r/videogames • u/D3struct_oh • May 13 '26

News / Trailers / Articles PS5 Exclusive Saros Reportedly Selling Worse Than You'd Expect

https://kotaku.com/analyst-claims-sonys-latest-ps5-exclusive-saros-isnt-selling-great-either-2000695652?fbclid=IwdGRleARxcuZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeG-CkZ9KPtozDdUCRmNuvf27RXEmrsLfA73BVptvwWKP8A2MaGwiNVVMvH5A_aem_9pzQEWNCIDf-219jig3K0w
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113

u/iChieftain22 May 13 '26

+300k copies in 2 weeks while being a PS5 exclusive... is selling worse? What kind of expectations the devs/publishers are having? 300k units sold is already very good, this is not a huge franchise like Resident Evil so don't expect millions in the first few weeks.

13

u/El-Shaman May 13 '26

It’s all about expectations and breaking even, this doesn’t look like it was a cheap game either, I’m sure they at least expected 1 million copies sold in the first two weeks.

4

u/TheStupendusMan May 13 '26

Bar is too low with breaking even. FFXVI was profitable but SE still considered it a failure. C-Suite exists in another reality.

107

u/NumerousBug9075 May 13 '26

Yes but the point is that PS5 exclusives should sell in the millions to justify their exclusivity, otherwise the concept is pointless. Devs make a fraction of the profit because they're not allowed to multiplat and it does them more harm than it does Sony.

The FF7 trilogy has suffered greatly because of how much worse exclusivity sales has become.

19

u/kungfuabuse May 13 '26

I'm really hoping this pushes Sony to let Housemarque bring it to PC.

5

u/notdsylexic May 13 '26

Please, I hope so.

50

u/Bhavacakra_12 May 13 '26

This. Exclusivity only works if you can turn a profit. Low(ish) sales in this economy is not good.

Your point about FF7 is spot on. Easily two of the greatest games I've ever played and the sales were F'd from the start.

I hope sony realizes releasing games on PC is good for everyone because I loved Returnal.

18

u/Hyper_Mazino May 13 '26

I'm really glad that they already confirmed that Part 3 won't be exclusive.

12

u/Sandshrew922 May 13 '26

I'm pretty sure Square has moved back to multiplatform because of how much 16 and 7R underperformed with regards to sales. And that's a blue chip franchise.

Sony needs to quit fighting a console war they already won

7

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

They're second place to the Switch by about 70 million units, aren't they?

1

u/Sandshrew922 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Yes, but Nintendo left that market after the GameCube. Sony trounced the n64 and GameCube, so the Wii came out later with a lowered price tag and a gimmick. They were effectively in the position Microsoft finds themselves in right now. This is specifically about home consoles cuz the inverse was true for handhelds. The Gameboy/DS was a juggernaut.

Nintendo combined their handheld and console and staggered their release window away from Xbox and Playstation. It paid dividends with the Wii and Switch. They're the budget, family friendly console and/or everybody's 2nd console.

If Nintendo decided they wanted to make a GameCube successor that prioritized performance and launched it against the PS6 with a price tag to match, it would fail.

8

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

Nintendo would never do it again, because it's a losing battle even for Sony and Microsoft. So it truly seems like the decision that they made in ~2004 was the right one.

In any case, I don't really agree with the GaMeR premise that it requires being the most powerful console in order to be in the running. I'm sure Sony would switch places with Nintendo right now, at least as far as their gaming division is concerned.

3

u/thegta5p May 13 '26

Yeah I will say one of the reasons the PS5 and Xbox are struggling this gen compared to the previous gen’s is their push for graphics is backfiring right now. Chip and ram shortages are causing the prices for those components to rise up. Graphically intensive games depend on these parts so these consoles need to have them. And as a result this caused the prices for these consoles to rise. Even if the PS5 had the same amount of games as the PS4 I don’t see people justifying in dropping $600. The PS4 was $400 when it came out. To many that’s a huge jump.

