During a slow year for PS5, new PlayStation CEO says "we plan to have at least one tentpole single-player launch during the holiday season" every year

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It's anyone's guess what this year's could be

God of War Ragnarok
(Image credit: Sony/Santa Monica Studio)

Hermen Hulst, PlayStation's new CEO, has affirmed a plan to release at least one big single-player PlayStation game every year during the holiday season.

This comes from Sony's new Business Segment Meeting (right around the 23:00 mark here), in which Hulst boasted the value of "tentpole" releases from "existing hit franchises" and "new IP with high ambition." Additionally, these titles are described as coming from "studios with proven track records of quality and success."

Hulst zeroed in on timing: "Each calendar year we plan to have at least one tentpole single-player launch during the holiday season, showcasing our PS5 business and brand, as well as the peak purchasing season for games."

This is particularly relevant amid the context that has been an unusually quiet year for new PS5 games and PlayStation more generally. Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade are both PlayStation-published and relatively major releases, but neither are from first-party PlayStation studios, nor do they rise to quite the level of established franchises like Marvel's Spider-Man, Uncharted, God of War, and Horizon.

The big(?) rumor for the May 2024 State of Play is that a new Astro's Playroom game will be announced, which would definitely be exciting news, and I'll be the first to say the pack-in PS5 launch title is platforming nirvana, but still, I'm not quite sure "tentpole" is the right word to describe the series.

The year is still relatively young, but unless PlayStation has a big surprise up its sleeve that it's been making for years, it's hard to imagine what's in store for this holiday season. Today's State of Play kicks off at 3pm PT / 6pm ET, so it might be long before we find out for sure.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.