What games are next-gen only? A look at the future of console gaming’s next-gen exclusives

What games will be 9th Gen exclusives?

Table of Contents Table of Contents

The next-generation of consoles has been in full swing since November, and while developers are already taking advantage of the power of the new machines, we’re still in that awkward phase where games are feeling a bit held back by the machines that have come before and we’re not seeing many next-gen exclusives. 

Big franchises like Ratchet & Clank may have gone next-gen exclusive already, but sequels like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok coming out on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 leaves us feeling a little bit like this is more of a half-step and a price hike than we had been previously led to believe. 

Below are a list of next-gen console exclusives, as well as some thoughts on what we reckon might be next for certain big series going forward. 

What games are next-gen exclusives?

These are the games that are currently confirmed to be next-gen (9th Gen) console exclusives. If games are on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One then they’re not included in the list.  

PlayStation 5	Xbox Series X/S	Multi-Platform (3rd Party)
Astro’s Playroom	Avowed	A Plague Tale: Requiem
Demon’s Souls Remastered	Everwild	Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Destruction AllStars	Fable Reboot	Black Myth Wukong
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2	Hellblade 2	Dead Space Remake
Marvel’s Wolverine	Microsoft Flight Simulator	Pragmata
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart	Redfall	The Medium
Returnal	Shredders	Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Deathloop*	Starfield	GTA V E&E
Forspoken*	State of Decay 3
Ghostwire: Tokyo*	The Outer Worlds 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake*	The Ascent*
	Scorn*
	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl*
	Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Games marked with a * are timed exclusive or are otherwise subject to a marketing deal where they could go multi-platform after some time.  

What game franchises are likely to make the move to the next-gen?

These are the game franchises that we think are most likely to be next-gen exclusives when we finally get a new entry. 

Next-Gen Exclusives: Dragon Age 4 

Dragon Age 4 has been announced — and there are already rumours it’s cross gen — so we don’t feel like we’ve gone too far out there with this one. In fact, when the game was last shown off at The Game Awards, developer [name] said they’ve been “been imagining new ways of using next-generation technology to bring the world of Dragon Age to life”. 

We’ve heard rumbles that the game has combat inspired by Dark Souls, but other than that all we’ve seen is some concept art and shots of beautiful in-game locations. It seems a while away, and last gen consoles can only be supported for so long. 

Next-Gen Exclusives: Bioshock Next

We know another BioShock is on the way, and we’ve been pretty clear that we’d like to see it go to a brand new environment when discussing it in the past. What better way to realise those new areas than with the power of the 12.1 teraflops of GPU power in the Xbox Series X? 

Cloud Chamber has been very secretive about the game, so details are few and far between. We don’t even know how far along it is. Bioshock has always aimed to feel a little bit prestigious, so we wouldn’t be surprised at all if the next Bioshock one ignored last-gen machines.

Next-Gen Exclusives: Tekken 8

Outside of the trilogy of Tekken games that appeared on the PlayStation 1 and the odd Tag Tournament entry, Tekken has largely been a “one game per console generation” series. Tekken 7 was the entry on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, so we’re due another one soon. 

We have no doubts that when Jin and Kazuya clash in Tekken 8 that it will be happening on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. We look forward to better online play thanks to improved internet functionality and shorter loading times as we get ready for the next battle.

Next-Gen Exclusives: Street Fighter 6

While Street Fighter was once a very iterative game with many editions, the arrival of DLC has changed the way the franchise does it’s releases for the better. Street Fighter V was a PlayStation 4 exclusive that was supported from launch with downloadable content. 

In a recent livestream, they announced that support for the game would be sunsetting, but that 45th and final character Luke would “provide fans with a glimpse into the future.” — He’s obviously from Street Fighter 6, and it’s likely that game will be looking towards differentiating itself from the previous game by being on PlayStation 5 instead. 

Next-Gen Exclusives: Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order 2

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order was a stunning game, but you could really feel the game being held back by the hardware it was on. Cal Kestis had to crawl through narrow crawl spaces to hide loading new level areas a little bit too much.

Star Wars Jedi and Star Wars Sith were both trademarked at the same time, and if you ask us “Star Wars Sith Fallen Order” sounds like a hell of a sequel. Let’s see what happened to Cal after the fall of the empire! 

Next-Gen Exclusives: Indiana Jones 

MachineGames announced an Indiana Jones video game back in January. While we’re uncertain if it will be on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S or just Xbox Series X/S now thanks to Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda’s studio, we do feel like it’s so far away that there’s just no way it will be on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. 

A new Indiana Jones game with an original story is in development from our studio, @MachineGames, and will be executive produced by Todd Howard, in collaboration with @LucasfilmGames. It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!

— Bethesda (@bethesda) January 12, 2021

Next-Gen Exclusives: Wolfenstein 3

MachineGames other Nazi-punching series Wolfenstein has a story that has yet to conclude, and it just makes sense that the game to cap off the original shooter’s reboot trilogy will be a next-gen Xbox console exclusive now. Wolfenstein 3 will be a great way to push both Xbox Series X/S console sales and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions for Xbox Game Studios.

This was our look at franchises we think will go next-gen exclusive soon. Are there any you think we missed? Perhaps from the recent GeForce NOW leak? Let us know in the comments below.