Sony appears to be all-in on plans to expand its portfolio beyond big-budget single player experiences as the Japanese company confirms it has 10 live service games in the works. They are all planned to release by March 2026. The news comes from the firm's latest earnings call, where it also touched on the recent Bungie acquisition.

Supporting comments made by bosses Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki spoke of how PlayStation Studios will learn from Bungie. Transcribed by VGC, Totoki said: "Our studios will learn from Bungie, that is a strong wish we have the Bungie side is willing to work closely with us." A new Bungie IP was also mentioned during the earnings call, which was initially aided by a $100 million injection of cash from Chinese company NetEase back in 2018. The project in question will remain multi-platform.

It's clear Destiny developer Bungie will play a large role in bringing these 10 live service titles to market in the next couple of years, but we've only heard word of a few of them. Naughty Dog has its multiplayer adaptation of The Last of Us, and the upcoming Twisted Metal reboot is expected to fit this mould. As we first reported last month, development of Sweet Tooth's return has switched from Lucid Games to the recently acquired Firesprite Games. A few of Sony's collaborations with external studios are also expected to be live service. Beyond those, however, it's anyone's guess what the others could be.

The live service model appears to be important to Sony going forward, with Jim Ryan recently explaining how Bungie will aid the push. "This is a strategic step towards continuing to evolve the gaming experiences that we build. Bungie’s expertise in delivering a world-class service approach and long-term community engagement is extremely compelling and will support the development of several future live services titles from PlayStation Studios."

[source twitter.com, via videogameschronicle.com]

Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he can be found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.

Yay. Can you sense my hype

Thats the direction the new Leadership is choosing for PS, greedy MTX Games nobody has time for to play. Remember that the last big Single Player Games all started development under Layden still lol. No wonder they want to become a Multiplatform Publisher. Funny how MS in comparsion focuses more on Single Player Games nowadays.

On the other side the Switch will outsell the PS4 this year after not even 6 years thanks to Nintendo putting out Fun, mostly Single Player Games that appeal to not only The GamersTM

At this point Nintendo will be our only saving grace since they take about 20 years to catch up to modern trends.

Live service games take a lot of resources, manpower and around the clock maintenance and monitoring. Which means less resources and manpower for the quality single player games PlayStation is know for.

Microsoft preached that services and GaaS is the future. They created GamePass and now they're getting most of the industry dancing to their tune.

I may seem cynical but gaming by the time of the PS6 and Xbox Series 2 will never be the same again. That's when I will abandon it and move backwards with my old platforms and maybe forwards with Nintendo.

Games on PlayStation, Xbox and PC will become nothing more than MTX/NFT filled mediocre rubbish with frequent releases to maintain subscribers. And with people saying 'buy this, buy that' it'll only get worse when the best developers are forced to make these games.

@GADG3Tx87 funnily enough Microsoft has way more Single Player Games in development than Sony at this point

I don’t really play online, but certainly is a right move. Even the most popular exclusives don’t hit 30million, but the consoles usually hit over 100million+. There’s a large untapped market for Sony, but as we are in a bubble it might not seem like it.

Yuck. This better be to complement Sony's existing model, and not to replace it.

I fully understand why they want to pursue this model, but it can't be to the detriment of thei core fanbase

I'm starting to think I may have to look for a new hobby in the next few years. Live service, streaming, mobile, multiplayer only.

These are not things I want to be a part of.

Jim Ryan sucks. Bring Shawn? Sean? Shaun? ***** it! Bring Mr. Layden back.

@IonMagi I can almost sence that come the time this generation comes to an end and the next one starts single player will become an afterthought until they finish completely.

EA were ahead of the trend when they said "single player games are not the future" or whatever it was.

Again, I may be cynical, but I can see this being the case.

People will panic about this, but the single player games are going absolutely nowhere. Sony take too much pride in their narrative driven experiences. It's the main draw to their console.

@Rob_230 Exactly this. Sony need to generate revenue from online games so they can get away from their reliance on CoD and Fifa. There's just too much money to be made here, and more money = more games.

@JAMes-BroWWWn Layden would have been one of the people pushing for things like this though. He was one of the people who wanted first party games on PC, for example. He often makes the point that the console audience has barely grown in two decades. They'll need online, multi-platform games and GAAS titles to expand their reach.

@GADG3Tx87 on Playstation maybe but Switch/PC/Xbox will have more than enough "normal" Games

Well this is potentially depressing. The main reason I like PlayStation is their commitment to single player games without microtransactions.

Multiplayer just isn't fun once you're older and don't have lots of friends who also want to play the same games as you.

@Miles_Edgeworth I do. Bet you can feel mine as well, look:

@Shepherd_Tallon you sure? This means 10 Studios are busy with developing MP Games while they instead could work on those Games that made Sony big and could stand against the big amounts of Bethesda and Acti/Blizz Games Playstation issnt getting anymore

Sony can confirm 10 MTX Games till 2026 but cant even tell their Fans which Single Player Games are coming after 2022 that arent Marvel IPs

@GADG3Tx87 Nah. Ninty doesn't make games that appeal to me and many others who game on ps. I'm looking for God of War/Uncharted like experiences and they never managed to show that they can pull something like that off.

Y'all are being too negative/judging too early and harshly. I think that while Sony doesn't care about us, they still have to care about what pleases us as consumers (we are the primary monetary source after all). A live-service game can be great, if it's not begging all the time for your money. It just depends on what is your primary reason to make live-service games really, for money or because it suits your vision.

So basically nintendo will be the main single player console whilst playstation and Microsoft go the online games route which is not good for gaming in general.

That's likely half a billion at least spent on 10 live service games instead of 10 world class single player exclusives that sony are known for

You guys are overreacting Sony isn’t gonna slow down on making single player games they’re just gonna make more multiplayer games this is the reason Sony growing they’re existing studios and buying more studios

@__jamiie you don't have to. You can simply play the single player games that Sony is known for. I doubt those will ever go away.

@IonMagi Sorry we'll have to agree to disagree. Phil has already been pretty much saying for years GaaS is the inevitable future. MTX/NFT's and frequent updates to releases are the only way to maintain it. And as I said they require around the clock maintenance so there will be less time and resources for single player that don't or won't keep people hooked.

It's the situation now, but it won't be forever. Except for Nintendo I believe.

In other unrelated news, pokemon: Arceus released. went over to nintendo life and I was glad to read that a lot of fans complained about the graphics rather than being on the defensive.

Im always suprised how Sony can fail their Fans and not read the room even more since the PS5 launched lol

@4kgk2 That makes sense, BUT

*insert we don't do that here meme

@4kgk2 Lol, this means 10 Studios are busy with developing greedy MP Games instead of making ones their Players want. 10 Live Service Games are absolutely overkill

@lolwhatno nothing will change as long as those games sell as well as they do.

@naruball And that's fine. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and preference. Personally I just think it's going to go that way. At present I think Sony and Nintendo are on equal ground for great quality games and IP's but the appeal to Nintendo for me personally has always been simplicity and I'm a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda series.

@GADG3Tx87 Microsoft Studios still have more than double the amount of confirmed Single Player Games in development and that doesnt even count Bethesda and Acti Blizz. Sony? SM 2 and Wolverine and...10 Live Service Games. If you have so little Studios like SIE you cant waste them all on these pointless Games nobody will play

@IonMagi Many of these studios also have multiple teams. For example, Naughty Dog doesn't just have The Last of Us Factions in the works. It also has other games in development. Firesprite also has multiple teams, with just one working on Twisted Metal.

It's not like half of PlayStation Studios is suddenly only making live service games. And anyway, some of these will be the external deals so they're not even actual first-party developers. Deviation Games, for example.

