Could Sly Cooper 5 be on the way?

Good question! Exactly one year ago today, I published a news article discussing several theories I had regarding another Sly Cooper game, along with a movie that appears to be in limbo. To summarize, based on the content of Sucker Punch's social media posts and recent silence, I concluded that there was a strong possibility that they may have taken over Sly Cooper development once again! Unfortunately, a year has passed and still no news. However, Sucker Punch is still in business, and therefor they are clearly working on SOMETHING. I still believe that something is Sly 5. Here's the skinny. After some digging around the Internet, I discovered an articleciting a reliable source that Sucker Punch Productions (the company that produced the first 3 Sly Cooper games) is planning to announce a PS4 game at E3 2017 (June 13-15). This could be anything. inFamous, of course, is a cash cow, and would continue to rake in money. However, Sucker Punch loves to take risks, and I have a strong suspicion that they will likely take a break from that series for a while.

​There were some rumors floating around last year that Sucker Punch might be working on a Spider Man game, but I highly doubt it as they have never developed a game using someone else's intellectual property. As one rumor suggests, they might come up with a new series. Entirely possible. But I think it's equally possible that it'll be Sly 5. Everything I said in my article last year (scroll down to read it) still holds true, so my next stop was Sucker Punch's Twitter page. On September 23rd last year (two days before my birthday!), Sucker Punch retweeted PlayStationLifeStyle's retrospective article celebrating the 14th anniversary of the Sly Cooper series. A few months later, on December 2nd, Sucker Punch Tweeted out a picture of a cake sporting the Sly Cooper logo with the caption "Amazing fruit cake created by a fellow Sony colleague visiting the studio today. It was as delicious as it looks." The cake itself wouldn't normally be of interest, but the fact that it was baked by a Sony employee visiting the studio is grounds for a double-take. Sure, the Sly logo is more iconic, but that cake could have just as easily exhibited the inFamous logo (which has likely made more money for Sony at this point anyway). 

At the least, a visit from Sony means that the studio is working on a game (duh). Since Sony bought the rights to Sly Cooper, there would certainly be a significant amount of oversight during the development of a fifth Sly Cooper installment. A few weeks later, on December 22nd, Sucker Punch tweeted out its annual Holiday Card (always ripe for speculation), this time parodying a famous Norman Rockwell painting, only replacing Bob Cratchit with Delsin Rowe from inFamous, and Tiny Tim with Sly Cooper. This is certainly nitpicking, but notice Sly's gloves. Since the very first game, Sly has had blue gloves. In this image, he has red gloves. Sure, maybe the change was made to enhance the Christmas vibe in the image, (they did, after all, add mistletoe to both characters). But Delsin hasn't been altered at all. Could this be indicative of Sucker Punch changing Sly's design? If so, that would suggest they're working on a Sly Cooper game. (It is worth mentioning that in the original image, the person in Sly's place is wearing red gloves too. So maybe this is just a red herring). Also, while this could just be the art style, it looks like this Sly was based on the updated Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time model as opposed the the earlier models Sucker Punch used in the first games. But again, this could just be nothing.

Look, I know I'm reading too much into these. But other than some really cool instructions on how to 3D print a Sly Cooper cane, there has been NOTHING in the way of news regarding Sly, so please bear with me lol. Finally, I have one last exhibit of evidence that I discovered by watching a fantastic Sly Cooper/Ratchet & Clank YouTuber, VTNVIVI. For years there has been little in the way of Sly Cooper merchandise. However, as VTNVIVI points out in his video, a Sly Cooper plush has recently hit the PlayStation Gear store for pre-order. Sony seems to have a couple of plushes on sale (one is a... a brick? Really its just a brick?), but I believe they are mostly all characters from active franchises. That would make sense as active franchises = lots of money, and inactive franchises = less money. These plushes are expected to exit "pre-order" status and enter official "order" status on May 31st, which is little more than a week before E3 2017... where Sucker Punch will announce a new game...

You might be wondering why I haven't mentioned Sanzaru. I suppose I must address them. Firstly, I'll give Sanzaru SOME credit because they delivered when Sucker Punch couldn't. After several agonizing years, they gave us Sly 4. I loved the game, but it felt to me as though their heart wasn't 100% in it. There hasn't been any news from the company regarding another Sly Cooper game, and I doubt there will be. The most recent update we've received from them is that they are waiting for a green light from Sony. In my opinion, the window for maximum profit has vanished. They waited too long. I don't think Sony ever intends on giving Sanzaru a green light. Either way, Sanzaru seems to have moved on to other series and other platforms. I think that the green monkey's days with our favorite raccoon are finished. I know I'm being rather salty here, but its disappointing to see Sly dumped at the curb despite success. Again.

Shifting gears to the movie now, I saw a post on the Sly Cooper Reddit reporting that somebody on Tumblr messaged one of the developers (pictured above) of the Sly Cooper Movie who confirmed that the movie is still in production, though it will likely skip the big screen and be direct-to-video. Well, as far as news goes, thats about all I've got. Do I really think Sly 5 is coming? I'm not sure. I really hope so. Sly Cooper was my childhood, and I started this website in eighth or ninth grade. Now I'm an adult, a college graduate, a professional graphic & web designer (curating this website inspired me to pursue that field), and I'll be continuing my design education for another two years. I don't have as much time for the website or video games in general as I used to, but Sly Cooper and this corner of the Internet will always be a part of who I am. I always promised not to abandon the site, and I never will. It'll be here even after I die. I just hope that Sly 5 is released before that happens!