Sony has made no secret of the fact that intends to significantly expand its presence in the live service space, even having confirmed earlier this year that it plans on releasing 12 live service games before April 2026. Intriguingly, however, it seems the company is pivoting where those plans are concerned.

During Sony’s recent quarterly earnings call, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki revealed that after an internal review, the company has delayed six of the 12 aforementioned live service titles it was working on. Though half are still scheduled to release between now and April 2026, the rest have been pushed back to an unconfirmed window.

“We are reviewing this… we are trying as much as possible to ensure [these games] are enjoyed and liked by gamers for a long time,” Totoki said (via VGC). “[Of] the 12 titles, six titles will be released by FY25 – that’s our current plan. [As for] the remaining six titles, we are still working on that.”

Totoki added that Sony’s “mid-to-long term” plan is still to publish those 12 live service games, though the quality of those games is being given greater priority than ensuring that they launch in the previously planned release window.

“That’s the total number of live service and multiplayers titles [and] mid-to-long-term we want to [push] this kind of service and that’s the unchanged policy of the company,” he said. ” It’s not like we stick to certain titles, but game quality should be the most important [thing].”

While we don’t yet know the full extent of Sony’s live service plans, a few titles in that group have been officially announced, including Haven Studios’ Fairgame$ and Firewalk Studios’ Concord, which is due out sometime in 2024.

There’s also Naughty Dog’s standalone multiplayer Last of Us game, which has seen its development scaled back following an internal re-evaluation. Recent reports indicated that the project had been put “on ice”, though game director Vinit Agarwal has confirmed that it’s still in development.

Meanwhile, Bungie’s Marathon was recently reported to have been delayed to 2025, amidst the studio running into significant roadblocks following Destiny 2’s underperformance, leading to layoffs.



Posted: Nov 13, 2023 12:10 am
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://gamingbolt.com/sony-has-delayed-six-of-its-12-live-service-games