@naruball That's the thing - If people want the games, Sony will make them. How many copies has Spidey sold? Nobody would walk away from that.

@JAMes-BroWWWn Jack Tretton please. Miss that guy.

@LiamCroft Thing is that ND for example is so badly managed that they take more than 2 years for a Multi Player Game. Doubt they will release an actual Game until the end of the PS5 life.

How would you even think that TEN Live Service Games in only 4 years issnt overkill?

@IonMagi Again I'm thinking more into the future. That's the present and with the way these services work it won't be that way forever.

Again, we'll have to agree to disagree. We clearly have different faith in the way these platform holders will behave. And that's fine.

@GADG3Tx87 yup. Fair enough.

I only have an issue with hyperbole and people who can't grasp that they're not the center of the universe. Many playstation gamers buy ps consoles for the single player games (I'm one of those), but others buy it for mulitplayer games and that's fine. As long as the single player games keep coming, it's very selfish to cry about a company also developing games you're not interested in.

@Shepherd_Tallon exactly! Thankfully, many first party games sell well on ps, unlike in the past that even great ones couldn't pull off big numbers.

@Medic_Alert Agreed. As long as this is additive i'm happy even if the games aren't for me.

Additionally it makes good business sense to diversify. Sony have to be looking 5-10 years ahead and will need ongoing services and franchises to keep people on their platforms. Things change and if you're not moving forward you're going to get left behind.

I'm personally worried about this news because what will happen if live-service games prove to be more popular than Sony's single-player experiences? When Sony sees that live-service games is giving them much more revenue compared to single-player experiences, they're going to focus more on live-service titles. I mean, just look at Rockstar right now. They're barely making any new games because they're earning so much money from GTA 5.

@Shepherd_Tallon Agreed. I expect this to be additive, not replacing their core pull. It makes good sense to look at their portfolio, see where they are lacking and be better in those areas.

@IonMagi I agree that 10 live service games in the next four years seem to be a bit much, especially when there's already so much competition.

However, this doesn't mean Sony is abandoning what got it into this position in the first place: prestige single player games.

Looks like I will finally be able to tackle my backlog then.

@IonMagi Not quite true. One of Sony's aims with recent aquisitions is to scoop up development staff. Its been widely reported Sony studios are expanding to enable them to work on multiple titles at the same time. We know:

That's 9 live service games already and isnt stopping Sony from working on the likes of God of War (and the other title Santa Monica are working on (which i guess could be live service)), Spiderman, Horizon, Wolverine, the next Ghost of Tsushima etc - and not counting the 3rd party deals for titles like Final Fantasy 16. We just need to hope Sony retains that focus on single player, and these live service titles complement these, rather than take away

@LtSarge All of Sonys MP Games so far failed hard so I wouldnt worry about it. Its more worrisome that Sony is very fast in closing Studios if they dont meet expectations so..

@naruball Yeah. Just like I was saying to the other fellow I was talking to we can all try and predict where things will eventually lead. I'm no prophet but I think that's where things will go. Maybe, maybe not but it's a possible outcome.

No hostility to anyone here at all, everyone is free to believe what they want to believe. And I certainly don't think it's all about me and these companies will always do what's best for them.

I have the choice to jump on board (which I highly doubt) or leave and do something else.

Also it's just occurred to me, while I say Nintendo is simplicity, and they usually are, I think we can all agree that their ridiculous idea for voice chat on the Switch was just that. I mean you had to buy a device to connect a phone to the console to chat with friends? Really? Um, hello Nintendo, do you not see that headphone jack you put in?

That being said I love the Switch. It may not be powerful but the concept of home gaming on a TV and using the same quality games on the go is a unique and amazing idea. That's what makes it my current favourite console despite owning a PS5.

@LtSarge It won't necessarily go that way though.

Sony use their income from PS Plus subs and PSN sales to fund their first party titles. Platform holders have it easier than some of the publishers in that regard. (Sony and MS will never have to get in to NFTs, for example, because the publishers who sell on their platforms will just do it anyway and Sony/MS will get their cut).

Activision and Bethesda before they were bought, and also Rockstar as you mentioned, these all have to focus on the big money online games to keep their shareholders happy, because they simply don't have the revenue streams that MS and Sony have.

Look at how well God of War has done on console and PC. Sony will be chuffed about that. There's so much money to be made on solo titles. They'll make some GAAS games, see which ones stick, then keep making GOTY contenders so they can flaunt their silverware.

Sony should buy Konami and make a proper live service game out of Pro Evo. Sports games are perfect for live service, I've never understood the yearly resets everytime you buy the next version. A live service makes far more sense.

Because live services are always a guaranteed success, aren’t they? After all, that’s why Destruction All-Stars remains such an incredible….oh wait.

Well, nice to see that Jim Ryan has only learned that the best thing to do is triple down on a model that is hit-or-miss at best, and had thus far been an ABSOLUTE FAILURE for games such as Anthem, Avengers, Destruction All-Stars….oh, and that battle royale that Ubisoft is cutting their losses on.

And Lord knows I’m meant to continue pretending that this man has PlayStation’s best interests at heart. The man who just threw down 3 billion on Bungie just to boast about how it’s NOT going to benefit PlayStation owners.

Do they honestly think this is what PlayStation players want to hear? These people are seriously delusional. Save these types of messages for behind closed doors investor meetings.

I think this is a pretty smart business decision because trying to replicate Destiny's success worked out really well for all the other games that tried it so why not just like do ten of these for ten times the success.

@thefourfoldroot You know why they announced this during the earnings Call? To make Investors/Shareholders happy. They dont care about their Fans and Players

@GADG3Tx87 I know what you mean about the switch. I was tempted to buy one, too, because I love the concept, but I realized I'd hardly use it. With the little time that I have, I'd rather focus on ps5 games. But had I been younger and traveled a lot, I'd be all over it

@johncalmc you never know when or where you're gonna find success. Apex Legends was quite the surprise for many.

@Shepherd_Tallon Yes, but just like @IonMagi points out, Sony will quickly shut down studios or future projects if they didn't meet expectations. Japan Studio titles didn't sell well, so they downsized the company and got rid of so many talented people. Days Gone sold well but didn't have a critical reception compared to other PS titles, so Bend Studio won't be making a sequel. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Sony would definitely reallocate more resources from their other studios if they see that the live-service games are doing exceptionally well. I mean, wasn't there an article last year about how Sony wanted to absorb Bend Studio into Naughty Dog because they needed more resources?

From my perspective, Sony basically only cares about their most successful franchises. If it didn't meet expectations, you won't get a second chance.

There's clearly a demand for GaaS, and there are examples of games that do it well so why would anyone think Sony WOULDN'T want to venture into this area with their games? Naive to say the least.

As for the fear of Sony shutting down studios that don't perform well...you know what will get studios shut down faster? If Sony isn't able to compete, react and adapt to whats happening in the industry and remain profitable. Theyre continuing to take risks and innovate with PSVR2 and if they decide to open up another revenue stream via GaaS I wish them luck and hope they do it in a fashion that benefits us all. Time will tell so I'll reserve judgement until I see what's in store.

Give them the benefit of the doubt before poo-pooing the whole idea. Sony has an excellent reputation with their 1st party output so just because they've announced 10 GaaS it doesn't mean they'll be as cynical as you're expecting, and it certainly isn't at the cost of them continuing to develop stellar titles.

2026 means nothing to me gaming-wise. Rather tell me about 2023. 2026 might have some super cool new and futuristic gaming tech provider for all I know.

@LtSarge Evolution Studio and Psygnosis also only had one Fail and were shut down

I see the doom posting in comments is back at full speed. Cool 16 days until Horizon btw!

@naruball I still have faith, we are talking about Sony after all. Either Bungie affects them or they affect Bungie, hopefully the later.

