Sony’s pivot towards Live Service games not going well

[DEI2EK]

According to Bloomberg, the pivot towards Live Service games isn’t going well for Sony

Shocking absolutely no one

 

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting that insiders are concerned about the company’s vision going forward, where things are spread out between “seemingly misplaced bets on service games” along with PSVR 2 and PlayStation Portal, both relative niche pieces of hardware.

 

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/10/playstations-push-for-live-service-games-hasnt-been-going-smoothly

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/01/insiders-say-playstations-live-service-pivot-may-not-be-going-well/amp/

 

 

[illninoese]

8 minutes ago, DEI2EK said:

According to Bloomberg, the pivot towards Live Service games isn’t going well for Sony

Shocking absolutely no one

 

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting that insiders are concerned about the company’s vision going forward, where things are spread out between “seemingly misplaced bets on service games” along with PSVR 2 and PlayStation Portal, both relative niche pieces of hardware.

 

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/10/playstations-push-for-live-service-games-hasnt-been-going-smoothly

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/01/insiders-say-playstations-live-service-pivot-may-not-be-going-well/amp/

 

 

No shit. Color me shocked. 🙄

[HuntingFever]

No shit Sherlock, people have been saying for years this plan was doomed to failure.

[samunrizthym]

loose respect from gamers ,check

loose some money in "games id made in the corner of a table idea" ,check

loose some money in VR because i need my eyes, guys can can you move the screen far away please ,check

go to "for the gamer" to for "the stock-exchange price" ,check

go to "we make great games and we love that" to a "pile of shit moved by pressing X ,I love that idea",check

go to "we swear to do what you asked for " to "GFU ,we do as We want,what you gonna go about it ?" check

 

[Helyx]

Practically everything Playstation does outside their primary console market has been a waste of time and resources.

[DEI2EK]

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/10/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-game-is-basically-on-ice-right-now

[xh117]

And then there's Jim Ryan bailing out before any of the consequences of his actions happen.

[sepheroithisgod]

Next you are going to tell me the sky is blue...

[GothGirlMaxine]

3 minutes ago, sepheroithisgod said:

Next you are going to tell me the sky is blue...

 

... or that water is wet. 

[Beyondthegrave07]

Next thing you know, they'll be saying that people dropped PS+ because it's too expensive now... crazy, right!?!?

[samunrizthym]

Hell yeah i dropped that shit ,it became a scam

most of the games offered monthly are disguised free to play with a shitload of dlc or game as a service failure who try to catch you and your wallet

[Alos88]

Sony learning a lesson a little late here. The rest of the industry figured out live service was neither the easy nor infinite money supply shareholders had been hoping for. At best, a couple of these initiatives will pay off while the rest will inevitably flounder and fail.

[CB7Tuner91]

Great to hear. Probably the real reason Jim Ryan is retiring. 

[iriihutoR84]

No one wants live service games less than me but I suggest waiting until 2026 when their live service efforts are expected to hit their peak before making any "I was right all along" celebrations. We have so far barely seen the beginning of it, especially if we view the Bungie acquisition as the big starting point. A few opinion pieces on the internet aren't really an indication of anything. 

[Rozalia1]

This is red meat spread by Jason Schreier. To begin with Bungie telling studios that they were doing X wrong and that causing a delay in the Live Service games... is exactly why Bungie was bought, to give their advice, which if taken obviously is going to delay things if they have to redo things. It also leaves out the fact that this is not a one or another deal. Jim Ryan heavily expanded studios (x2-3) seemingly so while they made these games they could still put out Single Player games.

 

VR is also not a 'bet' in the way put forward and many see it as. Sony does VR for the same reason they still do phones. Not because they expect it to instantly take over gaming, but so that if it ever does take off then they'll already have plenty of workers with experience in VR games and already be ahead on technology. Going after the PlayStation Portal further speaks to the narrative he is going for because there simply is no reason to go after that device. It is a remote play device made in small numbers which may or may not get enough interest to continue. Oh well, if people don't want it then it is no big loss. This is not a whole new platform we're talking about here.

 

Sony making multiplayer games is at the end of the day the correct move, like it or not, because especially now with Microsoft buying out big time multiplayer IPs, they need to have multiplayer offerings which can't just be bought out by Microsoft. Such expansion shouldn't of course come at the cost of the single player games which is what has made Sony stand out, but again, studios have been heavily expanded to avoid that occurring.

 

5 minutes ago, Alos88 said:

Sony learning a lesson a little late here. The rest of the industry figured out live service was neither the easy nor infinite money supply shareholders had been hoping for. At best, a couple of these initiatives will pay off while the rest will inevitably flounder and fail.

 

They've not even released any of those games, and Jim Ryan himself said that obviously they don't expect every one of those games to succeed. 

[JPtheNeurotic]

People will probably dislike my opinion  but I want more MP games from Sony . It’s the thing I think they’re lacking in the most . 
 

Hearing that factions 2 might be on ice makes me sad : (

[ZenaxPure]

Eh, the thing I've actually liked about Sony over the last generation is that they try to cater to all sorts of different audiences. So I don't really see a problem with wanting some live service games. It'd only be a problem if they were doing it at the cost all their single player games, but, that obviously isn't the case currently. I mean I guess you could theoretically argue every live service game in production is taking the slot of a single player game, but, if all of those games were single player we'd probably have an oversaturation problem. Having a healthy mix of single and multiplayer makes way more sense than putting all your eggs in one basket.

