Best PS5 Games of 2025 Highlight Sony Commitment

The gaming industry is currently experiencing a major shift regarding platform exclusivity. Driven primarily by Microsoft and Sony, the strategy of keeping games exclusive to a single console is fading. Major titles are increasingly launching simultaneously across PlayStation, Xbox, and other platforms. This trend makes it more difficult to identify games that specifically make one console shine over another.

The 2025 Game of the Year winner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, illustrates this new reality by releasing on almost every available system. While Nintendo remains the exception to this rule, the industry is moving toward a more inclusive ecosystem. Despite this broader trend, Sony continues to signal a commitment to high-quality exclusive content for the PlayStation 5.

The traditional boundaries between gaming consoles are becoming increasingly blurred. In this new era of console inclusivity, major publishers are prioritizing accessibility over exclusivity. This shift is largely driven by Microsoft, which has aggressively brought its exclusive titles to other platforms. Sony has also participated in this movement, contributing to a landscape where the hardware brand matters less than the software library.

Consequently, it is becoming harder to highlight games that make a singular console stand out. The top-performing games year after year on both PlayStation and Xbox are now multiplatform releases. This trend suggests that the competition is moving away from hardware sales and toward service accessibility.

The winner of the 2025 Game of the Year award serves as a prime example of this industry shift. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the top honor, a title that was not bound to a single ecosystem. Rather than launching as a system seller for one specific console, it launched on "most everything." This widespread availability allowed it to reach the widest possible audience immediately upon release.

The success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 demonstrates that the best games of the year are defined by their quality and availability, not their platform exclusivity. As we get deeper into the era of "everything being an Xbox," or perhaps simply everything being available everywhere, the criteria for judging the best games is changing.

While the industry moves toward inclusivity, Nintendo remains the steadfast exception. The company continues to operate on a distinct path, keeping its major franchises exclusive to its own hardware. This strategy preserves the unique value proposition of owning a Nintendo console.

Unlike Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo does not participate in the cross-platform release strategy. This isolation ensures that titles like Mario and Zelda remain singular experiences, distinct from the multiplatform nature of the rest of the industry.

Despite the industry-wide trend toward multiplatform releases, Sony appears to be holding onto a specific strategy. While lists of "best PS5 games" may eventually become obsolete due to the overlap of libraries, Sony is still committed to high-quality exclusives. This suggests that the PlayStation brand will continue to rely on first-party titles to drive hardware sales, even as third-party publishers go wide.

The future of the console market looks different than it did in previous generations. However, Sony's dedication to exclusive content indicates that there will still be distinct reasons to choose one console over another, even as the library of games becomes more homogenized.