@Voltan Dying light 2 in 2 days.

There is no need to panic Sony didn’t announce that they will stop making Single Player games and 2026 is four years from now do you think Sony will release those 10+live services at the same year I don’t think so.

I understand folks will look at this as an indication Sony is leaving single player games behind but I'd advise those folks to just take a breath. You literally have a huge single player 1st party game releasing in just a couple of weeks. Insomniac has already confirmed Spider-Man 2 as well as Wolverine. God of War 2 is on the way as well.

Single player PS games aren't going anywhere any time soon.

No one wants this. We all love playstation for the single player games, and looking at past games in the live service area, very few actually make a success of it.

@Voltan same old critisms come out. I don't understand why this is being instantly viewed as a negative. There's some utopian ideal Sony is being held up to that makes no sense business-wise. As if Sony has to never shutter a studio or reshuffle it's staff, and only have some kind of watertight reason to do so that people who aren't privy to insider knowledge can appreciate and give their thumbs-up to Sony's decision. Closing studios happens. MS has closed far more of them than Sony, it's a fact of life, and when you look at the bigger picture Sony are very good at nurturing small studios.

@Naruball I don't travel as much as I used to, what with the pandemic and losing my mother last year to heart failure I've pretty much stayed in one place. Although when I do travel I ALWAYS grab the Switch where it used to be the 3DS and the Vita I would throw in the bag/suitcase.

@IonMagi As hypocritical as it may sound it has also just occurred to me that one service game I would like on console is Star Wars: The Old Republic. 10 years it's been out and now I doubt it'll ever happen, but I'd love to cross-play with my friend.

Even though I still stand by my convictions about not looking forward to this possible future.

No wonder they wanted Bungie for expertise. I don't see how companies believe gamers have time to play more than one or two live service games. By design they take up a lot of your time and aim to keep you engaged. Ten is just excessive.

I don't want to play these type of games ,never have never will ,as for those who are saying spider 2 , wolverine blah blah as a saving grace ,have they even announced a year for those? They could b 3/4 years away , for me if the future is live games ( on any console not just Sony ) then it looks mighty bleak

@Korgon all the Games coming out were still started under the Layden Leadership while everything after that (like the 10 Live Service Games) are a product of the new one. So of course people are worried.

And 10 Games are also just way too much

Easy money for Sony, but hopefully not another Destruction Allstars

Not interested in live service games but I think it's great to see Sony being interested in making more multiplayer games and those live service games means the games can live on longer.

I see people saying from time to time they aren't interested in games like Spider-Man or any other single player game Sony makes. So those live service games would be great to attract them to PlayStation. I wouldn't mind a few multiplayer games but single player is what I want more. Maybe some of those acquisitions we are waiting to hear about could make multiplayer or single player games of their own so there will be no shortage of both.

An expected move but the number seems a bit high. I just hope there’s actual variety and not just a dozen Sony-branded battle royales. Such a fickle market, I guess that’s one way of making sure one sticks around long term.

I been giving Sony 60$ a year for PlayStation plus and barely using it for few years now because there not really any good multiplayer games out now. Also Microsoft might make one of the biggest multiplayer games Cod into a Xbox exclusive and take a lot of money and potential gamers away from Sony. This is a move that Sony have to do to keep they’re business sustainable for the long term.

@LtSarge Some fair points there, but if a studio isn't making something that sells, it won't stay open. It's harsh, but it's reality unfortunately.

On the other hand, Sony allow their studios ridiculous artistic freedom. There's that story about how when Shuhei Yoshida played the early build of the God of War reboot and he absolutely hated it. But he still went along with it because he trusted the studio to see it through.

Regarding the Bend thing, I believe what happened there was they made a few pitches. Days Gone 2 was denied, but the pitch for the new IP was approved. Regarding Bend and Naughty Dog what I understood was they sent some staff to help with Factions temporarily. The rest was just speculation and rumour (correct me if I'm wrong). If you're like me and you're excited for Factions, that news should make you drool - It sounded like the two projects were just too similar. It gives me hope that Factions will take place in a persistent online world, rather than just being a 4v4 mode on a few maps.

What does games as a live service mean? Does that mean where a game gets turned into a movie or TV show?

Does live service just mean multiplayer now? Who is going to be playing these games? You can sell Horizon, Uncharted, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, the Last of Us, and Days Gone to the same player, but people don't have time for a lot of games. Some of these game better be more like Rocket League than Destiny in terms of depth and ability to pick up and play.

Can someone explain to me why people always claim 'Sony needs more Multiplayer Games', but never demand more Single-Player Story-Driven games from Third-Party Developers? Seems like everybody just wants the same copy-and-paste Multiplayer Game from now til the end of time. "Oh there's too many Zombie Games" they say, "Oh there's too many Third-Person Shooter Games" they say, but never do I hear "Oh there's too many Multiplayer Games" when is in fact there ARE TOO MANY Multiplayer Games to the point that demanding more is bafflingly stupid. So having too many Zombie Games or too many Third-Person Shooters is a 'bad thing', but having too many Copy-and-Paste Multiplayer Games somehow is NOT a bad thing? The Gaming Community baffles the hell out of me with it's backwards 'logic'.

@Snake_V5 Essentially an online game that either stays live with a subscription, or by selling you dlc, cosmetics etc in it's own store.

Destiny, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, etc

@IonMagi Jim Ryan as well as Herman Hulst have already stated multiple times that single player games are here to stay for the long haul. Plus even if the Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine projects started before the Jim Ryan era he and the board could have canceled them if they wanted to.

Let's also not forget we have had 2nd and 3rd party deals in recent years with Returnal and Kena as an added bonus.

Again I understand being concerned but there is a bigger picture here.

Gamers: EA and Ubisoft are trash, they only make MTX live service trash. Also gamers: Sony should only make single player games, you know proper games.

just when we've all had enough of Ubisoft live service garbage Sony decides to take over

@Fight_Teza_Fight well said, gamers like us are a handful really compared to the type of gamers who never come onto sites like these but follow the latest trend.

Some gamers will only play one game most of the time, such as Destiny, GTA v or fortnight. They are the ones that hand over the cash for in game currency most of the time.

So it's understandable that Sony, as a business, want a piece of the action.

That's just my thoughts on the situation. 🙂

How many will be shut down by March 27

@Korgon - I truly hope you are right, I won't lie; I am concerned that Single-Player Story-Driven games are taking more-and-more of a backseat to Multiplayer Games every year. There once was a time where there was a nice balance of both SP & MP games, now it just feels like there's very little love for Single-Player Story-Driven Games from all camps that aren't Indie Developers. I really do hope Single-Player Story-Driven experiences remains the core to what PlayStation is, because I dread what PlayStation will do when they get a taste of that GAAS money, we've seen how low developers can fall once they get a taste for that kind of money.

@JustPlainLoco ""Oh there's too many Multiplayer Games" when is in fact there ARE TOO MANY Multiplayer Games to the point that demanding more is bafflingly stupid"

Not a fact. Just your opinion. One who's not into single player games could claim the opposite.

@Apfelschteiner "but people don't have time for a lot of games"

Perhaps, but they do have a lot of time for some games. Look at the best selling games. Games like GTA, Fifa, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, Mario Kart, COD, Halo, freaking Minecraft. The spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours playing the same game.

@EquiinoxGII "No one wants this. We all love playstation for the single player games, and looking at past games in the live service area, very few actually make a success of it."

Define "no one" and "We all".

@naruball - So you are claiming this isn't the case? It's no secret I have an affinity for Single-Player games, I've never pretended otherwise, but may I ask? How is what I said not case? There's far too many Multiplayer Games than there really should be, and as I just said to @Korgon "Single-Player Story-Driven games are taking more-and-more of a backseat to Multiplayer Games every year. There once was a time where there was a nice balance of both SP & MP games"? Feel free to disagree with me, and I'm open to a civil discussion on the topic, it could be quite the eye-opening experience for me.