And because of this many won’t be buying these games since they just don’t see it worth it spending it spending that much. And this creates a loop because as prices of components go up the more money the loose. And since they used to rely on the loss leading strategy where they made their money back from game sales, this is going to lead them to increasing the prices of these consoles more to recoup those costs.

Hence why Nintendo is able to price the Switch 2 at the similar price point as the PS4. They have lower specs so they don’t have to spend as much. Although they are not immune from these shortages. It’s just if they do a price increase it won’t be as high as these consoles.

2

u/Sandshrew922 May 13 '26

I don't disagree, Nintendo absolutely made the right decision back then lol. It was a brilliant move to step away from the "arms race" in performance and focus on what they do well, Mario doesn't need to have insane graphics and Windwaker is the best looking "old" Zelda title because they moved away from realism.

I'm not knocking Nintendo at all. Just bought a Switch 2 on Friday and my PS5 is a paperweight I'm probably gonna sell if money gets tight. Only have a few games for it right now though.

ETA: my point wasn't a Playstation glaze, or meant to be. It's that Nintendo left the console war behind 20 years ago and now it sounds like Microsoft is poised to do the same.

2

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

All three companies are targeting different audiences, or attempting to, but it's still an apples to apples comparison.

I don't plan on selling my PS5, but it's certainly as close to a paperweight as can be right now.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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2

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

Idk, the Switch 2 is the only console that's guaranteed to get real first party software support. In 7 years Sony hasn't even released anything as good as Kirby Air Riders, let alone Donkey Kong Bananza.

1

u/Black_Leg7 May 14 '26

Thats bullshit. Sony did release games comparable to these two and I am saying this as nintendo fan.

1

u/NumerousBug9075 May 13 '26

There might be an uptick in sales around then as many people have opted to wait for the full trilogy befire buying. I'm hoping they get a second wind in terms of sales as the games deserve better than that!

-2

u/The_Last_Nightmares May 13 '26

I've missed that, when was the announcement?

1

u/The_Last_Nightmares May 13 '26

It was a genuine question. Dumb cunts.

2

u/NumerousBug9075 May 13 '26

It upsets me how the FF7 trilogy turned out. Their exclusivity cycles were so long that they lost the hype by the time they were ported. Both games are amazing, but Sony deprived them of the attention they deserved

I feel like studios don't realize that day 1/launch week/month sales are critical to a games success because the hype is fresh and everyones talking about it. Gamers have too much choice nowadays to spend months hyping a game anymore and lose interest really quickly.

1

u/AdLatter3755 May 13 '26

I mean the idea behind that type of deal is Sony pays Square upfront for development and they get timed exclusivity. Sony tells them that their install base should make up for the lack of sales on other platforms. It doesn’t work out.

But to your point day 1 week 1 month 1 and the first holiday season largely make or break total sales.

1

u/SilverKry May 15 '26

At least part 3 will be on everything day one. 

1

u/shrek3onDVDandBluray May 13 '26

Only reason Sony is moving away from PC is because of Xbox. Rumors say their next system is essentially going to be a PC that can connect to steam i.e. if you had to choose between a console/PC that can connect to steam (and still get PlayStation exclusives) or a PlayStation 5, people will choose the Xbox that can connect to steam and still get PlayStation exclusives. Sony does not want to lose their hardware sells, hence moving away from PC releases

1

u/Whomperss May 13 '26

The FF games are funny to me personally. I'm a massive fan of the franchise but I'm only on PC. I would've bought 16 and the remakes day 1 but so much time passed before they were available to me that I can just keep waiting until I feel like buying them or just pirate them if funds are tight when I get the itch.

I'm sure that's not a unique experience. I really wonder just how many sales were lost from people like me who just fell outside the hype window and put the games on the indefinite back burner.

1

u/Academic-Dingo-826 May 14 '26

This isn't true. You can loose money on exclusives to get people on the platform so you can take a 30% cut of all the other games

1

u/FluffiestPrince May 14 '26

Okay, but the FF7 Remake Trilogy selling poorly is a blatant lie.

