Gaming news insider Jason Schreier has some disappointing news for Sly Cooper fans hoping for a new game announcement. Before Ghost of Tsushima and the Infamous series, developer Sucker Punch made a name for itself with Sly Cooper, a colorful series of action-adventure games that stood alongside Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank as some of the flagship franchises of the PlayStation 2 era. While Sucker Punch moved on to other things after the third Sly Cooper entry, Sanzaru Games took over developmental duties for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, which launched to mostly positive reviews on the PS3 back in 2013.

There has since been a lengthy drought of new Sly Cooper games, with the closest fans have gotten being Sly’s guest appearances in spin-offs like PlayStation Move Heroes and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. PlayStation acknowledged the series with a line of commemorative merchandise for Sly Cooper’s 20th anniversary in 2022, but Sucker Punch has given no indication of bringing its raccoon burglar mascot out of his decade-long hibernation anytime soon. However, gaming insider Jeff Grubb recently suggested that Sucker Punch could now be developing a new Sly Cooper game alongside a Ghost of Tsushima sequel.

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Unfortunately, Bloomberg reporter and fellow gaming news insider Jason Schreier recently disputed this idea on Twitter shortly after Jeff Grubb theorized a new Sly Cooper game being in development in his “Perfect Dark and Summer Game Mess update” YouTube video. Schreier stated that Sucker Punch only works on one project at a time, and the reason that the supposed Ghost of Tsushima 2 is taking so long to develop is simply a case of AAA video games now taking an average of five to seven years to make.

New Sly Cooper Game Unlikely, Says Jason Schreier

Jason Schreier also pointed out that Sucker Punch is a smaller studio, which also factors into the lack of Ghost of Tsushima 2 news that spawned speculation about a new Sly Cooper game being developed at the same time. So far, Sucker Punch has yet to announce its next project, even as the original Ghost of Tsushima is set to be ported to PC later this week by way of Nixxes Software, the studio behind other major PlayStation first-party PC releases like Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition.

Fans of Sucker Punch’s older PlayStation titles may find themselves disappointed after getting their hopes for a new Sly Cooper sequel after nearly 11 years, but signs seem to point toward the developer focusing on building the Ghost of Tsushima franchise at the time being. Then again, Insomniac eventually returned to Ratchet and Clank in 2021’s Rift Apart, so Sucker Punch could someday bring back Sly Cooper for a new generation of would-be master thieves. Alternatively, another studio could take on a Sly game, as Sanzaru was responsible for Thieves in Time.

Sly Cooper

Sony's Sly Cooper franchise began in 2002 with Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and hasn't had a new release since 2013's Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The series uniquely combines the platform and stealth genres.

The original PlayStation 2 trilogy was developed by Sucker Punch Productions, while Thieves in Time on PlayStation 3 was developed by Sanzaru Games.