@GADG3Tx87. Yes jack tretton was the best.sony still will have those amazing single players games.word up son

I sure do hope that Twisted Metal game is excellent.

Man Sony fanboys brains are literally breaking on twitter since Sony got Bungie…I thought E3 was bad when Xbox had a good showing and all they got was silence and ended up wearing tin foil hats and convincing themselves abandoned was silent hills… now it’s like they’re malfunctioning…

Generations of programming themselves to believe halos trash and always been trash…now somethings spasming in their brain as they change the narrative that halo was good when Bungie made it.

A year of burning the words ‘organic growth’ into their minds…a card played with pride whenever ms bought a studio…now their eyes are twitching as Sony didn’t get the memo and bought Bungie…now the narrative needs to be spun again. Don’t mention organic growth to them…they’ll bite you. Now it’s “they did this so that cod has to be on PlayStation or we’ll keep halo off Xbox”…it’s truly amazing how many think Sony now owns halo.

Generations of ‘exclusives are good’…now violently shaking as they force the new narrative of “see this is why Sony are so great, when they buy a studio they allow them to still make games on other platforms…not like Xbox”…when every single one of them had their excitement drop ten fold when Bungie instantly said they’re staying multi platform.

Years of berating Xbox for their push for live service games, hating on subscriptions ect…now the realisation dawns on them the real reason why sony bought Bungie… and with a glazed look over their once twitching face they have to now spin a new narrative that they want more of a focus on live service…that subscriptions don’t suck, because they want their ‘gamepass killer’

Basically, if this gen should teach all fanboys anything it’s that you have to be very careful what you say…say you hate Percy pig and before you know it the platform your fanboying for buys Percy pig. It is the way.

@Shepherd_Tallon But the thing is that Sony keeps raising the bar of success for their studios that it becomes harder and harder for them to keep up. When Sony realises that they don't need to spend over $100 million to create single-player games anymore and instead they can spend less money on a live-service game that will yield much more dividends in the long run, then the other studios will have to keep up and adapt this model as well or else they will be shut down or reallocated. Because that's how Sony operates, they will always follow the business model that yields the most amount of revenue, even if it means abandoning single-player experiences and the studios that make them.

Which is why I don't like their model and I don't agree it's "harsh reality". It's reality for people who support PlayStation, but that's not the way other companies do things. Take Microsoft for example, everyone knows now that their primary business model is subscription services, i.e. Game Pass. And what does MS need to make Game Pass stand out compared to other services? Exclusives. They want everyone to subscribe to Game Pass, but not everyone likes narrative-driven games or multiplayer games. Some like JRPGs, some like visual novels, some like sports games, some like niche titles and so on. That's why it's important for MS to add all kinds of games to Game Pass, not just whatever is the most successful. Because game sales don't matter for them anymore, what matters is the amount of people that are subscribed to Game Pass. That's why you hear things like "20 million people have played Halo Infinite" and "18 million people have played Forza Horizon 5". They want as many people as possible to subscribe to Game Pass and for that, they need studios like Activision with Call of Duty or DoubleFine with Psychonauts 2. It doesn't matter how successful these games are as long as people keep subscribing to Game Pass and not to other services.

Which is why I prefer their model because that means they don't all have to produce the same kind of experiences (compared to PlayStation Studios, i.e. narrative-driven games). Studios don't have to worry about sales and they don't have to worry about getting shut down because Microsoft wants more and more exclusives on Game Pass. I mean, they've even stated in the Xbox documentary from December that they regret shutting down Lionhead (the Fable developer) because they could've used them now.

It just so happens that the games Sony makes now align with what we want. But that could just as well change with live-service games and suddenly, Sony has a much bigger audience but we aren't a part of that anymore.

This really isn't a bad thing, and also games like Gran Turismo 7 and MLB The Show 22 are "live service games", so there's at least two of them we already know about.

(The Last of Us multiplayer will also be another one.)

Lets see how many people here complain about Sony focusing on their weaknesses but complaining about it because sony should make games that only appeals to those people even tho they're still getting the games they love.

I personally love this. Multiplayer has been trash lately and Sony could change it like what they did with Single Player. Imagine Sony being the best in both world? They would future proof themselves and that's fine people. You want more single player games, right? They have to earn $ to make those even bigger.

Don't forget that these "live service" games are stealthily enforcing online requirements into games. Even single player modes in GT7 will require an online connection. Expect other games to follow suit.

I don’t like GaaS one bit. Yikes. But I’m getting a headache trying to make sense of some of these comments 🙄 I mean Bungie is already bringing these games as a matter of facts. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I’m thinking Sony may acquire a multiplatform publisher to counter Ms too so there’s that. Would make sense.

Shawn would have done exactly the same lmao.

A lot of crybabies here, huh?

They're not done making single player games!! caaaalm down with this doom and gloom. Naughty Dog has multiple projects, Cory is working on a new IP, Ghost 2 will come, Spider-man 2 and Wolverine are being made. Bluepoint, Housemarque and Bend are making SP games. Firesprite is making that dark fantasy SP game. Asobi too.

What's wrong with some of yall? lol.

Worth remembering that Assassin's Creed is now a live service game. So it doesn't necessarily mean just multiplayer.

In x years time when the servers are inevitably shut down, all the money you spent towards microtransactions will be worthless when the game is rendered unplayable, with no offline single player content to fall back on.

I’m calling that by 2033 AAA singleplayer games will make up 12% of the market and GaaS will make up 88%.

Well that's 10 upcoming Playstation games I will avoid at all cost, but make your money I guess 🤷 there's as many failures as success stories for live service games so they can't just throw out any half baked garbage out there.

Anyway I'm still waiting to find out about the next PS5 only exclusive that we are getting, do they have at least one lined up for this year? well let's see what follows up Returnal and Rachet.

@IonMagi Sony said they're making 25 games, right? That may be more now. So 10 are multiplayer and 15 are single player.

When you become known for one or two things, it can be detrimental to the brand. If MS was 'only' for FPS/online games or Sony only the third person cinematic Single Player, then gamers will feel they have to look 'elsewhere'. Sony had some good MP games in their line-up that have now 'disappeared, relying on 3rd Party developers to fill the gaps their own first party aren't delivering.

If you 'rely' on outside Publishers/Studio's to fill those 'gaps' in your own line-up, you have 'no' control over the quality, the future etc - those studio's could be bought/sold, move on to different projects etc. Having the 'skill set' within your own portfolio means that as a group of Studio's, you have options to create more variety.

Not everyone wants to play 3rd Person Action Adventure cinematic single player after 3rd Person Action Adventure cinematic single player after 3rd Person Action Adventure cinematic single player - all with 'similar' type of characters. I wouldn't say 'Live Service' games are 'worse' or 'better', but I do enjoy gaming with family, friends etc.

Just like I don't always want to 'only' watch Oscar nominated films as sometimes I want some 'mindless' comedy, some competitive sport, some educational documentary, some thought provoking drama etc. Sometimes I may want to play 'solo' and other times I want to be social. Sometimes I enjoy overcoming obstacles alone, other times being part of a team and overcoming obstacles together, helping each other is more enjoyable and rewarding - sharing that 'success', that moment, that 'joy'...

I don't care that Bungie could be Sony's 'Multi-platform' publisher or that Playstation bought Bungie for their 'expertise'. It makes Sony 'stronger' as a brand and increases their skill set.

@LtSarge People won't buy those multiplayer games anyways. If they don't make enough single player games, they won't get money from that crowd. It's not going anywhere. Even if suddenly one of them makes a hit.

