PlayStation Studios Boss: Upcoming Live Service Games to Target Different Genres and Scale - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2023 / 3,005 Views
PlayStation Studios Boss Hermen Hulst in an interview with GamesIndustry discussed the upcoming lineup of 10 live service games the company is developing. He says that while they are working on 10 different live service games it doesn't mean they will all be like Fortnite or Destiny.
PlayStation in the last 18 months has acquired three studios all dedicated to developing live service games. This includes Bungie, Haven Studios, and Firewalk Studios.
"We understand the competitive environment that is out there, and the time investment from players that live services offer," said Hulst. "And we want to deliver the highest quality games.
"There is a risk that we talk about 'live service' in generic terms – as if it is a single genre, or even a single business model. PlayStation Studios are making a variety of games that could be referred to as 'live services', targeting different genres, different release schedules, and at different scales. We are also creating games for different audiences, and I take confidence from our track record in creating worlds and stories that PlayStation fans love."
He added, "Every [studio] relationship has its own trajectory – in some cases we have worked with companies for many years as external partners before bringing them into SIE – in other instances an acquisition has come around more quickly," Hulst explains. "It depends on what the studio needs to grow and succeed, and what makes sense for both sides. We have been working closely with Firewalk for a while now – we have both really enjoyed that process, and we have incredible confidence in what they are creating. So this felt like a very natural step."
The goal for each studio is to deliver the best possible game they can. However, PlayStation Studios does work as a global network with teams being allowed to "collaborate on anything they wish to - hether that is game design, audio, animation, or anything else. Live services bring new and complex challenges, so it's incredibly valuable to have individuals and teams who have been through those and can offer help and advice to others."
Hulst also mentioned releasing games on PC that PlayStation in recent years started to do.
"We have made significant progress delivering games on PC in recent years, so where it makes sense for the game and the studio, it's a great option to have," said Hulst. "But it's a decision that we will make for each individual game."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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10 seems like too many, some will fail maybe most will fail. I personally won't be playing any of them (maybe fat princess if that comes back). Hopefully one or two hit and can be their cash cow, and the rest of their resources going forward can go back to single player experiences.
With the ratio of making a top grossing successful GaaS that last for years to making a total failure thats dead in months, 10 seems either just right or maybe too little. They should atleast get 1 hit of the 10 which is all they really need to make huge money.
They already have one that's a mega hit: Destiny.
True. But the discussion around this talks about how getting a mega hit is worth a bunch of failures. That assumes any of these games will be a mega hit, on the Destiny or Apex Legends scale. And it also ignores the fact that shutting down a game that's not a hit is costly (both in direct financial costs, and in goodwill lost to fans of the game). So it's a double-edged sword.
Their resources are already in SP. It was Sony themselves you stated that they expected their SP output to continue to increase alongside their life service push.
It they make 2 big hits of 10 tries depending on how they made the investment until the point of failure them it may bring a lot of money,
Live service games take a crap ton of content to keep them going and thus a lot of money, not sure if they spending that type of money on live service is really where the effort should be going but until we see what they are cooking who knows. I believe the playing field is getting crowed.
I'm still reticent over this. GAAS isn't really my cup of tea so I'll really analyze the game before considering to play it, even more if it isn't f2p or similar.
Sounds like Twisted Metal is rumored to be one of them. Here's too hoping that the Last of Us multiplayer game Naughty Dog is working on isn't.
Most GAAS games fail I don't see how one exclusive to a platform could succeed. But who knows maybe Bungie's next game will succeed.
I thought Bungie wanted to stay multiplate or is that only for every other system besides MS. Interesting.
From what I know for Bungie their games will go to Xbox as well.
All Sony really needs is one or two to be a success.
The more diverse, the better, hopefully
Eh. Maybe. The problem with creating the next Destiny, or Apex Legends, or Fortnite, or Warzone... is that you're competing against Destiny, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Warzone, etc.!
Plus, if (for the sake of argument) your first 6 live-service games fail, and you make the costly decision to close them down, are fans going to be stoked to run out and buy the 7th title?
So they don't just need one or two to be a hit... they need one of the first few to be a hit, otherwise they may become known as the company that closes down service-based games and you should steer clear. Similarly to how some people were sceptical of Stadia in part because Google has a long history of shutting things down.
To have a success it needs to not only be good on its own merits, but also needs to either grow the GaaS market, and/or steal GaaS customers from other games. So it's entirely possible all of them will fail, and it'll just be a money pit that burns fan goodwill to the ground.
