Sony confirms that their original plan of releasing 12 live service games are delayed. Read on to learn more about it!
Sony Delays Half Of Planned Live Service Games
Live Service Quality Control Issues
In an earnings call last November 9, Sony President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki stated that half of the originally planned 12 titles to be released by fiscal year ending in 2025 will be delayed. Earlier this year, PlayStation partnered with Bungie, the makers of Destiny, for a “rigorous portfolio review,” for its upcoming live service games. Due to the review, they have decided to push back or delay half of the planned titles due to quality concerns.
Hiroki states that they are currently reviewing these games and want to ensure that these games are enjoyed and liked by gamers for a long time. He also confirms their plan to release six of these titles will be released by fiscal year 2025 and that the remaining six are still being reviewed. He then went on to say that the game quality is the most important thing among all their products, and they want to push live service and multiplayer titles mid-to-long term.
Others to Follow Suit
As reported before, even Warner Bros. decided to double down on live service games. The statement from WBs CEO David Zaslav lines up with Sony’s plans to push for more of these types of games. Zaslav openly stated that they want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles at higher levels through their live service games. One of WB’s upcoming controversial live service games, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is seemingly one of the titles included in the six aforementioned planned to be released titles. Among the 12 titles that were planned by Sony to be released by FY25, three that were confirmed to be in development are The Last of Us online game, Horizon online game, and an original online co-op game from PlayStation’s London Studio.
New Live Service Wave
With the proven success of live service games like Bungie’s Destiny, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online, Respawn’s Apex Legends, and many more, live service games seem to be the new wave that companies are riding for future products, and we’re just waiting to see who else is going to ride the wave. This new approach of releasing incomplete products with the intent to drip-feed content through monetization is indeed profitable, but is seen to be fueled by corporate greed rather than an honest intent to offer longer replayability.
Source:
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sony-confirms-its-delayed-half-of-its-12-planned-live-service-games/
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-is-using-bungie-to-rigorously-vet-its-upcoming-live-service-games/
https://game8.co/articles/latest/warner-bros-to-focus-on-live-service-games