Live-service games get a bad rap but the term covers a lot of ground. It's not just battle-royale rubbish that gets new skins every two weeks anymore, it's simply continued support. Assassins Creed falls under that banner but I wouldn't think of it when I think "live-service".

Edit. You undercut me there, @get2sammyb. 😅

@Bagwag82 Yes I’ve always thought it was weird when people would complain about the PS+ offerings. Saying everyone that wants it already bought it.

There are like 50million subscribers. They kind of need to cater to all kinds of a gamer.

@Voltan On a positive note re the doom posting, this comments section has provided me with a handy selection of blockable commenters...!

Single player games have a smaller revenue opportunity compared to online games. PS4 lacked good online and Sony believes in generations. This generation they believe they needed to focus on library diversity and here it is and I’m all for it. Now just make a Pro controller that lets me off set the thumb sticks and PlayStation is back in a major way for me. I can’t wait to play God of War and I’m sure I’ll beat it twice, but I will log in 100’s of hours on twisted metal. Well if it’s good. Halo infinite came out in early December and I already have 150 plus hours in it. I’ll have over 200 before season 2. It’s hard for a single player non RPG to get that amount of playtime and extra transactions. I like the direction of PS5 way more than PS4. Now just fix the OS up some and we are there Sony. Good work.

@Shepherd_Tallon I'm so hyped for factions 2. Hope they don't casualize it too much.

@RevGaming Same. I'm very hyped. I keep forgetting about it because my focus is usually single-player stuff, but then I remember Factions and the hype buzz takes over.

The reason I loved the original is because it's one of only 2 or 3 PvP games that I was ever any good at. 😂

The encounters were so intense. Eventually you'd learn that if you were freaking out, the other person probably was too. Such a great game mode.

@LtSarge I just don't think you'll have anything to worry about. Sony will have a focus on online games, and they'll have a focus on their narrative driven IP. It does no harm to have more than one kind of stable.

We'll see in a few years one way or the other anyway. As someone who loves single-player games, I'm very excited by all of this.

@Rural-Bandit you always need to make a comment about controllers, don't you lmao?

The usual reactionary thoughtless takes in the push square comments from people who have no idea how any of this business works.

This is good news and any Playstation fan should be happy that Sony is making these moves. The more self-reliant and in control of their revenue Sony is, the more secure Playstation and everything that comes with it will be in the future. These live service games will pay the bills for everything else that the company invests in and that includes those big expensive shiny singleplayer games that you like.

I don't understand what some of you people want. You want Sony to keep making bigger and better singleplayer games, you don't want to pay 70 bucks for them, you want Sony to give these games away in a gamepass like service at a loss, you want Sony to keep making fancy hardware and sell it at a loss, and you don't want Sony to make lucrative multiplayer games for the sake of revenue. You basically want Sony to go out of business; or you want them to start lowering the quality of their products in order to survive.

This is the kind of infantile magical realism BS that is so common in online media and commentary these days. There is desperate lack of critical thinking out there, just clickbait and stupid hot takes.

I’ll give any game a shot so cool 😎

@Shepherd_Tallon Truth be told. Sony needs to cater to the 50 million ps plus subs. Factions looks to be the first one.

My main focus is single player, but if sony makes games as good as factions, I will diversify.

Lets be honest. People here are cautious because of other publisher's MP recycled games. That's them, not sony and they could handle it better but people here are screaming about it.

Thanks for trying to calm down these people. A pebble drop and all the ants are scattering because sony is adding games on top of what they are used to getting. I see a few others have their boots on land trying to calm these people.

@RevGaming Haha yeah buddy. It’s my biggest hindrance to the platform by far. Need them offset sticks. But happy to see some games being developed that caters to me to go along side the single player games I do play on the platform. Which isn’t many. This announcement makes sure I should play more PS5 this Gen than I did for PS4. I’m excited , Jim Ryan is good to me. 😀

It makes sense given Sony already relies on live service but are 3rd party titles that could be snatched away at any moment (see Microsoft acquiring Activision for example). Though I do hope this doesn't decrease the number of single player games as single player is Playstation's biggest strength.

@IonMagi we get it. You're a closet xbot. Move on already dude. This is nothing to worry about. Microsoft will follow the same path rest assured. 🙄

@naruball exactly as it says... Who wants live service games? Or have missed something? Everyone moans about them. And the comments here suggest the majority want single player games.. does it not?

Ouch Microsoft really did hurt Sony with the activision deal. My feelings for Sony are starting to cool down. The games are embarrassingly expensive on PS Store compared to physical stores. Dolby Vision and VRR make me start series x instead of ps5 8 out of 10 times. And now this?!

@daveofduncan They dont tho as we see. How many First Party Live Service Games does MS have atm? Halo and Forza. Most other Games announced from their Studios are Single Player Games. During the Xbox One Era they failed bc they only released MP Games but they learned from those mistakes

As long as they are all very different from each other it’s fine. They haven’t announced any of these multiplayer games yet (except for The Last of Us Factions) and I’m suspecting they’ll cover a wide variety of genres.

Sony needs more multiplayer experiences. And all multiplayer games today are Live Service. So I’m not panicking about this. I have no doubt Sony will continue to push the big budget cinematic games. It’s what revived the PS3 and sold the PS4. They need the critical and commercial acclaim those games bring.

@art_of_the_kill But when you get a foot between the door you are golden dont get me wrong i hate liveservice games. Ubisoft only makes liveservice games with a few indies between lets hope we will still get some more traditional games to. If they want a cashflow they need stuff like that to it sucks i know but what can you do.

And at least 8 of them will fail miserably. I'm still DOWN with Twisted Metal regardless, though.

@naruball I mean people don't have time to invest into even half of the 10 games, maybe 1 or 2 max. The point is that people buy all the single-player games, but can't commit to many games as service games. It is a very lucrative market, but there is a huge amount of saturation.

Social media has really done a number on people's prefrontal cortex 🧠. Both 😲. Revolutionary thinking 🤣

There’s 25 SIE games in development currently. Ten of them are multiplayer oriented aka live service.

That’s 15 single player games left. Most of which will be the big budget, cinematic story driven experiences Sony is known for.

@IonMagi Sea of thieves tell me one games but still almost if not all their biggest titles are monetized.

Thank you. I fully agree.

Sony’s multiplayer offerings were stellar during the PS3 era. They had a balance back then. They were coming out with the big budget AAA single player games alongside good multiplayer offerings and even threw in some weird AA games once in a while.

I want to see Sony get back to that balance. The PS4 was overly dominated by the big budget cinematic games. Don’t get me wrong, I loved most of them. But SIE’s studios focused solely on those games.

Now that Sony has more studios working under them, I hope we can get back to the well balanced 1st party ecosystem Sony had during the PS3 era.

@TheRedComet I loved the PS1 era that is never coming back but the PS2 had a lot of different great games now give us that ICO remake, maybe some Dark Cloud, Demon Souls 2 and for the love of God give me Legend of Dragoon.

I don't mind the F2P model as much as a lot of you. Actually I think it's a great way to find something to play online with friends, as you don't have to get them to buy the game in question.

Apex Legends, World of Tanks, Let it Die... there were plenty of good ones during my PS4 days. Of course there were bad ones too, but then I just delete and move on... no money spent.

Remains to be seen if these 10 will be hot or not. I'll probably give TLoU MP a spin, and I'd love to see a M.A.G. sequel, although that is highly unlikely...

If the games are fun to play who cares? Isn't that the reason we game?

The PS1 era was fantastic.

As bad as the PS3 launched (it was so bad that I went full Xbox 360 for four years) I think in the end it’s my favorite PlayStation of all time and my third favorite console overall (only outclassed by the Super Nintendo and the Game Boy Advance). It had a crazy varied library. And I think SIE was it’s height during the latter half of the PS3 life cycle.

