Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, a leak has revealed. The information comes from billbil-kun, who manages to get early information from retailers. It’s reported that the game is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 on November 3, 2026 courtesy of Atari and Pipeworks. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee previously hit the GameCube in 2002...
Nintendo has updated the Japanese Switch and Switch 2 release schedule on eShop for the week of June 11, 2026. Various new titles are on the way, highlighted by Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, Unrailed 2, To a T, and more. Here’s a look at the upcoming digital download schedule: Switch 2 Retail Dark Auction – Nintendo Switch 2...
Atari has jumped into the fray with a big sale on the Nintendo eShop for both Switch 2 and Switch. Many of the games included here are at their lowest prices ever. Some of these include Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, System Shock remake (plus the System Shock 2 remaster, which just launched on Nintendo Switch 2 and already has...
It’s officially June, and everybody is clamoring for a Nintendo Direct, to say the least. There hasn’t been a general Nintendo Direct since September 2025, and the announcements they have made have been done spontaneously or through the Nintendo Today app. This approach does make sense from a business perspective, unfortunately. In a Nintendo Direct, a majority of the announcements...
Original: A new voice actor will play the part of Sephiroth in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, it’s been revealed. Tyler Hoechlin handled the role in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade as well as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. The same goes for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. Square Enix has now said that Hoechlin won’t be back in Final Fantasy...
After it was heavily rumored for the platform, Monster Hunter Wilds has finally been confirmed for Nintendo Switch 2. A release date will be given later. Many fans thought that Capcom was tinkering with a port following a datamine. However, this is the first time a port has been officially acknowledged. Monster Hunter Wilds initially launched last year. Here’s an...
Spike Chunsoft issued a new Steins;Gate Re:Boot trailer focusing on the new “Gamma Worldline” story. This is something brand new created for the game. It not depicted in the original 2009 release of Steins;Gate, so it’s an incentive for fans to return to the game. Courtesy of Spike Chunsoft, here’s a rundown of details: After enduring countless brutal ordeals, protagonist...
Today, it was revealed that The Wolf Among Us Remastered as well as The Wolf Among Us 2 are planned for Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch. They’ll launch this holiday and in 2027 respectively. The Wolf Among Us Remastered brings back Telltale’s adventure classic from 2013 – now on Nintendo platforms for the first time. The Wolf Among Us 2,...
Cooldown Games and Frozenbyte just unveiled the latest entry in the Trine series, Trine 6: Together in Time. The game is heading to both Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch on September 25, 2026. Trine 6: Together in Time will feature five playable heroes with unique abilities and a Time-Slow mechanic to temporarily slow down the action. Co-op is fully supported,...
PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox; Yacht Club Games This brilliant adventure creates a whole world from one character with a unique ability
You could mistake Mina the Hollower for something found on the liquid-crystal display of a Game Boy Color around the turn of the millennium. Like the pocketable Zelda and Pokémon games of the time, it presents a kind of snow-globe reality that you peer into from above, relying on imagination to decipher each two-colour clump of pixels into a tree, or a skeleton, or a cloaked mouse wielding a hammer twice her size.
This is Mina, our hero: she jumps, she moves at a clip, and she can delve downward into the soil or floorboards, tunnelling underfoot for a moment or two before popping back up, like an inflatable forcibly submerged in a swimming pool. This is her signature move, perfectly elastic in sensation – the way the released button springs back against your thumb! – and in application. The burrow-jump is an excavation tool, unearthing any treasure you happen to dig through, and a navigational one, used to hop over gaps, reach high-up spots and nose into tiny hidden spaces, where more treasure almost invariably awaits.
With Summer Game Fest 2026 set to kick off in a few hours, here’s what you need to know heading into Geoff Keighley’s latest gaming showcase.
The Game Awards might be the biggest gaming event hosted by Geoff Keighley, but Summer Game Fest is pretty much the same thing but on a slightly smaller scale.
