Discovering, Revisiting, and Ranking Sony’s First-Party Games

These days Sony is best known for their sprawling, single-player cinematic adventures. I love many of those games, but there’s soooo much more to PlayStation’s 30+ years of history in regards to first-party releases. A week or so ago I started work on a top 100 list, similar to what I did for Nintendo and Sega. I quickly realized that I was woefully unprepared.

I’ve been gaming on PlayStation consoles and handhelds since I traded my N64 for a PS1 in 1997 (one of the most controversial but ultimately for-the-best choices I’ve ever made). I’ve bought every Sony console and handheld at or near launch, and played most first-party PlayStation games. Or so I thought. Once I started looking at lists of releases, questions started forming such as “Wait, Japan Studio was involved with that?” “There are how many Ratchet and Clank games?!” etc.

I quickly realized that this was not going to be a month or even year-long project. This will be multiple years of playing and posting. A 2026 resolution for me is to write more, beyond just Bluesky posts. So my goal for this project is to play well over 100 Sony first-party games and write short blog posts for each. See the first example of this here. Then, when I’ve played everything that I have even a passing interest in, I’m going to rank them. Time consuming, but easy, right? Nope, there were issues immediately.

The first roadblock I hit was “what counts as a Sony first-party game?” MLB: The Show is on Xbox! Lego Horizon Adventures is on Switch! Wipeout was on N64 and Saturn! Everything is on PC! Turns out what counts as a first-party release has always been kinda messy in the case of Sony. So here’s the criteria I came up with:

1. Sony owns the rights. Example: the Wild ARMS series is (sadly) inactive, but Sony still owns it (even if later entries were published in some regions by third-parties), so it counts.
2. A PlayStation studio was involved with development in some capacity. Example: Death Stranding 1&2 use Guerilla Games’ Decima engine, so even if those games end up on Switch or something, I’m still counting them as Sony first-party titles. This also includes the many games that Japan Studio (R.I.P.) assisted with (so yes, Bloodborne will be included).
3. The games were first-party releases at the time, even if Sony no longer holds the rights. Example: the PS1 Crash and Spyro games count for this list, but their post-PS1 sequels do not.
4. The games must have been released on PlayStation hardware. Example: As much as I wanted to include EverQuest, that opened up a whole can of worms that I don’t have time or capacity for, so sadly EQ 1&2 will not be included on this list. The Champions of Norrath games are eligible though! But EverQuest Online Adventures on PS2 will not be, because…
5. The games must still be playable on unmodified PlayStation hardware today. EverQuest Online Adventures has no offline mode, and the PS2 servers have long been shut down. There are fan-servers for PC and playing on an actual PS2, but they require a modded system. So while I think this is cool (and something I want to try out one of these days!), it won’t be eligible for this list. HOWEVER, games on my PS3 Games Still Playable Online in 2025 list will be eligible!

The last order of business is how I’ll be revisiting these games. I recently hooked up every generation of PlayStation console in my office, all ready for capture (and PSP/Vita, of course). I don’t currently own a PSVR 1 or 2, so we’ll see on whether games exclusive to those are included. Plenty of time to decide and pick up the hardware down the road (again, this is a multiyear project).

I will be playing a combination of discs (from multiple regions), digital releases, and PlayStation Classics on PS4 & PS5. While my PS game collection is solid, the Classics included in my PS+ Premium subscription will help me fill in some gaps. Third-party releases on there may be a mess, but Sony has been pretty good about getting their first-party PS1, PS2, and PSP games up, with some welcome features like save states, rewind, and trophies.

Apologies to speed runners and purists, but I will most likely be going with the most modern version of the game (though I’m pretty torn on which Shadow of the Colossus to go with… I guess I’ll just have to play them all, oh well).

The biggest thing here is that this is something I *want* to do. It’s going to challenge me to actually play/finish some modern releases (Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei, God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Death Stranding 2), explore some series I only have passing familiarity with (Infamous, Sly Cooper, Jumping Flash, Motor Toon), check out some weird stuff (Depth, Doko Demo Issyo, Ore no Ryouri, a bunch of PS Move and EyeToy games, Oreshika) and revisit some classic series I’ve been meaning to replay for ages (Wild ARMS, PaRappa, Jak).

While I’m excited, I have no delusions that I will be able to maintain focus on this project at all times. I will still want to play non-Sony games, and sometimes I won’t be in the mood to play games at all. I fully expect to get sidetracked, burnt out, etc., but it will be finished eventually (just not in 2026). I’m going into this with an open mind and am very open to suggestions, especially when it comes to party and sports games, a massive gap for me. Was there a Singstar or Buzz that you had a blast playing with your college roommates? Is there an NFL GameDay that’s still fun to play today and doesn’t require any knowledge or appreciation of American football? Let me know in the comments here or on Bluesky and I’ll consider checking it out!

As with all my writing / posting / ranking, I will strive to be as honest and authentic as possible. All capture footage, photographs, and words will be by me (anything that isn’t will be credited). My takes may not be the most informative, thought-provoking, or cool, but I promise you they will be honest.

We’ll see how this all goes, but one thing’s for sure: I’m excited for this