The early struggles and strong showing from Microsoft that generation really pushed Sony to make the PS3 library second to none. We got a bunch of new IPs, awesome multiplayer games, awesome single player games, and a bunch of the weird crap that engrossed everyone like Little Big Planet.

That’s what Sony needs to get back to. Diversity of gaming. I’m one of those people who loves Sony’s big cinematic games. But a lot of people don’t like them too much. On PS3, Sony’s 1st party catalog was so diverse that it covered all the main bases. On PS4, if you didn’t like 3rd person over the shoulder cinematic games Sony’s own studios didn’t offer much for you.

My only issue with live service as a whole is that it’s really hard to get into after the launch year.

I tried Apex earlier this year and boy it was a rough experience. Not because of the game itself; it’s a damn good game. But because the community’s skills are so well honed that it’s hard for a newcomer to make any real progression.

omg, don't cry people. MP games are clearly popular among many gamers and SP titles are not going anywhere. Sony needs those GaaS games to fund their projects and as someone above mentioned - to stay away from their reliance on games like Fifa, COD (which could go away) and others...

The one thing Sony should learn from Bungie is "how to NOT ruin your game and loose goodwill of your player base". I highly doubt people who knew how to make a new game that will hold players' interest for a long time still work in that studio.

25 alleged new games on the wall. 25 alleged new games. Take 10 down. GaaS them around. 15 alleged new games on the wall.

@IonMagi How on earth do you know exactly what Sony's studios are doing? They keep their hands close to their chest. Each studio seems to be working on 2 projects, and that's not including partnerships with new studios. Do you remember mere months ago when Sony nearly crashed the internet with marvel reveals and Kotor? Stop presuming to know so much.

As long as the MP titles are made in addition to the SP AAA games that I love and Sony do so well, then I don't have a problem with this news. I mean I won't play them but I'm not bothered if they exist!

If people are bored with their third person games, that's their problem. I'm certainly not, it's why I game in the first place. Nothing wrong with a bit of variety though.

@naruball Lovely calm, reasoned replies. 😂. I find it too easy sometimes to jump into argumentative fury.

@GADG3Tx87 @IonMagi Exactly. I'm pretty much an all single player gamer like most PS fans here, and I always groan with all the "Microsoft only has live service games" commentary here. People have still been reading the decade old X360 script. The whole exciting thing about MS is their large amount of single player games, and their refrain that Game Pass makes it more practical to do single player including shorter experiences than the retail model (which syncs with the decade of hearing about single player is dead, multi is where the money is.) Some of us knew this is exactly where Jim's Playstation would go. I've been saying here since before PS5 launched that all the games people keep hyping started before Jim's tenure and we wouldn't see what Jim's PS looks like until a year or two after launch. 1.5 years later, and here it is. Jim's PS looks a lot like Yves' Ubisoft.....just follow every big money trend wholly until running aground, then chase the next one.

I fully expect that Sony's output will mostly shift to GaaS games. We know that's where the money is. They know that's where the money is. And they've been too over-budget vs sales on their single player games for years now. Jim's purely about business, and what they've been doing for single player, beloved or not, does not generate the ROI they're looking for while GaaS will. And that appeals to more of the market in general. That doesn't mean they won't make any more single player games, but I don't think the volume or content depth in that department will rival what PS4 fans expect.

I want to be here the day Sony NFTs are announced. Are you bringing the e-popcorn or am I?

Nintendo, it's easy to forget that while they're not charging mtx per se yet, Nintendo's biggest games are basically GaaS games (Splatoon, ACNH, Kart, Smash), and their DLC pricing for Smash is pretty egregious. And ACNH feels like a non-billed test run of the most insidious mtx model I've ever seen. It takes every mobile monetizing trope and rolls them into one game, it simply doesn't charge you (yet.) I'm betting the next outing is monetized. It's the company that brought us Badge Arcade.

As long as there's a single player aspect in Twisted Metal and hopefully a Warhawk reboot, I'm fine with this move.

i don't know why people make the assumption that sony can continue to release the same number of single player games, all the while put out 10 service games. they can't and won't. this trend means that sony will slowly take resources away from it's single player offerings — the type of games most of us here fell in love with. the idealistic views about gaas on here is a bit staggering. are you guys being paid to write this stuff in a positive light? what on earth has convinced y'all that gaas is something you want? haven't we seen enough scummy business practices to this point to know that it is the last thing we need and an insult to gamers everywhere? but sure, if you enjoy being exploited and giving your soul to big gaming publishers, hop aboard!

nobody in the industry can even get near sony in terms of its quality in the single player spheare, but insead of embracing this and continuing to do what it is so very good at, it looks as though sony will throw all that away in exchange for shallow cash grabs with outregious monetization. most of its service games will fail, of course, but sony is likely OK with that so long as it can strike lighting in a bottle once or twice and come out with a fortnite of its own. i am not saying this will happen overnight, but by the end of the ps5 generation, we might need to change our expectations of sony as a publisher.

this is the sorry state that the gaming industry is striving towards from all the publishers outside of nintendo or the indi space. when that day comes, count me out. thankfully, i have more than enough retro games to keep me busy for the rest of my life, but it will be a sad day when sony pulls out of single player games entirely.

Eh. GaaS is kind of inevitably going to become the standard for most games with a strong multiplayer component going forward. Widely loved series like Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and Monster Hunter are basically fully GaaS now, but still have strong single-player components.

So, even as someone who is 95%+ single-player oriented as a gamer, this doesn't HAVE to be as bad as it sounds.

Like it or not, the trend of only putting money into cinematic third-person action-adventure titles was getting old and needed to change. What I'd really like to see going forward is some genre diversity from their offerings, which is ultimately where I think Ninty's IP lineup shines brightest. I think this is especially crucial in light of Sony shuttering Japan Studio, as they brought something very different to Playstation on the first-party front.

@TheRedComet yeah I mean you said it perfect. That’s what I disliked about PS4, it was so action adventure driven and Jim Ryan even called that out and said they want more diversity. I love action adventure games and God of war for PS4 and 5 will probably be my favorite of the generation like the first one was. But I need a reason to have PlayStation plus for online. PS4 I let it run out and didn’t renew until a multiplayer game came to renew and it never did. PS3 had some great games but I hated the Six axis and no cross chat function to talk with friends. But I made it work cause the games were there. I’m thinking PS5 will move into 3rd place behind PS1 and 2 for me. Then 3 then 4 last. Happy about the news and glad Sony is talking again. I like these news drops. Keep it up Sony , you got my attention. 😀

@NEStalgia well I’m excited for this move to more online games from Sony, I do like single player story games. Maybe not as much as y’all on here. But God of War is by far my favorite PS4 title. Didn’t care about ghost of Tsushima and a few others. But I agree the over head costs to return isn’t as high as online purchases. Looking at you GTA5. But I do hope Sony strikes a balance like my favorite game of all time did and that’s Red Dead redemption 2. The online is there but didn’t interfere with the single player. Many never touched the online of that game. I welcome the variety Jim is trying to bring, if a game is fun I don’t worry if it single player or online or even has money transactions in the way of it. I understand others aren’t as warm to that and that’s their call. But in this industry I’m looking for fun and games that match my play style. Most of those are on Xbox for me. But looks like PS might be giving me more than action adventure games to choose from. Let’s see where it goes and of course it will make Sony more money and PS plus subscriptions. This might even drive Spartacus pending on how they plan that service. I’m excited to see Sony talking again. They were to quiet for a while.

Warhawk reboot please. That is all.

@get2sammyb "Worth remembering that Assassin's Creed is now a live service game. So it doesn't necessarily mean just multiplayer."