With the death of E3, Summer Game Fest is now the closest thing to a multiformat summer reveal event. Although while there are usually a few brand new reveals it tends to focus more on gameplay trailers for previously announced games, such as the first reveal of Elden Ring in action.
Some games have already been confirmed for tonight, but if you’re looking to find out when the show starts, along with some of the most enticing rumours, see below for the full Summer Game Fest 2026 breakdown.
What time does Summer Game Fest 2026 start?
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For UK viewers, Summer Game Fest 2026 starts on Friday, June 5 at 10pm BST and is set to run for two hours.
The start time is far more confusing than it should be though as the official website incorrectly lists it as 9pm GMT, while the YouTube stream is set to go live at 9.15pm BST – although that’s presumably to start a countdown.
The show will be available to stream live across the Summer Game Fest YouTube and Twitch channels, with the official YouTube channel offering a stream in 4K at 60fps.
What games are confirmed for the show?
Of the confirmed reveals so far, the biggest is the gameplay trailer for XCOM-like Star Wars Zero Company, developed by Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment.
We also know Guild Wars developer ArenaNet is at the show, and while we don’t know what they’ll announce, all signs point toward Guild Wars 3.
Other confirmed titles include new driving game Clutch from former Playground devs, along with Blood Message – a Chinese action game from the makers of Naraka: Bladepoint.
Beyond those games, we also know there’ll be updates on Fortnite, Among Us, and Dead By Daylight.
One of the big rumours, following the showcase of Resident Evil Requiem last year, is that Capcom will debut the first look at the Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake.
Additionally, a new Hot Wheels game titled Infinite Rush has seemingly leaked ahead of the show, and while it’s unclear if it will appear it does seem like.
Several games have also teased possible announcements. Sega recently posted a teaser for its Crazy Taxi reboot, while a recent short clip related to Alien: Isolation 2 suggested more information is on the way soon – although that doesn’t necessarily mean Summer Game Fest, especially with the Xbox summer showcase taking place on Sunday.
Other rumours include a new definitive edition of Sonic Frontiers, a new Worms game, a possible reveal for Injustice 3 from NetherRealm, and maybe, just maybe, Persona 6.
There’s even a rumour that Nintendo will be at the event, in lieu of a Direct next week, but as ever with all these showcases it’s best to assume you’ll be disappointed by the announcements, so as to have the best chance of being pleasantly surprised by what is actually there.
What games were revealed at last year’s Summer Game Fest?
To put the hype into perspective, the biggest reveal at last year’s Summer Game Fest was the trailer for Resident Evil Requiem. Beyond that, however, there wasn’t a whole lot to shout about.
Other announcements (as rounded-up here) included the shadow drop of Lies Of P’s Overture DLC, Dying Light: The Beast’s release date, new game Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver, Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros, Scott Pilgrim EX, Mortal Shell 2, Killer Inn, Stranger Than Heaven, Atomic Heart 2, and a release date for Arc Raiders.
Star Wars: Zero Company is set for a big reveal (EA)
As the Switch 2 celebrates its first birthday, GameCentral looks back at the highs and lows of Nintendo’s most recent console and tries to predict where it goes from here.
Since the internet, and the real world beyond it, increasingly only deals in extremes it’s difficult to talk about the Switch 2 in any kind of nuanced fashion. It is neither the best thing ever nor the worst and determining exactly where it sits along that gradient is not easy. Today is its first anniversary, which is slightly awkward as there’s reason to hope there’ll be a major Nintendo Direct next week which will, possibly, answer some of the questions we’re about to pose.
Looking at the console with the benefit of 365 days of hindsight, we’d say that that the hardware itself was largely faultless. The design hasn’t changed much, of course, and it could do with a longer battery life and maybe a better screen, but for the price it’s almost perfect, with the click of the magnetic Joy-Cons still seeming magical to this day.
