PlayStation-Bungie deal: 10 live-service games coming from Sony by 2026

Sony Interactive Entertainment may be best known for its marquee single-player-focused games like God of War, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, Uncharted, and Horizon these days, but the PlayStation company has big plans to expand its live-service online multiplayer offerings — and the recent acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie will be an important component in that strategy, Sony says.

“The strategic significance of this acquisition lies not only in obtaining the highly successful Destiny franchise, as well as major new IP that Bungie is currently developing,” Sony executive deputy president and CFO Hiroki Totoki said in an investor presentation (via Eurogamer) broadcast on Wednesday, “but also in incorporating into the Sony group the expertise and technologies that Bungie has developed in the live-game service space. These strengths will be used by PlayStation Studios to develop game IP as part of our expansion into live-game service areas.

“Through close collaboration between Bungie and PlayStation Studios we aim to launch more than 10 live-service games by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.”

Totoki didn’t specify which titles or properties would be included in that 10-game, four-year span, but his comments align with how Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan recently spoke of its acquisition of Bungie.

“The way people play games has changed a lot over the last few years,” Ryan said in an interview with GamesIndustry. “We have created some wonderful properties over the course of the last 25 years, with characters that people love and resonate the world over. It is exciting to give people the chance to have those experiences in an entirely new way. I can’t go into details today, but we have a really amazing roadmap on how to do that.”

Bungie is the only way to achieve that. It has grown steadily and continues to grow. Destiny 2Over the last four years, millions of players have enjoyed this game across many generations and platforms.

Added Ryan, “When you have the potential to have a partner like Bungie who has been there, done it all before, learned the lessons and have got this wonderful, brilliant team who is there and has the potential to help us… we think we can take something that would have taken a certain number of years, and significantly decrease the time it will take to get it right.”

Bungie’s growth will not stop. Destiny 2 — two major expansions, The Witch QueenAnd Lightfall are still on the way — the studio also has other irons in the fire. Bungie has reportedly also been backed financially by NetEase for a multiplayer action game that could have a hero theme (a la OverwatchAnd Valorant). This game could be called The matterBased upon a 2018 trademark filing

As for PlayStation Studios, Sony’s internal teams have a few other live-service game candidates in the works. Naughty Dog is currently working on an multiplayer follow-up for The Last of Us Part 2According to a Sony internal studio, a new version of the Sony camera is being developed. Twisted metal. Sony is also partnering with two newly formed independent studios, ex-Treyarchers Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell’s Deviation Games and Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios, to develop new properties for PlayStation.