From what I've found, it has currently close to 9 million copies (rounded from 8.7), which is far from any form of failure. Rebirth sold slightly less (around 6 million from what I found), but that's also inherently what a sequel will do, since people who didn't like the first game but got it, won't have any reason to get the next one.

The issue is that Square's sales projections are so far delusional, that anything that doesn't sell over 10 million copies is deemed an instant failure. Both games were massive successes, and easily made their dev money back within the first few months.

It would've sold far more if it wasn't an exclusive, but calling it a "failure" is objectively wrong, considering it made its money back, and then a lot.

2

u/ExplodingFistz May 13 '26

This really should have dropped day and date on PC. Returnal was already a super niche game, and as far as I know a lot of people loved that game on PC, so I'm sure it would have sold well. It was a stupid decision to make this an exclusive.

5

u/notdsylexic May 13 '26

Rougelite genre is much more popular on PC too.

2

u/cultistkiller98 May 13 '26

Love this point! Bring the game to pc

1

u/darkbreak May 13 '26

Eh, the FFVII reboot series has more issues than exclusivity holding it back. Square split the fan base with their decisions with the games and have gone back and forth on wether exclusivity actually hurt sales of Rebirth. Remake sold very well on PS4 alone. Rebirth is a different story. We won't have a clearer picture until part 3 is out. Square has also admitted that the general lack of interest in Final Fantasy as a whole, particularly form younger gamers, has impacted the series. They've said the long dev times for the games is what's mainly driving this lack of interest.

1

u/TheOneWithThePorn12 May 14 '26

The problem is considering the current economy people aren't going to buy everything at full price. We are back to the times where people are going to pick and choose what to buy and wait on the rest.

I can see a ton of potential customers just not buying anything new until GTA6 is out. That game will probably push a ton of console sales and more purchases in general as a lead up to Christmas

1

u/sexbobomb91 May 14 '26

Exclusives are more important for Sony to bring and keep players on their platform than selling a few extra copies on PC and diluting their brand. Let's be honest, Returnal sold poorly on PC, Saros would not do much better.

1

u/Black_Leg7 May 14 '26

FF7 remake part 1 did good as exclusive and was among best selling ps4 exclusives. Part 2 sold less cause many didn't want to play incomplete remake and are waiting for all parts or hate kingdom heart nonsense added to the story.

1

u/NumerousBug9075 May 15 '26

I completely agree! I played the shit out of FF7 part 1 but want to wait till all 3 are out to play it again/move onto 2.

A lot of day 1 sales are essentially "postponed" until the full FF7 experience is available.

7

u/Thundergod250 May 13 '26

Probably Tom Cruise Mission Impossible Scenario. That sht is Top 10 highest grossing of 2025 and earned like 500M+, but it's a Flop when they're budget is 400M

41

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

Apparently it's budget is 75 million roughly and that's before marketing.

300k copies sold is roughly 22m.

So they're currently operating at a 55m loss minimum after the highest period for sales in this games lifespan.

For all intents and purposes, this is a massive failure and probably the end of this studio.

13

u/tmart14 May 13 '26

That’s a massive budget for an extremely niche genre in bullethell roguelikes.

12

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

Their marketing budget was also probably quite expensive. They had a slot at summer gamefest, and the game awards.

They also are all over twitch and have tv adverts in the UK.

So probably easily 10m+ on marketing that's not even included in this

3

u/Archoniks May 13 '26

All that marketing and yet I still didn't even know this was effectively a Returnal sequel until ACG mentioned it in his interview. Seems like a total failure to me.

1

u/Brain_lessV2 May 13 '26

That's what confuses me, because Returnal seemed like anything but a bullet hell.

1

u/thegta5p May 13 '26

I never understood why these companies do these crazy budgets for such niche genres. Tohou is probably one of the most well known series in the genre, yet its budget is a fraction of this game. And it’s not like people in the genre were asking for a graphical masterpiece. They could’ve easily cut that budget into making something less graphically intensive.

