It is not uncommon to speak about a PlayStation exclusive these days and instantly point to its gaudy sales figures to show just how big it is. Uncharted, God Of War, Spider-Man. The list is long. But every so often a PlayStation exclusive comes along that doesn't light the world on fire compared to those games and many automatically deem it a flop simply because it's a PlayStation exclusive. Is it ignorance or just expectations being way out of wack?

Today Shift Up, developer of the recent PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade announced that the game has sold 1 million copies according to their estimates (not sure why they need to say estimates, if anyone’s gonna know the actual number it's them). Now to me, and probably the majority of the gaming community, that milestone seems like a success. The developers certainly think it is, and I'm sure PlayStation does as well. Yet others will say it didn't perform well.

Sure, a portion of that group are likely just console warriors who shouldn't be taken seriously. But there are people out there who believe that it's PlayStation so of course it's going to go on to sell millions and anything less is a flop. And while to a large degree that idea is true, as most PlayStation games do sell very well, it's unfair to some games as they all aren't created equal.

No disrespect to Stellar Blade and Shift Up, but it should never have been expected to be some major system seller or become the next Horizon or Last Of Us. It's a great game that will appeal to a smaller section of the PlayStation fanbase that based on current pace will likely sell 2-4 million copies depending on its legs. For a debut game I'd say that's awesome.

And it's not just Stellar Blade. Rise Of The Ronin recently released as a PlayStation exclusive, has already become Koei Tecmo's quickest selling game and is selling quite well but that hasn’t stopped many thinking it's not. Now it should be noted here that the company has said it's behind its expectations but that's more so just a publisher being unrealistic with its expectations (hi Square Enix).

Even a game like Helldivers 2, which is currently tracking as the best selling game of 2024 shouldn't have been expected to sell like it has. It's awesome that it did thanks to being a great game and some incredible word of mouth and marketing, but it's success should be considered a bonus and not the expectation. If there is a third game made someday it may have those elevated expectations, but the second definitely shouldn't have.

All of these games are not massive AAA blockbusters and shouldn't be treated as such. No one is expecting Doom The Dark Ages to sell like Call Of Duty, so it's unreasonable to think Stellar Blade needs to sell like God Of War or Rise Of The Ronin needs to sell like Ghost Of Tsushima to be successes.

PlayStation Should Take A Tiny Bit Of The Blame

The only somewhat logical explanation to why people think some of these games are failures outside of just not understanding expectations is because of PlayStation themselves. They made 1 mistake years ago and it bit them in the ass when it comes to this topic. Days Gone.

Days Gone was a PlayStation 4 exclusive that despite its ok critical reception (it released at a time when basically every PlayStation made game was a GOTY contender) fans loved it. Fans loved it so much it went on to sell, depending on who's numbers you source, somewhere around 9-10 million units. You'd think that would be great. But yet for some reason PlayStation wasn't happy with it and turned down a sequel.

It's really one of the few blemishes the higher ups have on their record as to why they thought it wasn't successful enough to warrant a sequel and because of that decision alone some have this idea in their head that without 10+ million in sales a PlayStation game is somehow a flop.

Ultimately though that is a small piece of it and fans really just need to understand the differences between what a Stellar Blade needs to sell to be successful vs other games. While PlayStation has developed a couple flops over the years, games like Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin certainly are not.