Sony plans to release at least ten PS5 live service games in only four years
After it was announced that Sony is buying Bungie, GamesIndustry had an interesting interview with the PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, which we reported about. He said that Sony has "an aggressive road map with live service", and during the financial report delivered early this morning, the company revealed exactly how aggressive.
It turns out that calling it aggressive is justified, as Sony has plans to release no less than at least ten live service titles within the next four years (by March 2026). This is of course on average 2-3 live service titles/year. We know from various job listings that most Sony studios for quite some time have been looking for staff with live service, multiplayer, online or monetisation expertise.
Some of the studios that seems to be doing some of those ten games are Bend Studio, Guerrilla Games, London Studio, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch and partners like Jade Raymond's next title as well as a game from Firewalk Studios. Live service games are often related to multiplayer, open endings and microtransactions, and something the community generally tends to criticise.
This strategy also seems to be quite the opposite of what Sony did during the PlayStation 4 era with really well made single player adventures. How popular this new direction will be is up for speculation.
A selection of popular live service titles; Overwatch, The Division 2, Call of Duty: Warzone and Hunt: Showdown.