on April 27th, allowing some players to download it sooner. In the UK, Saros came in third in the physical game charts, following Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (released April 16th) and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, which has been available for years. These numbers don’t necessarily indicate a major failure, but they aren’t particularly strong. For comparison, Returnal, released on April 30th, 2021, achieved third place in the US PS Store charts and fourth in the UK charts.

As a big fan, I’m a little worried about the initial download numbers for Saros. It’s hard to say exactly why they’re lower than expected – maybe people aren’t as excited about early access these days, or other big games like Pragmata, Tomodachi Life, and the Diablo IV expansion stole the spotlight. It’s also possible Sony just didn’t market it well enough. I’m hoping the PlayStation Store charts for May will show a big jump, and Saros will really take off! But honestly, first-party games, especially single-player ones, usually sell best right around release, so I don’t expect a huge turnaround. While $70 million for Saros isn’t a massive amount compared to games like Marvel’s Wolverine which cost hundreds of millions, if it doesn’t do well commercially, it could make Sony think twice about investing in similar types of games in the future, and that would be a shame.

PlayStation Needs More Games Like Saros

The gaming industry is changing quickly, and this is causing financial and emotional hardship. PlayStation has closed several well-known game studios because making big-budget games is becoming more expensive, and the pandemic created a temporary boost in income and jobs that wasn’t sustainable. Now, any failure is heavily penalized, so developers are sticking to safer options, particularly when making these large, expensive games. If the game Saros doesn’t succeed – and I’m not saying it will – it could discourage Sony from investing in similar, ambitious first-party projects in the future.

If that were to happen, we’d lose out on a lot of enjoyable and diverse games. PlayStation has already canceled several games that were far along in development due to concerns about their success, so it wouldn’t be shocking if they reconsidered the worth of a studio like Housemarque. Ultimately, that would be a terrible result, and I hope it can be avoided. Developers like Housemarque are essential for keeping the video game industry vibrant and ensuring its long-term health.

Smaller, independent games aren’t just for dedicated fans or meant to prove video games are art. They actually enhance the entire gaming landscape by attracting new players, keeping things fresh and interesting, and reminding us why we enjoy gaming. Even though they might not sell as much as big-budget titles, they support and often improve those larger games. Plus, these smaller projects give developers a chance to try out new ideas without as much pressure, which ultimately leads to innovation in major games – the big titles can then take those proven concepts and build upon them with larger budgets.

It will take some time to see if Saros is successful enough to save Housemarque and encourage PlayStation to continue supporting mid-size and smaller games. I really hope it does, because losing Housemarque would be a huge loss for the industry. We’ve already seen similar studios like Spiders and Piranha Bytes close down, and there aren’t many new ones emerging to fill the gap. If Housemarque also closes, it makes you wonder if Sony will invest in another studio, or if they’ll eventually run out of developers to support, losing the talented teams they once had.

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2026-05-12 22:14