Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the company is reviewing its PlayStation live service game push amid development issues that have already seen Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer hit setbacks.
Totoki said in a financial call that Sony is reviewing 12 PlayStation games for the live service it is working on, and is committed to releasing only six of them by the end of fiscal year 2025, that is, by the end of March 2026. Totoki said that Sony is still working on determining the release date for the games. The other six live service, adding: “It does not mean that we stick to specific titles, but for players, quality should be the most important.”
Sony announced its plans in February 2022 to launch more than 10 live service games by March 2026, and later said that this push would bring games from different genres to different audiences. It spent heavily on studio purchases as part of the campaign, bringing on Destiny developer Bungie, Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios, and Firewalk Studios. Sony worked with Bungie, which has live service experience with the Destiny series, to evaluate its portfolio, and has reportedly cut back on some live service projects as a result.
One such project is the multiplayer game The Last of Us, which is still MIA. The game’s director said he was still working on the game earlier in November, sparking new hope that it could eventually be released.
What else do we know about the PlayStation streaming service? Bungie is working on Marathon, a sci-fi-based PvP shooter; Haven Studios is working on Fairgame$, a competitive heist game about robbing the wealthy; Firewalk Studios is working on Concord, another multiplayer sci-fi game. There’s also Guerrilla’s multiplayer game Horizon and a co-op action game from PlayStation’s London Studio.
PlayStation Studios president Hermann Holst admitted last May that Sony faces fierce competition between live service games and the investment of time they take from players. “There is a danger that we talk about ‘live service’ in general terms, as if it is one type or even one business model,” he said.
“PlayStation Studios makes a variety of games that can be referred to as ‘live services’, targeting different genres, different release schedules, and at different scales. We also create games for different audiences, and I gain confidence from our track record of creating worlds and stories that fans love.” PlayStation. The priority for each studio is to present its own project, to produce the best possible game.
The PlayStation Direct service issue comes amid a shake-up within Sony Interactive Entertainment. Bungie suffered a devastating round of layoffs, which were blamed on declining Destiny engagement, and Dreams and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule also suffered layoffs. PlayStation president Jim Ryan is also scheduled to retire next spring.
However, Insomniac’s recently released single-player adventure Spider-Man 2 is considered a huge success, and the PlayStation 5 is dominating its rival Xbox Series
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. You can find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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