In an interview about the future of PlayStation, Herman Hulst points to Helldivers 2 as proof that live gaming is worth continuing.
After the abrupt death of Concord and the closure of its developer, it seemed that Sony had begun to distance itself from the idea of live service games.
Despite promising no fewer than 12 such titles by 2026, Sony has been claimed to have canceled several live service games, leaving only heist shooter Fairgame$ and Bungie's Marathon reboot on Sony's schedule.
That said, Sony never explicitly said anything about completely abandoning its live service gaming plans, and now PlayStation Studios CEO Herman Hulst has reaffirmed the company's commitment to those plans.
In a recent interview with Japanese outlet Famitsu, Hulst was specifically asked if Sony's strategy for live service gaming, as well as mobile gaming, had changed after Concord's closure.
As a reminder, Concord was such a flop that Sony delisted the game and refunded customers just two weeks after release before shutting down developer Firewalk Studios a month later.
While Hulst says Sony has had to “make changes to our business to solidify a more sustainable operating base,” it doesn't seem undeterred in its goals of releasing more live service games.
“Going forward, we will continue to focus on developing live service titles alongside the story-driven single-player titles our players want,” says Hulst.
It adds, “We're learning a lot as we establish the ability to develop high-quality live service titles,” but doesn't specify precisely what lessons have been learned.
Hulst certainly doesn't address what went wrong with Concord, only highlighting how Helldivers 2 (which Sony also published this year) “achieved results that support the potential of live service titles.”
As for mobile gaming, Hulst mentions focusing on collaborations with external third-party studios, pointing to the upcoming Destiny: Rising spin-off in development at NetEase Games.
This could suggest that Sony will prioritize having its partners work on mobile games for its IPs rather than having its own internal studios handle them.
At the very least, there have been some signs that Sony will more sensibly approach live service game development. In a November statement, Sony senior vice president of finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa acknowledged the risks involved in creating live service games and that Sony's strengths lie in its single-player offerings.
So far, in terms of single-player games, Ghost Of Yōtei is scheduled for 2025, and Insomniac's Wolverine project still has no release date. Hopefully, Sony is saving some interesting reveals for 2025.
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