The PlayStation 4 was released nearly 13 years ago. In the world of video games, it is a dinosaur. And yet, in 2025, during Summer Game Fest’s many shows and directs, new PS4 games were being announced alongside PS5 and Switch 2 games. Turns out this old machine still has some life left in it, though that might be a horrible sign for the video game industry.
While watching Summer Game Fest 2025, and begging for the rancid event to end, I spotted something odd. A newly revealed LEGO co-op puzzle game was going to get a PS4 port. Then, another LEGO game in the same showcase was confirmed to be getting a PS4 launch as well. By the end of Geoff Keighley’s Not-E3 event, three new PS4 games had been announced. Weird.
So, I watched closely during the Xbox event on Sunday to see if this trend continued. And I spotted two more games that were announced that day and were headed to PS4. Yes, during the big Xbox showcase, two games were revealed that are also coming to PS4. One of them you might have heard of: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One, yet it isn’t confirmed to be launching on Switch 2 later this year.
After the dust had settled, I skimmed through all the showcases and events over the last few days and found at least 11 upcoming video games that appeared during Summer Game Fest and are also arriving on PS4.
Here’s that list, with brand-new games marked with an asterisk:
- Sonic Racing Cross Worlds
- *LEGO Voyagers
- *LEGO Party
- Marvel Cosmic Invasion
- Mouse PI For Hire
- *Scott Pilgrim EX
- *Planet of Lana 2
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4
- *Call of Duty Black Ops 7
- Monument Valley 3
- Dying Light: The Beast (after the launch of the PS5/XSX versions)
It’s very likely that I missed a few PS4 games that appeared in some of the many events that happened over the entirety of Summer Game Fest last week. Still, 11 games landing on a nearly 13-year-old console is strange. That would be like Activision putting out a PS2 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts alongside the launch of the PS4 in 2013. Or EA putting out a video game on PS1 and PS3 in 2006.
The reason PS4 games are still being made in 2025
So, what’s going on? Well, part of the reason we are seeing games still launching on PS4 is that video games aren’t visually evolving as rapidly and hugely as they once did. The difference between a PS4 and PS5 game is nowhere near as notable as previous generational leaps, meaning a lot of games, especially smaller projects and indie titles, can run perfectly fine on the older machines.
And a lot of people are still, five years after the launch of PS5, gaming on the older Sony home console. That’s why EA spent money to backport Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to PS4 and Xbox One after it launched as a “next-gen” exclusive. If people are still buying new games on PS4 (and Xbox One), and porting stuff to these older machines isn’t that much more work, then why not release a new LEGO game on the older devices?
To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that publishers are supporting older hardware for this long. Video games are expensive. And due to tariffs and other factors, games and consoles are all getting more expensive. The PS5 costs more today than it did at launch in 2020, which is just as weird as devs still making games for a 13-year-old device.
We are in strange, unprecedented, and not great times for the industry. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the next big Call of Duty is arriving on PS4 and Xbox One, despite those consoles being over a decade old. It’s not a bad thing, but it is a sign of the bigger problems facing the industry and the rest of the world.
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