There is little doubt that PlayStation is one of Sony’s most important divisions. PlayStation’s success has contributed to a large portion of Sony’s overall revenue in recent years, and it seems like the demand for a PS5 is not slowing down anytime soon.
Sony’s first-party output is largely defined by single-player games as franchises like God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon, and Uncharted which are all multi-million sellers. While PlayStation does release multiplayer titles, they don’t typically get the same level of attention. Some fans have started to demand more multiplayer-focused games, and it seems like Sony intends to fulfill those needs.
During a recent earnings call, Sony confirmed that it has at least 10 live service games in development, and plans to release them by 2026. This is not necessarily limited to developers under the PlayStation Studios umbrella, and probably includes all games published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. As an example, the new IP from Haven Entertainment Studios, a developer headed by Jade Raymond, can be considered to be a part of this list.
This falls in line with some of Sony’s recent actions, most notably the acquisition of Bungie its popular IP, Destiny. Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, confirmed that PlayStation is interested in developing more live-service games, and it played a big role in ultimately deciding to acquire Bungie. Ryan believes that Bungie’s experience in making live-service games will also help other Sony-owned developers in their projects.
While Sony’s strength lies in single-player action games, more diversity is always welcome. Some PlayStation fans have expressed a desire for more multiplayer games like SOCOM, so this is indeed great news for that subset of the audience. While the term live-service doesn’t always equate to playing with friends, multiplayer and the games as a service model go hand-in-hand these days. It will probably not have any impact on the single-player portfolio, and Sony most likely sees this as a massive growth opportunity.
Naughty Dog, arguably Sony’s most prolific studio, has multiple projects in development, with a multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe being one of its key titles. Fans have been asking for a sequel to the Factions game mode from the original The Last of Us for years now, and Naughty Dog did confirm last year that it is aggressively hiring for this multiplayer project. Whenever it releases, fans can expect Naughty Dog’s multiplayer game to be filled with live-service elements with a big focus on user engagement.
Source: Sony