Sony’s live-service ambitions for PlayStation have been the subject of ire for many since their inception, and last week those frustrations reached a fever pitch with the news that two more in-development live-service games were being canceled at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. These latest cancelations have put a spotlight on just how poorly the company’s plans have panned out and highlighted a couple of truths that need to be addressed.
First off, there’s the simple fact that Sony’s live-service plans have, quite frankly, been a failure. When Sony began its journey in earnest with the 2022 acquisition of Bungie, live-service games were all the rage, and the company had plans to release over 10 live-service games by 2026. Three years later, those plans have completely fallen apart.
Let’s go down the list one by one. Naughty Dog canceled their multiplayer game for The Last of Us in 2023 after multiple years in development to avoid becoming a solely live-service studio. Firesprite’s Twisted Metal project was canceled. London Studio’s new fantasy multiplayer game was canceled and the studio was shut down. Bungie canceled a Destiny spin-off that was in early development. Insomniac Games had concepts for a multiplayer Spider-Man project that they didn’t pursue (a smart decision I might add). Firewalk Studios released Concord, brought it offline after two weeks, and then found itself closed down. Now we have the cancelations from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games to add to the mix. And amidst all these closures and cancelations, at least 1,000 developers have lost their jobs. But hey, at least we got Helldivers II and Destiny 2: The Final Shape as success stories right?
(Update, 1/21/25, 12:21 PM: It appears as if the Horizon MMO that was reported to be in development at NCSoft has also been canceled. This is not to be confused with the Guerrilla Games’ online Horizon project.)
There are still some new live-service games in development though. Bungie’s hard at work on Marathon, which is supposed to release at some point this year. A new studio has reportedly been created inside PlayStation to work on Bungie’s MOBA/Smash Bros. inspired game, codenamed Gummy Bears. Haven Studios is still cracking away at their debut title Fairgame$. Guerrilla Games is making an online entry in their Horizon franchise. But if what Jeff Grubb says is true, the failure of Concord has made Sony reassess its live-service pipeline, so I wouldn’t expect any more outside of these projects.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me since I said such a thing would likely happen in the wake of Concord bombing as hard as it did. Even when Sony put on a brave face and said it was still committed to live-service games this past November, I had my reservations. I gave Sony the benefit of the doubt when it first announced its intent to step into this high-risk, high-reward market, but it’s been clear for a while now that it’s not working, and Sony needs to get out while it still can before any more damage is done to the PlayStation brand or its many first-party studios.
This entire generation, PlayStation has been quiet concerning what its teams are working on. So much so, that it’s felt as if there isn’t anything to look forward to. Of course, that hasn’t exactly been the case as we’ve still been getting single-player games from some of the teams at PlayStation Studios, and others like Ghost of Yōtei, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and Marvel’s Wolverine are on the way, but how many others could we have received by now if not for this ill-advised pursuit of live-service profits?
What new title could we have received from Bluepoint Games in the past five years that wasn’t an unwanted live-service God of War game? What new idea could Bend Studio have come up with in the six years since Days Gone was released? What other project could we have received from Naughty Dog if the team hadn’t spent three years trying to make a live-service version of The Last of Us: Factions work? Even if I was actually curious and excited about London Studio’s live-service project, I do wonder what would have come out of that studio if it was still around and doing something different.
As we’ve seen time and time again over the years, when traditionally single-player developers try to make a live-service game, things don’t go well. Whether it’s BioWare with Anthem, Crystal Dynamics with Marvel’s Avengers, or Rocksteady with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, each of these games was a case of a square peg being forced into a round hole, and coming out the other side worse for it. That isn’t to say that developers can’t or shouldn’t be allowed to try things outside their usual area of expertise if they want to, but PlayStation’s teams are held in high regard for their excellent single-player experiences. So while I think it’s good that some of these projects aren’t happening, the teams never should have been forced to try and pivot to live-service games in the first place.
Making games is a long and hard job that takes years to complete and asks so much of developers. It’s a job where passion is key to producing something special. To spend years on a project only to have it canceled because higher-ups decided to shift their priorities has to be crushing to a team’s morale since not only do they have to go back to the drawing board, but they also have to hope that they won’t be subject to layoffs. It’s unfortunate, but the reality is that Sony’s live-service push has resulted in nothing but wasted time, wasted money, and above all else, hits to its development teams.
Now I want to be clear when I say that I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with Sony wanting to take steps into the live-service space. With titles like Fortnite dominating the market, Microsoft having a successful live-service game of its own in Sea of Thieves, and the announcement at the beginning of 2022 that Microsoft was planning to acquire Activision Blizzard, the publisher behind Call of Duty, it made total sense that Sony would want to get a piece of the pie for themselves. And besides, more competition is always good to see in a field that’s grown stagnant thanks to a few juggernauts. It’s been a delight to see Helldivers II end up as big as it is, but we didn’t need so many teams under PlayStation studios working on live-service games. In chasing the live-service dragon, Sony and the PlayStation brand lost their way.
Instead of being focused on delivering groundbreaking, industry-defining experiences, Sony joined the crowd and focused on chasing trends by any means necessary. As we pass the halfway point of the PlayStation 5’s lifecycle, this generation has steadily become defined by the company’s silence and failures when it should be defined by its successes and creativity. Sony has been riding on the goodwill it earned during the PlayStation 4 generation and it’s slowly been burning away as the years have gone by. And with more live-service games on the horizon, there may be more failures to come. I’m not the only one who’s nervous about Fairgame$.
At this point, Sony needs to hope that the current live-service games they’re committed to releasing turn out well, and abandon any other ideas they had of becoming a big player in the live-service space. Sony plans to release at least one “major” single-player game every year starting in 2025, so things should be heading in the right direction going forward. This year is going to be a turning point as we begin to approach the next generation of PlayStation hardware, so it needs to get back to what it’s good at and focus on creating the games that players have come to love from PlayStation. No more making rash decisions and looking for sympathy later. To quote a certain Greek god, “Do not be sorry, be better.”
TheComfySpot 