Sony announced plans to create and distribute 12 live service games over the next three years using 60% of its PlayStation budget, which seems like it was just yesterday. Sony has now informed investors that they are cutting that amount in half in response to internal reports that this notion was not doing so well.
In January 2022, Bungie, the company behind Destiny 2, revealed that Sony would buy it for $3.6 billion. A week later, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki disclosed at a quarterly financial results briefing that the business was working with Bungie to help PlayStation launch over ten live service games by March 2026. According to VideoGamesChronicle, Totoki said on a call for earnings today that it will only deliver six of its twelve live service games by the end of Fiscal Year 2025, which ends in March 2026.
Bloomberg revealed earlier this year that Bungie was reviewing several of PlayStation’s in-development projects, such as the apparently shelved multiplayer Last of Us project by Naughty Dog. Sony appears to have revised its strategy in response to the study since the corporation has postponed at least six live service games. By March 2026, or FY2025, six active service offers are still expected to be available. Here’s what Sony President Hiroki Totoki has to say:
“We’re looking over this. Although we haven’t been able to live up to the gamers’ expectations, we’re doing everything we can to make sure they play and enjoy this for a very long time. Thus, by FY ’25, six titles will be available. That is our present strategy. We are now working on the release schedule for the remaining six games.”
He continued his statement by saying,
There are that many live service and multiplayer games overall. The company’s philosophy has not changed, and in the medium to long run, we want to push this sort of service. While we don’t strictly adhere to a set of games, game quality ought to be the most crucial factor.
No Sign for Sony’s live service push
There aren’t many signs that Sony’s push into live services is going as planned. Sony’s $3.7 billion acquisition of Bungie was a crucial component of the whole project, but Bungie’s own live service game, Destiny 2, has had a terrible year due to declining player retention and spending. The studio’s leadership even told staff members that the company might not have survived if it weren’t for the Sony agreement.
Rumors and Speculation on New Projects
Regarding PlayStation’s multiplayer offers, we are aware that it purchased Firewalk Studios in April in order to create a AAA game, and that the next Last of Us game assuming it is ever released will be a multiplayer effort akin to Factions. There are rumors that Guerrilla Games is also developing an online multiplayer game that takes place in the Horizon universe. Furthermore, Bungie is developing Marathon, which will launch on the PlayStation 5 in addition to the Xbox Series X/S and PC.
While disregarding all the times that specialized single-player studios were charged with making such a thing. Sony placed a large gamble on the concept that they could suddenly establish a substantial chunk of their company that is live service, only to have it fail.