It’s still baffling that Nintendo has made no attempt whatsoever to demonstrate the power of the console – we didn’t get so much as a tech demo pre-launch – but multiple third party games have made it clear it’s far more powerful than you would expect, with excellent versions of everything from Resident Evil Requiem and Cyberpunk 2077 to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Star Wars Outlaws.
The remake of Star Fox 64 does seem to be a step up, in terms of technical prowess, but other upcoming games, like Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, still look like Wii U games. Nintendo games are rarely sold on their graphics, but the Switch 2 clearly has raw power to spare and yet it’s not being used – one of many strange decisions orbiting the console.
Ever since the unveiling of the console and its games in April last year, it’s seemed as if Nintendo was only showing and doing the bare minimum. Despite having eight years to prepare, and no deadline to meet in terms of when the console had to be released, everything to do with the Switch 2 has felt hurried and poorly thought out, like a student who was out partying the night before their big report was due and only just scrabbled together what they needed.
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That impression has not changed over the last 12 months, but it has morphed into an industry default for most publishers who, in their wisdom, have decided that it’s best to have as little to look forward to as possible and to know as little about what is announced as can be contrived.
That logic obviously makes sense to someone, somewhere, because it’s taken deep root within so many different publishers, but Nintendo has taken it to an absurd extreme, to the point where it’s now June and we haven’t had a single large scale, first party Nintendo Direct all year. That in turn means we have no idea about anything coming out after July (except that supposedly Fortune’s Weave and FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods will be along at some point, if they haven’t been delayed).
At exactly the point where a first party Direct would seem the most useful to both Nintendo and its customers – considering a price rise is on the horizon – they’ve decided to say less about their future plans than they ever have before.
This seems to be in large part because of the industry wide problem of games costing too much, and taking too long, to make. The Switch 2 may be impressively powerful, but Nintendo’s not used to working with that kind of hardware and that’s no doubt part of the reason behind some of their stranger decisions.
Mario Kart World – a good game but not a classic (Nintendo)
We had hoped, before the Switch 2 became a reality, that Nintendo, who have always benefited from keeping a tight rein on their budgets, would cope better than most with the issue, or demonstrate some new way of avoiding it, but sadly that hasn’t happened.
Instead, the software line-up has been a strange mixture of A-listers and deeply underwhelming lower budget games. Mario Kart World as a launch game makes perfect sense, but the strange way the open world was handled – which was exacerbated by the misleading marketing – left a bad taste in the mouth of many fans. While the continued lack of any DLC at all (why does Donkey Kong only have one extra costume?) is impossible to explain.
Mario Kart World is a good game, and Donkey Kong Bananza is even better, but in hindsight the latter would’ve made a much better Christmas release, rather than having the line-up fizzle out with the deeply disappointing Metroid Prime 4. You can see the sense of releasing Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment early on, because it meant at least some kind of new Zelda game was available, but surely there was a better choice than yet another brain dead Dynasty Warriors knock-off.
Kirby Air Riders does have its fans, even if we’re not amongst them, but why did Nintendo feel it was so important to release a second cartoon racing game within the launch window? Especially one that was only ever going to be popular in Japan. They did later admit that they’d focused too much on games for their home audience, but surely Nintendo has been in the business long enough not to make that mistake in the first place?
There are many other strange decisions beyond that, including the highly experimental Drag x Drive, which might have been a cult hit if hadn’t been so utterly devoid of content that you could see all there was to see within a couple of hours. Does Nintendo really not employ enough people that they couldn’t have whisked up a quick single-player mode or a proper tournament structure? Or, you know, used any colour other than dark grey for the graphics?
Why did the marketing for Yoshi And the Mysterious Book make it seem like a game for pre-schoolers when it’s actually one of the most inventive and open-ended platformers Nintendo has put out for years, and much better suited to adult players than anyone else?
Pokémon Pokopia is the best first party Switch 2 game (The Pokémon Company)
And how is it that of all the games Nintendo has released in the last year a Minecraft clone by the makers of Hyrule Warriors turned out to be the most compelling? That certainly wasn’t on our bingo card and it clearly wasn’t on Nintendo’s either, who were caught out by the success of Pokémon Pokopia and have been scrambling to leverage it ever since.
