Sony has reflected on its progress transforming PlayStation into a company that runs a suite of successful live-service games — something that has, so far, returned mixed results.
Cast your mind back to February 2022, during the halcyon days of PlayStation’s former boss Jim Ryan, when the company said it would launch more than 10 new live-service games before March 2026.
Fast forward to now and, well, it’s clear things haven’t quite gone to plan. And now, speaking via an English interpreter during Sony’s latest financial results briefing, the company’s chief financial officer Lin Tao has seemingly agreed (thanks, ThisWeekInVideoGames).
“Last year, Concord,” Tao began, mentioning the Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired live-service shooter Sony launched after eight years of development, then binned alongside developer Firewalk Studios within weeks of its failure. “And this year, Marathon was postponed. Somewhat negative news has been coming out, but if you look five years ago, live-service games were almost non-existent for PlayStation Studios.
“We have Helldivers 2, MLB, [Gran Turismo 7] and Bungie’s Destiny 2,” Tao continued. “So we have these four live services contributing to sales and profit in a stable manner… In terms of the transformation, it’s not entirely going smoothly, but from a longer-term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there has definitely been change.”
Still, questions remain over Sony’s future live-service prospects, such as Bungie’s delayed Marathon and also heist shooter Fairgame$, the debut project from Haven Studios of which we’ve heard nothing for some time.
Founded in 2021 and acquired by Sony a year later, Haven had been helmed by Assassin’s Creed producer and games industry veteran Jade Raymond — until her exit from the company back in May. Little has been seen of what Haven has been developing for the past four years, and now Fairgame$ has reportedly been delayed until at least 2026.
Discussing the status of Marathon specifically, Tao said Sony still expects the game to launch before April 2026, during the current financial year, but cautioned that this was “not a commitment.”
“Based on the progress [made] in the autumn timeframe, we believe we can communicate when we will be launching,” Tao said. “We are now fixing the problems. So we believe this launch will happen. If this launch is cancelled, we need to do a revision of the valuation. However, as of now, this is not expected.”
Notably, Tao mentioned that Sony was in the process of gaining a much tighter grip on developer Bungie, after previously offering it “a very independent environment.” This tallies with past comments from a former Bungie lawyer, who stated that Sony was now “forcing” the studio to “get their heads out their asses” and run Destiny 2 like a proper business — something he said was actually a good thing.
“This type of independence is getting lighter,” Tao said. “So Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios. In the long term, you can see this as an ongoing process, so the direction is to become part of PlayStation Studios.”
Behind the scenes, Sony has recently cancelled a slew of projects that never made it into the public eye. These include a live-service God of War title in development at Bluepoint, and another live-service title being made by Days Gone developer Bend. Firesprite previously ditched a live-service Twisted Metal project, while Insomniac was known to have worked on a live-service co-op Spider-Man game titled The Great Web. Most high profile of all, though, was Naughty Dog’s live-service The Last of Us multiplayer effort, which the studio also ultimately ditched after years of work.
In the meantime, recent PlayStation events have focused more squarely on the company’s upcoming slate of single-player blockbusters, such as the highly-anticipated Ghost of Yōtei and Naughty Dog’s sci-fi game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Speaking earlier this year, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said he would have tried to resist Sony’s controversial live service video game push — and mulled that “maybe that’s one of the reasons they removed me from the first-party!”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
