PlayStation has to stop keeping its best games a secret Readers FeatureGameCentralPublished February 23, 2025 1:00am Returnal very good, but not very well known (Sony Interactive Entertainment)A reader is frustrated that some of the most critically acclaimed games on PS4 and PS5 are not properly marketed by Sony and many fans have never heard of them.I was surprised to find that the State Of Play from the other week was fairly unpopular with a lot of PlayStation fans. I only realised afterwards that Sony only really announced one new game, but since that was Saros, the spiritual sequel to Returnal, I was more than happy with the showcase. In fact, I was ecstatic, even though they didnt show any gameplay.It later dawned on me that it wasnt just the lack of gameplay that had put people off, but the fact that the majority didnt even know what Returnal was. In my opinion and I know GC agree with this its the best exclusive on PlayStation 5 and one of the absolute best games of the last decade. But it wasnt a very big hit and Sony didnt advertise it very well.It won the BAFTA game of the year, and five other awards, when it came out and yet Im genuinely surprised Sony allowed Housemarque to make a follow-up (with an even weirder and more difficult to spell name). Then I thought about it some more and realised that theyre always like this with games that arent one of their big franchises.The obvious recent example is Astro Bot, which we know they dont think of as a big franchise, because the Sony boss said there were no major franchises sequels coming out last year because apparently Astro Bot doesnt count. It won almost every game of the year award going and yet all that led to is a vague promise from Sony to make more family games.And then of course weve got Bloodborne, the best exclusive on the PlayStation 4 and another contender for best game of the 21st century, and apparently Sony has forgotten they published it. Not even a PlayStation 5 patch, even while every other game gets one and Bloodborne wouldve have especially benefited from it, given its technical issues.Speaking of FromSoftware, there was also Demons Souls, which Sony did such a bad job of promoting that From refused to let them publish Dark Souls. Im not even impressed by the effort they made with things like LittleBigPlanet or Ape Escape, which they pretend are classic PlayStation franchises but which most normal gamers have never heard of. And dont get me started about Puppeteer!Sony puts out some fantastic, best of the best, games but they never really seem to know how to sell most of them, if theyre not straightforward story or action games. They gave Shadow Of The Colossus a remake, for example, but I dont feel they marketed either the original or the new version enough, to the point where normal people have never heard of them.I know my COD and FIFA playing cousin has heard of The Last Of Us and God Of War, even if Im not sure if hes really played them (he says he has), but writing this I asked him about these other games Ive mentioned and he didnt know what any of them are. Well, he recognised Astro Bot but knew nothing about the game or when it had come out.I feel Nintendo does a lot better job with this sort of thing than Sony, pushing even relatively minor games in order to give them the best chance possible. Worse than that I always get the feeling that Sonys marketing teams are faintly embarrassed by some of their more imaginative and unusual games. That would almost be fair enough, but this problem has been going on for decades at this point.More TrendingSony has published some of the best games of the last several years and yet none of them have been big sellers and none of them are things that theyve really tried to promote. Maybe they just see them as prestige products, only made to earn awards, but they can be so much more. These are some of the best games ever made and yet theyre completely flying under a lot of peoples radar.By reader Lofty What does Sony have against Bloodborne? (Sony Interactive Entertainment)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy