If rumors prove to be true in that God of War, Spider-Man and Horizon Zero Dawn sequels all releasing in 2021, these presumed-exclusives could give PS5 a very strong start to a first year and a quick take-off from launch which overcomes the dilemma of slow launches during the early period of a console's life cycle.

Rumors are swirling in regards to these three games, with renowned journalist Imran Khan stating a new Spider-Man game is not far off, Santa Monica Studios teasing the next God of War game, and a recent job posting by Guerrilla Games confirming Horizon Zero Dawn 2.

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God of War Sequel

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God of War would be nothing short of being a massively huge title to get PS5 high off the ground. The previous game, a soft reboot of the series simply titled God of War, obtained universal acclaim among critics and fans alike, and won Game of the Year at the Game Awards in 2018.

To put it simply, God of War sold PS4 consoles, and, as expected, a sequel would most likely be hailed as a "console-seller" for the PS5. In a Tweet from one of SIE Santa Monica Studios' Kim Newman, a narrative animator, a photograph of her wearing motion-capture devices reads, "Feels good to be back in the suit."

It could represent solid evidence of God of War's next game. However, there is a chance it may not as well. While there was also another cryptic Tweet which Cory Barlog posted back in November to tease a new game, it does not necessarily mean it is God of War and may even be a new game from the God of War studio called Legendz.

In a recent interview with God of War's Director, Cory Barlog, he stated that he would like to take the game's story deeper into the re-visitation of Kratos and Faye's first meeting and their relationship that developed thereafter.

Spider-Man Sequel

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Though information on Spider-Man's next game seems a little more concrete in Khan's statement that the Spider-Man 2 is set for release during "Christmas 2021", it is important to remember that he is not an official representative of the company or people behind the game. It does hold some weight, given he stated with a tone of high-confidence that he knows "too much about this."

Furthermore, game director Bryan Intihar teased a Venom and the Symbiote suit for a sequel to be released in the future, and Reddit user v17447377 also stated Spider-Man 2 will release in the holiday 2021 season. Though this source is nowhere close to concrete, it would not be the first time legitimate leaks from Reddit and 4chan surfaced. If the leaker is credible, though, the story will comprise Peter Parker training Miles Morales and feature an OsCorp "cloning" plot with a diverse array of different villains. The post also claims that some of Spider-Man 2's villains will include Cardiac, Carnage, Green Goblin, the Lizard, Mysterio, and Venom, and that it will include gameplay mechanics similar to Diablo, which will form randomly generated crimes and encounters.

Furthermore, one of the cutscenes at the end of Spider-Man features Norman Osborn making a return to the secret lab that Mary Jane mentioned at an earlier point in the game. Inside the lab, Norman opens the tank with Harry's body suspended inside, connected to the equipment that presumably may create Venom. This is in sync with the Reddit leak which claims that Venom will be a feature villain in a sequel, along with the other enemies.

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If rumors prove to be true, Spider-Man's sequel would also provide considerable steam for PS5's first year following its planned launch. Released in 2018, Spider-Man was praised for its amazing graphical capabilities and unique boss fights, as well as a very solid storyline, and currently holds an 87/100 on Metacritic.

To date, Spider-Man has sold an impressive 9 million copies worldwide, and about 3 million of those, or one-third, were sold in the first three days following its release. Furthermore, Spider-Man was the fastest-selling game in 2018 in the United Kingdom, and was even one of the most best-selling Western-developed titles in Japan that year. Overall, Spider-Man was the number one best selling exclusive title for PS4 as of September of last year.

Horizon Zero Dawn

The first rumor of a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel emerged early last year, when voice actor Janina Gavinkar, the voice of characters such as Tatai in The Frozen Wilds DLC for Horizon Zero Dawn, stated to a fan that Horizon Zero Dawn's sequel is going to be even better than the first game.

Around the same time last year, a Pastebin post about Horizon: Zero Dawn, discovered on the internet, supposedly from a third-party European developer, claims Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 could be released in 2021. Finally, in late 2019, Guerrilla Games posted several job listings, including a Technical Vegetation Artist.

Much of the details in these posts resemble the game's setting, including one posting in specific which mentions the "world of Horizon" as central to the job description. While everything else is open for multiple possibilities, the "world of Horizon" is fairly direct, and could be concrete evidence that the sequel is in the works.

A Horizon: Zero Dawn sequel on PS5 would also give the new console a huge jumpstart, given that the original game's unique setting, comprised of fighting robotic dinosaurs roaming Earth's post-apocalyptic future, was a particularly strong stand-out. By February 2018, Horizon: Zero Dawn had sold 7.6 million copies world wide.

Horizon: Zero Dawn also won the Gold Prize and Users Choice Prize at the 2017 PlayStation Awards. Additionally, it won Best PS4 Game, Best Story and Best PlayStation Console Exclusive, among other awards, at PlaSstation Blog's Game of the Year Awards.

While God of War alone can sell systems, as well as Horizon: Zero Dawn to a degree, Spider-Man still stands as an astounding technological achievement for traversing open-world environments and an incredibly solid game. All three of these games releasing in the same year could prove to be the powerhouse PS5 needs to consolidate much success in selling consoles during its first year.

It is well known that strong third party support is what sells consoles and provides their overall lifeline, but it is exclusives that make the difference in competition in differentiating one console from the other. With Xbox Series X also releasing around the same time later this year, and also promising a strong-lineup of exclusives within Xbox Series X's first year, with the release of exclusive titles every few months, PS5 will need to maintain strong pace in order to maintain healthy competition between these two console manufacturers, Microsoft and Sony.

If the rumors prove to be true, Spider-Man, God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn, coupled with any other exclusives geared for release during the PS5's first year, will certainly keep PS5's lineup of exclusive titles strong and fresh as PS5's first year appears to be off to a healthy start.

God of War is available now, exclusively for the PS4.

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