One of the most encouraging announcements this year (not that there have been many of any type) was the reveal of Pokémon Winds and Waves, which does look like a generational leap from Scarlet and Violet. Having that next year does seem a useful anchor but the overriding problem with the Switch 2’s line-up is the mystifying logic behind how Nintendo has been prioritising its various franchises.
Kirby Air Riders is one thing but why on earth is Star Fox deemed so important all of a sudden, such that it was shore-horned into the Mario Galaxy movie, of all things? A decision that takes on reality-bending levels of bizarreness when you realise that Nintendo hasn’t yet breathed a word about a new Super Mario game since before the Switch 2 was announced.
Why are we a year in and there’s still no sign of Splatoon 4 and instead it has to wait in the queue behind a primarily single-player spin-off? And why was a new Fire Emblem announced so early on when we still haven’t heard anything about far more mainstream games, like a new Animal Crossing?
Not furnishing Mario Kart World with constant updates is one thing but we felt sure that the reason support for Animal Crossing: New Horizons – the breakout hit of the entire franchise – was cut short was so the team could get a new game ready for early on in the Switch 2’s career, so that it could benefit from new content throughout the whole of the console’s life. But instead Nintendo announced a Switch 2 Edition that adds almost nothing of note and implies a new game is several years away.
Nintendo not making sense might seem like their natural state of being, but in reality everything they do is perfectly logical, from their point of view, and only becomes so to others over time. The Switch 2 has been stretching credulity since the beginning though, to the point where everything feels like they switched to Plan B sometime in 2024 and they’ve been on that track ever since.
Why was a new Animal Crossing not a priority? (Nintendo)
Even if sales at Christmas were less than hoped for, the Switch 2 is still the fastest-selling console of all-time and well ahead of where the Switch was at the same time in its lifetime. But you could tell the Switch 1 was special before its first Christmas, with a GOAT launch window line-up that Switch 2 hasn’t come close to matching.
The changing nature of game development may make the Switch 1’s achievements impossible to repeat (especially given the boost it got from being able to use Wii U ports to fill gaps in its schedule and provide a cast iron classic of a launch title) but that still makes it impossible not to be at least a little disappointed with the Switch 2.
We’ve long ago learnt not to try and predict Nintendo, or believe any rumours about them, even if the one about a Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake is very persistent. Who knows what they’ll announce next week, if there even is a Direct next week, but while we’d welcome a modernised version of Ocarina Of Time as much as anyone, what we really crave is something new, in terms of both IP and gameplay ideas.
Nintendo always delivers eventually but they’ve certainly not made it easy waiting for that to happen with the Switch 2, which continues to be a great console supported by a merely good games line-up. Other publishers would be happy with far less but the problem with Nintendo’s reputation is that they’ve trained people to always expect the best thing ever, and this time that hasn’t happened. Or at least not yet.
Maybe the Ocarina Of Time rumours are true or maybe they’re not (Nintendo)
The Friday letters page wonders what GTA 6 conspiracy buffs will do after the game comes out, as a reader asks after Rayman Legends Retold’s music levels.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Late night So tonight’s the night for Summer Game Fest and I’m in two minds… about whether to stay up for it or not. First of all, kudos to the genius who thought this was a good thing to put out on Friday night. The organisers so completely don’t care about Europe that they list the start time on their website as 9pm GMT… so I’m not even 100% sure when it starts.
Personally, what I’m hoping for is Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Alien: Isolation 2, Devil May Cry 6, and a new FromSoftware game. I’m sure we won’t get all of those, but I think all of them are possible to some degree. I’m also interested in that Star Wars XCOM clone.