Yeah, and imagine having to buy your new spidey outfits in Spider-man 2, instead of just playing the game to unlock them like we've done in the last two games.

@TheRedComet Don't worry, skill will come in time with that game, there's so many things to learn.

Besides, when teaming up with randoms in that game I'd rather they be noobs that try to cooperate and have a good time, than some toxic veteran that doesn't give a crap about anything but winning...

@Rural-Bandit Haha, yeah, I really never got into multiplayer at all. The only online game I play is Splatoon (which I admittedly get too addicted to when a new one comes out and it consumes all other games...) and Elder Scrolls Online (which I play as single player or co-op) and I do Halo co-op (except....343 bungling that... ) Quake 1 back in the day. That's about it.

I've given some service games a try, SoT, every time I start it up I basically still have no idea what I'm even supposed to be doing, and just quit, Division was amusing for half an hour, then totally lost interest. Tried Wildlands....same thing. I still wish I could get into FFXIV though from all the good I've heard about it being the best FF story. I keep thinking when it eventually comes to XB it'll work like a "soft relaunch" and maybe I can get into it then. I tried when the PS5 update came out and it felt like jumping into a party when everyone else was cleaning up.

MHW I did the online demo on PS4, but then did the game solo as always (and sucked at it, as always.) But mostly I avoid humans in my gaming and entertainment. So I go where the interesting content is. Ultimately I think I'm an "interactive-book worm." I come from the era of games being text based Japanese games, so that's really where my rooting is. Where I dislike where Sony has been since PS4 is modeling games after movies instead of books or unique medium content like it was prior. I hate movies. Where I disliked XB after 360 was the focus on online/multi stuff. This gen is weird in that it looks like Nintendo is focusing on pseudo GaaS (Kart, Smash, ACNH), Sony is now pivoting hard to chase the cash cow of GaaS, and Microsoft is sitting back yelling "we've got like half a dozen RPGs coming!" lol. If you told me a decade ago Xbox would be where the single player games are, I'd have died of laughter.

BUT. I'm traditional Nintendo/Sony/Sega/Atari. I like my arcade action/platform/puzzle. I like my RPGs. I never really loved the interactive movies of the PS4. And I never really got into the online/service games of X1.

At least with Game Pass I can TRY such games and find out I don't enjoy it. (nudge nudge, Jim...)

Indeed it's good to see Sony actually saying anything though. I definitely wanted them to broaden beyond their moviegames. But I'm not sure just taking almost half their planned games and heading for GaaS is the way to go either. It feels very much like Ubi chasing every trend that happens. (Stadia! NFT! Services!) Or like the dark, dark PS360 days when Square, Capcom, and Sega all tried to follow the Western CoD money, watered down their franchises (DmC!) and circled the drain. New Sony is really good at riding the Western zeitgeist, and the Western zeitgeist is running quite opposite of what existing PS fans mostly want. Weirdly, MS is heading INTO that direction....

On the one hand, I hate this. People can only play so many live service games because they can only pay so much attention. Beyond that, I like my games to have stories in them.

Furthermore, most live service games fail. I expect the intention is that they throw 10 live service games on the board, expect Bungie's game to succeed, and hope that one other game succeeds.

My hope is that a lot of these are smaller titles, especially as Playstation expands into mobile.

On the more positive side, at least Sony is open about how it intends to make money. Giant big budget single player games do need a source of continuing revenue to prop them up. Never trust any company (corporations are not your friend), but you should be extra suspicious when you don't understand how a company turns a profit.

@JustPlainLoco there’s more single player than multiplayer .

you guys are so delusional

@PenguinL complete opposite for me ; as a kid and teen i could play single players with ease , i’m in my 20s now and can’t be bothered to make it past the tutorial missions in single player games , unless i’m really into it . you don’t need friends to play with a bunch of randoms .

Star Wars Knights of the Realm Remake a GaaS?

@Rural-Bandit thank you , reading a non-biased open-minded , non single-player purist post is refreshing

I've been screaming this on this website since the dictator Jim Ryan (Don Mattrick) took over. This guy is so out of touch of what the Playstation audience wants. His a slimmy business man that only sees dollar signs. I really hope this blows back in Sony face. I dont know about anyone else, but I play on PS for the single player experiences. I WILL NOT SUPPORT ANY OF THESE 10 LIVE SERVICES GAMES, OR ANY OTHERS RELEASED IN THE FUTURE.

@Ken_Kaniff agreed. all i have seen over the past 5 years are more and more reason NOT to support the service model, yet i see more people than i would like that are suddenly in favour of it all of a sudden? The supporters either have a very poor memory or have been drinking the cool-aid. maybe all the covid jabs have have made them complacent as well

@UltimateOtaku91 Does Nintendo have Ragnarok and Wolverine? No? Sticking with Sony for now.

@Porco @Ken_Kaniff Unfortunately for those of us that do like the "traditional" types of games, I've been screaming on this website about the same thing, but in the opposite direction. Jim "Matrick" Ryan is very in touch with what the PlayStation audience wants. Very, very in touch.

The problem is we are not the PlayStation audience. We haven't been since late in the PS3 era. We're legacy fans that are not part of what the mainstream console market wants, and PlayStation now represents the mainstream console market. That market wants services and digital spaces to hang out with buddies. A "metaverse", if you will.... They don't want personal, solitary experiences, interactive films, or books brought to life. And they certainly don't want waifus, arcade action, or anime. They just want a digital space to goof around in with folks they know. That's the console market. That's the PlayStation market. And that's who Jim knows is his customer.

From a business angle, we could all take a walk and go PC, Nintendo, Xbox only, and it wouldn't even dent their share value. It would probably grow without us. We're not their market anymore. They're not too interested in catering to us at all, not because they're out of touch, but because they know we're a small, relatively insignificant part of their total market.

That doesn't mean they won't make anything that appeals to us, but we're not going to be the focus of what they make, and things that appeal to us will be much more sparse. And "we" itself really describes two separate markets. There's the PS4 fan that loves Naughty Dog, Red Dead, overall high budget movie-like experiences, and then there's the PS1, PS2, PSP/V fan like myself that is mostly aligned with Japanese game design that represents traditional gaming concepts, even where it applies to "Western" games (Ratchet & Clank fits that.) We're aligned in liking single player experiences, but totally separate markets otherwise. Why appeal to us with stuff that costs a lot to make when low cost online games pull in quadruple the profit?

Ironically, though, all things go full circle. Sony has become the mainstream default, so their focus has shifted toward mainstream online gaming. Meanwhile EA has lost a lot its market share in services and is returning to a dedicated focus to single player story driven experience, even stripping the online components of the new Dragon Age. What a company focuses on what depends a lot on what their current position in the industry is, and if Sony's not the one offering us games we like, likely other companies will, be it EA, MS, or Square-Enix.

@Porco Yea, people are very short sighted. All you have to do is look back at Destruction All Stars. That was Sony dipping there toes into the live service market and the game was a failure. Its done so bad even being a Plus game that its fixing to go F2P. For every Fortnite there's 5 to 10 failed live service games.

@NEStalgia You make alot of valid points. I guess it just really strikes a nerve seeing the company ive been behind for so long, because of the content they put out...change. I solely bought there consoles for the SP experiences that you couldn't get anywhere else. It used to seem like Sony was the life raft in a sea of MP live service games and its upsetting seeing them going overboard with them. I guess what I'm saying is I don't know where im going to fit into the gaming landscape going forward. I really enjoy the indie market, so I guess that will be my little nook in the mass corporate greed will be swimming in. Thank god I'm a trophy hunter and have a massive backlog of games that will last me for years to come, lol.