3

u/WEAreDoingThisOURWay May 13 '26

lol, budgets are employee salaries. When you see a big budget for a game, your question should be where is it made? Is it made in the West or Asia? Labor in Asia is way cheaper than the West

1

u/BlackTone91 May 13 '26

You don't know what are you talking about, and you are creating this opinion with analytics numbers that was off about 1mln last Sony game and they take this numbers based on reviews and player interactions, and 300k+ is so not precise number that it can be actually 500 - 600k+ copies with discs

2

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

If you think physical sells as much as digital in 2026 idk what to tell you.

There's no way physical and digital combined this game has 600k sales.

The sales are irrelevant. It's budget was reported on by the business. 76m. To break even on a game like that they need to sell over 1m copies.

This game has not sold that many copies. They would be posting about that everywhere 'saros already sold 1m copies' it's great press.

1

u/BlackTone91 May 13 '26

You think if they didn't sold 1m copies in first week they still cant make this in long run

1

u/kuenjato May 15 '26

With gas topping $5-6 a gallon and the increase in cost to everything? With no end in sight for this stupid war and gas probably going up another dollar or two this summer? Along with other big games competing in the market?

As a massive Returnal fan I bought Saros and enjoyed it (and was also majorly disappointed), but I can understand why people would wait for a sale. I have disposable cash and even with that I'm scaling back. I probably bought 12 games last year, but in 2026 Control Resonant is probably the only other game I'll get. This industry is probably going to get hit hard all over with what's going on rn.

1

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

I hope you're wrong about this being the end for them. They're one of the last good studios that Sony has. Everyone else is making hero slop outside of Naughty Dog.

1

u/lamancha May 13 '26

Hopefully it has long legs like Returnal and word of mouth is positive as well.

There just aren't many games like these, not on PS5 or pc.

1

u/just--so May 13 '26

That's my hope as well; Returnal was really slept on at first, too. That being said, Returnal was one of the original PS5 exclusives, and had the entire console generation to amass the players and reputation it did. Saros is arriving on the scene much later.

0

u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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3

u/No-Significance2070 May 14 '26

Considering how much money bungee lost last year, almost $1 billion, I think it’s fair to say there are going to be heads on the chopping block

-4

u/IllustriousBee4972 May 13 '26

I highly doubt its the end of Housemarque. They never made a bad game and Saros is a critical success so Sony would have to be idiots to close down the studio.

10

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

It's all about money though.

Doesn't matter if games are critically acclaimed if they dont make money.

You could run the best car wash in the world, but if you're bleeding money, you can't stay open.

They will probably get one more chance after saros, on a much smaller budget, and if that fails to bring a profit, it will be the closure of the company. Just business sadly.

1

u/BlackTone91 May 13 '26

No its not, and Alinea is not accurate at all

2

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

If you think a company like Sony is going to have a game making a loss of 50m and repeatedly do that, then you know nothing about business.

1

u/BlackTone91 May 13 '26

You take numbers from ass and act like you know shit about business

2

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

Out of my ass? The numbers are all over the Internet.

Do you know how much wages cost???

1

u/BlackTone91 May 13 '26

Do you know how much wages cost in Finland?

2

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

A lot. Anywhere from 5-7k a month. Finland has a high average wage in general.

6

u/UtkuOfficial May 13 '26

Hifi Rush was a critical success too.

3

u/Exorcist-138 May 13 '26

So was demon souls remake

1

u/UtkuOfficial May 13 '26

Hell, its the best ps5 exclusive to this day.

1

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

It's a remake that stripped the art direction, so I can't agree even if it was the only damn game Sony had in their portfolio for like 3 years.

2

u/UtkuOfficial May 13 '26

I never played the original so i don't know how to feel about that. Its my favorite exclusive this gen and nothing is particularly close.

1

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

It was a great game on launch way back when, too, so I'm not surprised. Sony has given us scraps the entire gen, so it's pretty easy to point at that, the housemarquee titles, & Astro Bot as the top exclusives.