I also think there’s a reasonable chance Sony could show Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Sony are weird about Summer Game Fest and more than once have shown something there that wasn’t in their own State of Play. Casper
All aboard I thought Wolverine looked terrific, basically everything I’d want in a game about a little nearly-indestructible nutter with big metal claws. I’m glad they didn’t try to make it open world and that it’s taking a more linear approach. Hopefully this’ll lead to a wide variety of locations and enemy types.
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The combat looked weighty, fun, and visceral and it seems like it’ll be filled with spectacular set pieces. I can understand frustrations that most AAA games don’t really do anything new but I’m having a ton of fun with 007 First Light, which is essentially Hitman x Uncharted, so Batman: Arkham x Uncharted will do me for Wolverine.
The new God Of War also looked amazing, although I think the talking sidekick thing was a bit jarring and it remains to be seen how annoying that could become over the course of the game. Lots of cool stuff to look forward to though. Magnumstache
Hammer time I was a big fan of Rayman Legends when it came out. I still play it now and again and find it odd this was the one they chose to reboot, as it still looks great on Switch and PlayStation 4. I do quite like the 2.5 D visuals but I’m a bit concerned these new Panzer Dragoon style sections have replaced the music rhythm sections at the end of levels.
That would be a real shame as I loved those bits. Has there been any chat about whether there still in the game or have they been ditched due to licencing issues or something? Somasonic
GC: Apparently there’s going to be four new ones, with one of the songs being U Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer.
Less than perfect Another vote for how amazing the gameplay is in Saros. I would urge anyone on the fence to play it as you won’t find much better, especially if you haven’t played Returnal yet.
The one thing that didn’t change enough for me was the level design, I was hoping for bigger areas or even FromSoftware type map design. However, it was too similar to Returnal in that respect, with each level cut into the small fight rooms.
Still, don’t let that put to you off I still couldn’t put the game down. So highly recommended.
Looking forward to their next game or even the studio (Cosmic Division) formed by game director of Returnal who quit Housemarque during the early years of Saros development. Carlos
Slow leaners That’s a big ol’ yikes on PlayStation 5 sales dropping by a half after the price cut. I know that people were probably saving up to buy it before the price change, but it does show that Sony’s position isn’t untouchable. 12% of nothing is still nothing, when you’re talking about Xbox Series X sales, but it Is proof that with the right exclusives Xbox could’ve made a difference.
It’s far too late for that now, including for Project Helix (I believe) but the takeaway for everyone should be that exclusives are the most important thing and getting rid of them for a trivial profit on PC or other formats is hurting yourself for no reason. Exclusive are the whole reason you exist! Sony does seem to have learnt this now, but how they never understood that before they started I’ll never know. Jayden
Half-finished I empathise with Alex and his troubles installing 007 First Light. I too bought the disc version of the game specifically because I don’t have super-fast internet, and First Light seemed to take ages to install mainly due to an extra mandatory download. This whole problem with buying fundamentally incomplete games that need massive downloads got me thinking. Is there any other product/service that you buy full price that’s incomplete to the extent that it doesn’t serve its function?
If a chef half cooked your dinner in a restaurant you’d be rightly cross and would send the meal back.
I guess a dentist might do some big jobs in stages/multiple appointments, but there’s usually a good reason for that other than he/she couldn’t be bothered to finish your filling.
Are all games released unfinished nowadays? Another weird aspect I’ve found with buying disc-based games is that modern consoles initially try to download a new game even after I put a game disc into the machine. I have to turn off my internet to get the console to install the game from the disc.
I really don’t understand what objection a console might have to using a game disc that’s already in the machine. Michael Veal (@msv858)
GC: Publishers in general don’t want you to buy physical games, they want you to buy digitally because it’s more profitable for them; so they’re not really interested in making things easier.
Post-launch roadmap These weirdos trying to get into Rockstar HQ, to force them to do whatever it is they’re upset about, is crazy. All that nonsense about a constant police presence and sirens going off… the building is in the middle of Edinburgh, right outside the parliament building. You’d think someone else would’ve noticed if something’s going on like that.
