PlayStation’s big live-service game plan hit hard with delays

Shortly after Sony acquired Destiny developer Bungie, the PlayStation maker announced an ambitious plan to launch “more than 10 live-service games” by the end of Sony’s 2025 fiscal year. The plan was slightly clearer a year later: Sony desired 12 PlayStation live-service titles by that time.

But according to an update from Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki, the company now plans to have just six online multiplayer games released by the end of Sony’s 2025 fiscal year, which will end on March 31, 2026. The rest will come later, Totoki said during Sony’s earnings presentation Q&A session (via VGC) on Thursday.

Totoki said, in comments translated to English, that Sony still has 12 live-service titles planned, but that the company is currently reviewing them in order “to meet gamers’ expectations” and to ensure that those games “will be played and liked for a long time.”

“Mid to long term, we want to [expand] this kind of service,” Totoki said. “That’s the unchanged policy of our company.” But he stressed that “quality should be most important” when it comes to launching new live-service games.

Sony hasn’t confirmed what all 12 titles are, but we know some of them — and we may also know why some of them have slipped beyond Sony’s FY25 target. Naughtydog is developing a brand new multi-player experience based on The Last of Us, according to the studio in May. But, this game will need more time until it’s ready for release. Bungie, owned by Sony, is working on its own Marathon title. However the colorful shooter has been delayed until at least 2025. There’s also a new multiplayer game based on Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise; an “online co-op combat game set in a fantasy London” from PlayStation’s London Studios; Fairgame$, the “AAA multiplayer experience”/heist game from Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios; and ConcordFirewalk Studios has released a new video.

PlayStation should be careful about live-service games. Live-service game titles have been less than stellar in 2023, including Babylon’s Fall, Crossfire X, Gundam Evolution, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodhunt, RumbleverseThen, Knockout CityWhether they are shut down or the development of them is discontinued. Sega recently also cancelled its games. HyenasThe long-awaited shooter by Creative Assembly, developer of Total War.