1

u/kuenjato May 15 '26

Bluepoint was in the same position. RIP.

14

u/UtkuOfficial May 13 '26

300k in 2 weeks is abysmal brodie.

Games aren't made with pocket change anymore. Its 2026.

3

u/SirSabza May 13 '26

It's all relative. An indie title selling 300k is amazing and a huge profit.

A game like this that's pushing the high end of AA budgets with reportedly 75m in development costs alone not even including marketing, is abysmal.

5

u/Sandshrew922 May 13 '26

I mean yeah? Sony pivoting away from multiplatform needs to put up numbers to justify it. PS5 exclusives in general seem to underperform. To the point that Square ended their timed exclusivity if I'm not mistaken after both 16 and Rebirth had underwhelming sales figures.

4

u/KINGGS May 13 '26

Sony's in deep shit because outside of God of War, they always rinse away the previous generation's exclusive IPs no matter how successful. That's exactly why they've gone so heavily on the hero bullshit, because those are recognizable IPs.

1

u/lamancha May 13 '26

Another one like this and they will pivot back very quickly

5

u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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1

u/Black_Leg7 May 14 '26

Sonic is not smaller franchise what are you on? Comparing a new ip in niche genre to sonic? Though it should have sold near million, that is agree with.

1

u/[deleted] May 14 '26

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1

u/Black_Leg7 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

No its not, its among most recognizable brand in gaming and is among highest selling franchise of all time. Something like no more heroes or harvest moon is small.

1

u/[deleted] May 14 '26

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1

u/Black_Leg7 May 14 '26

Thats big. Psychonauts is what a small ip in 3d paltformer look like.

2

u/Senior_Relief3594 May 13 '26

What's good and what's bad always depends on what's the budget

2

u/nvUaWVm360S May 14 '26

300k copies when there’s like 90 million PS5 units out there? Close to 50 million PS plus subscribers? 300k??

4

u/Imalwaysleepy_stfu May 13 '26

No it isn't. If you think it is then you have no idea how much a game like this costs to make.

1

u/Inevitable_Emu4973 May 13 '26

I doubt Sony has high expectations for this game. I mean this isn't exactly one of their big AAA titles after all. 

1

u/torneagle May 14 '26

….theres 70 million ps5s out there or something, some dumb metric people like to always point out. Why no one buy the game then?

Or are half those consoles really just turned off & sitting in scalpers basements…..can’t have it both ways.

1

u/n00bBlaster1337 May 14 '26

There's 100m PS5s out there and they couldn't even get 1% of their userbase interested. That's bad imo

1

u/kuenjato May 15 '26

They need 2 million to break even. Returnal eventually limped to that. This may or may not with sales.

This may be the end of the studio, given Sony's recent track record.

1

u/According-One-8825 May 16 '26

It's not good when the budget was over 100 million

1

u/MrMcGuyver May 13 '26

300k only covers a third of the dev costs and Sony lost hundreds of millions on concord and marathon. They are deep in the red and barely have exclusives to make up that deficit so this had to do a lot more than just break even.

If Sony could just lock in and make more exclusives for the ps5 this wouldn’t be a problem lol

1

u/iChieftain22 May 13 '26

I mean all they need is to remake Infamous 1 & 2, and Bloodborne... right there, easy money

1

u/ImNotSkankHunt42 May 13 '26

Yes!

We need more exclusives to offset our other exclusives underperforming!

0

u/bigreddoggydude May 13 '26

Can't this be the argument against console exclusives?

0

u/SteveMartinique May 13 '26

Very good how? 

0

u/Habib455 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

What kinda of bullshit? I must be smoking laughing gas because a AAA game selling 300k copies in 2 weeks has never been good since I’ve been alive (I’m 23). It’s not the 80s lmao

In Saros’ defense, 300k sold for this is better than from a 3rd party company. Reason being is that most sales are just definitely digital and the game is published by Sony. There’s no middle man, so most of the revenue gained from this game is going to the same organization instead of multiple