I’m sure there’s a CCTV camera pointed at every square inch of the building, and probably hefty private security, but there’s no need to make up all that crazy other stuff. I don’t know what some of these people are going to do with themselves when the game comes out. Actually, I do: they’ll just complain that it isn’t 100% exactly the game they’ve been imagining, because that’s how these things always go. Endof
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Glass half full I found the showings of Wolverine and God Of War Laufey highly impressive. The games look to be the zenith of the cinematic blockbuster Sony/Naughty Dog formula that so many value the PlayStation 4 and its catalogue for.
I do, though, understand and agree with the feeling of having seen it all before. Sony have used the same formulas and templates in so many games in a short space of time. Familiarity producing indifference is to be expected.
The games have also never been anything particularly new gameplay and systems wise. The gameplay and systems have always been very good but it’s the production values that have always been the standout feature of them. But the sum of the parts is fantastic.
Even though the gameplay wasn’t that risky Sony did take massive risks with the first batch of games on PlayStation 4. Both in greenlighting new IP and taking risks on big IP like God Of War. It was very successful and maybe where the confidence/arrogance came from for the nutty live service plans.
I do think Sony need to diversify though. They put out far too many similar games. It would be nice if they did that with more double-A games, like Astro Bot, but also taking a risk on a big triple-A games again. When the latter is done you can get games like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild or God Of War 2108; special games, surprising games.
In general, though, I feel more positive about Sony these days. The live service failings have seen them downscale those ill-conceived plans. Along with making single-player games PlayStation exclusive again it seems they are taking a long hard look at themselves.
I’m cautiously optimistic but as it takes so long to make games it’ll be a while before we know the outcome and as they never say anything about strategy these days, it could just mean they’ll double down on the current house style and franchises and milk them for all they’re worth. Time will tell, I guess. Simundo
Inbox also-rans As an avid supporter of 3D brawlers like Devil May Cry, God Hand, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta et al. – not to mention the earlier classic entries in Santa Monica’s series, especially the PlayStation 3 games – I really liked the look of the more aerial dynamic fighting style in God Of War Laufey! GG
Better late than never on the Elden Ring annoucement for Switch 2 but please, I need to know what From’s next multiformat game is. Why won’t they tell us?! Rackem
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After being pushed back to a vague 2026 release window, the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring is now slated to launch at the end of summer.
When Nintendo announced the first batch of games for the Nintendo Switch 2 last year, one of the many third party games confirmed to be getting a dedicated port was Elden Ring.
It was initially announced to launch before the end of 2025, but after some less than flattering comments about its performance emerged from a public Gamescom demo, the port was delayed into 2026.
If you were expecting a re-reveal at a future Nintendo Direct – perhaps the one rumoured for next week – publisher Bandai Namco has decided to continue the current trend for boring unveilings and just announce it’ll be out on August 28 via social media.
As a reminder, this Tarnished Edition of the game also includes the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC plus two new starting classes and character customisation options. These will be made available for the other versions of Elden Ring as well.
Although it was suggested that the game’s allegedly poor performance on Switch 2 had been exaggerated, there must’ve been some truth to it as Bandai Namco acknowledged the delay was to ‘allow time for performance adjustments.’
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With the Switch 2’s first anniversary tomorrow on June 5, it’s become clear that the console is far more powerful than initially expected, capable of running demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 very well.
However, it’s also apparent that these ports work as well as they do because real time and effort was put into them. And for as beloved as FromSoftware games are, they’ve always struggled from a technical standpoint, so something like Elden Ring would’ve needed a lot of time in the oven.
While this new release date is good news for Switch 2 owners, we’re more interested in learning what FromSoftware’s next traditional Soulslike could be.
It’s been four years now since Elden Ring and while there was Armoured Core 6 in 2023, FromSoftware has otherwise been busy with multiplayer-centric games.
It launched Elden Ring Nightreign last year, which was decent but a far cry from the studio’s usual calibre, and its next project is PvPvE game The Duskbloods, which is also exclusive to the Switch 2.