@NEStalgia yeah I get where your coming from. Makes sense to me. My play style has slightly changed over the years. I always had an Xbox since the original and us friends would bring TV’s and Xbox’s over to my house and have LAN parties. My good friend in high school had a at the time killer PC. So that’s a good chunk of my gaming with friends. Then when i was alone I was into Nintendo games, all of them. External darkness my heavens what a game. If your reading this Nintendo please remaster it for switch. Tekken tag was my favorite PS2 game for a long time.RPG’s here and there, then I got a little older found the love of my life and moved in with her and her little daughter. The little girl started taking dancing lessons and the next thing I knew I couldn’t game as long, so MMO’s bye bye, and I found picking up Gears of war my top 5 favorite franchise of all time for 30 mins here and an hour there on the multiplayer was so rewarding. Same for Halo or any online shooter. Now a days I’m getting more time to game when I’m not fishing, I bass fish at a high level. Easily my most expensive hobby and I’m back to playing just about whatever type of game I want to. I take my switch to her dance lessons and play in the lobby while I’m supposed to be watching. Haha, love the switch, couldn’t not have one, it’s just a great option in gaming. I will get lost in Fable, super lost in time on StarField. But still love picking up halo and gears for some intense online battles.

I agree with you at least at the moment. Xbox is making a huge statement in single player games. Hell Blade 2, I mean wow. Gamepass day 1, double wow. Xbox is focused and of course cash heavy. They seem to have variety covered in spades. Sony is looking to diversify it’s library and Nintendo is just well Nintendo and to me that means awesome. So we are super set as gamers right now, plenty of options on games, ways to play and prices with gamepass and Spartacus along with traditional sales. It’s a great time to be a gamer. And as always I always enjoy your takes and views.

@NEStalgia forgot to mention Co-op , playing Halo, Gears, Borderlands, left 4 Dead and soon to be RedFall are some of the most fun I can have in gaming with my close friends. Love when take Halo for example, you can play solo or with a friend. Obviously it’s coming later in infinite. But my point is co-op is a thing I really enjoy if it don’t get in the way of being able to be picked up and played solo until a friend or two arrives.

Sony has a terrible history of supporting anything online or even remotely "live service" or "GaaS". Anybody remember drawn to death, or how they shut down game servers a year or two after a game release?

They can't even be bothered to make sure their remasters of game actually have the online included as well.

I don't know a company so bad at supporting online games or online modes. Is expecting to release and support 10 live service games...

@TheRedComet Totally agree we need some smaller more niche/daring games without a massive budget. PS1 was my favorite with Legend of Dragoon, MGS, Resident Evil, Dino Crisis 1/2, Legend of Legia 1/2, Breath of Fire 4, Parasite Eve 2 part one never released in Europe and so many more. The funny thing is i never played Crash Bandicoot/Spyro so i have no special feeling towards that game. We need more games like a Concrete Genieto name one.

@Ken_Kaniff Haha, yeah, I can relate somewhat. I've been multiplat for a long, long time (Atari to Nintendo + Sega, then to PC-only, then Nintendo+PS, then added X360, then back to just Nintendo+PS, then back to all 3 when the X1X came out) so I don't have that sense of loyalty to a particular brand, and when you're a Nintendo fan, you get used to being abused and taken for a ride, lol. But when I landed on PC I thought I found the promised land of gaming until the PS2 hit it big, PS360 got started, and more and more PC games were going to console first or console exclusively, PC was getting weak console ports that ran poorly and mostly all online arena shooters, and it felt like the core of gaming had been ripped away. It took a while to settle back into console before it felt like home again.

As a PS fan, this really feels like the second time they've changed though. When they changed late PS3 into PS4 into the "moviegame" platform that was already one change I wasn't totally on board with. I like those games, but don't love them the way a lot of the classic PS games pull me in, though in hindsight many of those were "2nd party." So this jump into the mainstream service stuff feels like a continuation of what already started last gen. Whichever platform is the most popular tends to become the one that starts appealing to the mass market in ways gaming enthusiasts reject. Wii did it, 360 did it, and now PS5 is doing it.... It's been pretty consistent that the less popular platform tends to be the one that tries hardest to appeal to the core because they're less likely to be able to appeal to the mass market, so this is really the expected result of PS4's success, to me.

We survived the "single player is dead" era once, though (and ironically the company that directly said it is now back into single player and limping badly on the service front.) It's harder to be satisfied with a single platform, much like the 16-bit wars era, than it's been for a few gens is the biggest difference right now. All 3 of them now offer pieces of the puzzle to a "complete" library. The silver lining to it all is instead of Sony looking like the last of a dying breed of single player providers, it's now become a high competition area between the platforms, hinting that single player is quite far from dead overall. It might just not be all housed on the Blue box anymore.

That's all i can say. It's not easy to break into the space. You have to compete with established games with years of content.

They can release as many live-service games as they want, but I still refuse to touch that genre of gaming.

@Floki your comparison is invalid. Of course if a game's playerbase it tiny, they will shut down the servers. If it's successful and still generates money, they most certainly won't.

@nomither6 they're not just delusional, they're the mimimimimimimi crowd. "How dare Sony plan to make games that don't appeal to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Conveniently ignoring all the single player games that have already come out, are coming out this month, or in the near future.

@EquiinoxGII if you think that people commenting here are in any way representative of the average gamer, then you need to try to get in touch with reality for a second.

@JustPlainLoco "So you are claiming this isn't the case? It's no secret I have an affinity for Single-Player games, I've never pretended otherwise, but may I ask? How is what I said not case? There's far too many Multiplayer Games than there really should be"

I'm not claiming anything. You are. Who are you (or I, or any one) to say that there are too many Multiplayer or too many single player games? Too many is 100% subjective. That's all I'm saying. I don't play multiplayer games, but I'm not Sony's only customer. I understand that millions are into Fortnite, COD, GTA and the like. These games exist because there is an audience for them. Some MP games flop, just like many SP games don't make a profit, but companies make decisions based on what seems to be a good investment.

@naruball judging by every comment you've made, slamming people for their own "opinion" I think you need to look at yourself.. Christ. We are all entitled to think what we like, and the figures of these live service games generally speak volumes. Most don't succeed, very few do. No need to slam every person on these forums because your so far up yourself. Literally no need. you can be a keyboard warrior all you want. but other forums might cater to your needs more than here.

@EquiinoxGII Typical example of resorting to ad hominem attacks when you have nothing to say to counter the actual arguments the other person is making. By all means. Carry on.

As for opinions, me believing that covid-19 is a hoax, doesn't make it a hoax. If I make such a baseless claim, anyone can and should feel free to correct me, because I'm factually wrong. Saying that no one cares about GaaS games is factually wrong.

@naruball So the GT and Little Big Planet player base is tiny? These are generally two of Sony biggest IP.

But that not how you build confidence in a potential player base. As you scare off people from even attempting to try the game if it wasn't even remotely successful.

@NEStalgia well said. i agree with a lot of your points. for me personally, i think ps5 could be the last generation from sony where they try to strike a balance between single player narrative experiences and multiplayer service model stuff (make no mistake, they will dedicate a TON of resources to service games, more so than they ever have)... at the end of the ps5 generation, i have a feeling the singple player content will be on its way out completely and we will need to re-evaluate where we stand as playstation gamers and whether or not sony's content still appeals to us. it is worrisome to be sure. all we can hope for is the service model fails hard for sony and they lose a lot of money on that front. that might be the punch in the face they need to realize that they should stick to what they are good at, just like nintendo.

@Ken_Kaniff absolutely. sony dreams of its own fortnite, but we all know how unlikely that is to happen. sony wants to try and learn the hard way i suppose. hopefully their business plan backfires in this regard and go back to a 90% focus on what it does best — engrossing single player content.

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