There’s a good chance The Duskbloods will feature in next week’s rumoured Nintendo Direct (where it’ll hopefully get a firm release date beyond a 2026 window), but that still leaves PlayStation, Xbox, and PC owners with no traditional FromSoftware game any time soon.
FromSoftware does have multiple projects in development, but it’s already ruled out an Elden Ring 2. It was rumoured last year that the studio would launch another game in 2026 besides The Duskbloods (this was before the Elden Ring delay), but some suspect it could be a remaster of Dark Souls 3 rather than something entirely new.
Hopefully it’ll run as well as the PlayStation 4 version (Bandai Namco)
Xbox Series X sales are up and the Nintendo Switch 2 is now the best-selling console in the UK, thanks to the PlayStation 5 price increase.
With gaming hardware across the board constantly growing more expensive, companies need to go the extra mile to encourage people to invest in a new console.
That’s easier said than done, though, and Sony is in the awkward position of needing to keep propping up the PlayStation 5 despite it being nearly six years old and the PlayStation 6 being nowhere in sight.
PlayStation 5 sales were up over Christmas thanks to a generous Black Friday discount, and it hit the 90 million lifetime sales mark earlier this year, but it looks like that growth has quickly slowed down, as it barely beat the Xbox Series X in May, in the UK.
This is according to Christopher Dring of The Game Business, who reports that PlayStation 5 sales dropped by 50% last month in the UK, although, as usual, no exact figures were given.
While he doesn’t specify, Dring is presumably comparing sales to the PlayStation 5’s April figures. Normally you wouldn’t expect much difference, as neither are traditionally busy months for sales, but these are unprecedented times.
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The most obvious reason for the PlayStation 5’s decline is the price hike on April 2, which saw both the digital and physical versions of the PlayStation 5 go up by £90 to £519.99 and £569.99, respectively.
Some retailers, though, still sold both versions for the previous prices in early April, which could have encouraged a boost in last-minute sales from those eager to avoid the price hike.
By May, that new price will have been firmly locked in so when combined with the lack of any major exclusives in the near future (Wolverine isn’t until September), there was little incentive to pick up a PlayStation 5 in May.
In the UK, PS5 sales fell 50% in May. It only outsold Xbox Series S/X by 400 units (which saw a 12% rise, helped by console exclusive Forza Horizon 6). Switch 2 was easily No.1 (NielsenIQ). There will be more in today's The Game Business Show/Newsletter thegamebusiness.substack.com
But while Sony suffered an unusually bad month it was one of the best in a long time for Microsoft, with the Xbox Series X seeing a 12% increase in sales, motivated by the release of Forza Horizon 6.
That game is currently only available on Xbox and PC, but while the PlayStation 5 version will follow later this year, it goes to show that even a temporary console exclusive can move units.
The Nintendo Switch 2, meanwhile, was ‘easily’ the number one console of the month and has now sold over 1 million units in the UK since its launch last year. According to Dring, it hit this target 30 weeks faster than the original Switch.
Compared to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox, the Switch 2 is certainly a more affordable option, although it too is building up to a price hike later this year.
Sony no doubt hopes the recent State of Play will spark a surge in interest, with major new games such as God Of War Laufey and Marvel’s Wolverine, even if both seem more tailored to existing owners than those that haven’t yet bought the console.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Sony’s been selling less games with each passing year since 2020, which is attributed to its increasingly thin release schedules and lack of consistent exclusives.
As a result the company has talked about monetising the current install base, which could suggest Sony’s priority is to wring as much money as possible from PlayStation 5 owners (like it’s doing with the PlayStation Plus price hike) rather than attract new ones.
That said, GTA 6 is out this November and if any game can dramatically shift new units, it’s that, especially if, as rumoured, Sony and Rockstar have signed a deal to release a special console bundle.
Are you picking up a PlayStation 5 just for GTA 6? (Rockstar Games)