[Alos88]

59 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

This is red meat spread by Jason Schreier. To begin with Bungie telling studios that they were doing X wrong and that causing a delay in the Live Service games... is exactly why Bungie was bought, to give their advice, which if taken obviously is going to delay things if they have to redo things. It also leaves out the fact that this is not a one or another deal. Jim Ryan heavily expanded studios (x2-3) seemingly so while they made these games they could still put out Single Player games.

 

VR is also not a 'bet' in the way put forward and many see it as. Sony does VR for the same reason they still do phones. Not because they expect it to instantly take over gaming, but so that if it ever does take off then they'll already have plenty of workers with experience in VR games and already be ahead on technology. Going after the PlayStation Portal further speaks to the narrative he is going for because there simply is no reason to go after that device. It is a remote play device made in small numbers which may or may not get enough interest to continue. Oh well, if people don't want it then it is no big loss. This is not a whole new platform we're talking about here.

 

Sony making multiplayer games is at the end of the day the correct move, like it or not, because especially now with Microsoft buying out big time multiplayer IPs, they need to have multiplayer offerings which can't just be bought out by Microsoft. Such expansion shouldn't of course come at the cost of the single player games which is what has made Sony stand out, but again, studios have been heavily expanded to avoid that occurring.

 

 

They've not even released any of those games, and Jim Ryan himself said that obviously they don't expect every one of those games to succeed. 

If it was merely a multiplayer push to expand it's audience I'd be agreeing with you, but live service as a concept is far more insidious and cynical as an idea. It's chasing after the dragon of 'recurrent user spending' while trying to create a product as cheaply as possible. The truth is we already had a perfectly good, workable and successful live service genre decades ago- it's called an MMO. This new 'live service' trend is attempting to create that recurrent user spend while putting in as little effort as possible, and time and time again it has been rejected for it. 

[samunrizthym]

chasing the whale is the wright term

it s basicaly the main aim of this economic scheme

if you want a good explanation look at the south park episode "beelzeboot" season 18 episde 5 and 6

the irony is they actually got a freemium on mobile

Edited October 3, 2023 by samunrizthym

[Sendai-Horatio]

19 minutes ago, Alos88 said:

If it was merely a multiplayer push to expand it's audience I'd be agreeing with you, but live service as a concept is far more insidious and cynical as an idea. It's chasing after the dragon of 'recurrent user spending' while trying to create a product as cheaply as possible. The truth is we already had a perfectly good, workable and successful live service genre decades ago- it's called an MMO. This new 'live service' trend is attempting to create that recurrent user spend while putting in as little effort as possible, and time and time again it has been rejected for it. 

The majority of multiplayer games that exist today are all some sort of GaaS type system. Capcom operates two major ones that are Monster Hunter and Street Fighter on consoles. GaaS has many means of monetization. For example Character Passes/Season Passes are a form of GaaS where you pay for the base game at full price and then get waves of extra paid content in the future with the game still getting support years down the road.

[Laxus]

Yeah the thing with PlayStation Portal. There is nothing portal about it at all. What they should have made was a upgraded PlayStation Vita. Fantastic handheld only hold down by Sonys own incompetence.

[Rozalia1]

5 minutes ago, Alos88 said:

If it was merely a multiplayer push to expand it's audience I'd be agreeing with you, but live service as a concept is far more insidious and cynical as an idea. It's chasing after the dragon of 'recurrent user spending' while trying to create a product as cheaply as possible. The truth is we already had a perfectly good, workable and successful live service genre decades ago- it's called an MMO. This new 'live service' trend is attempting to create that recurrent user spend while putting in as little effort as possible, and time and time again it has been rejected for it. 

 

I find your post strange because you yourself seem to realise that 'Live Service' is just what they're calling MMOs and other multiplayer focused games these days, but then make distinction between them still. I find it all like complaining about Street Fighter now milking people with all those DLC characters unlike the good old days... where they milked people with constant rereleases instead.

 

I think the notion that it is cheap and easy is also not accurate. As you say, many don't work out, and that is because it is tough to actually succeed in. Not cheap either with the likes of Genshin Impact certainly not being a cheap game to make. Microsoft with all their money couldn't keep pace with the content that needed to be added to maintain Halo strong. Having more of these games, even from the same developer also works against existing games because you only have so many people willing to spend money and they only have so much time.

[Don_Chipotle]

I really hope the game from Bungie is fun, but yeah, from what it seems its having trouble

[iriihutoR84]

34 minutes ago, Alos88 said:

If it was merely a multiplayer push to expand it's audience I'd be agreeing with you, but live service as a concept is far more insidious and cynical as an idea. It's chasing after the dragon of 'recurrent user spending' while trying to create a product as cheaply as possible. The truth is we already had a perfectly good, workable and successful live service genre decades ago- it's called an MMO. This new 'live service' trend is attempting to create that recurrent user spend while putting in as little effort as possible, and time and time again it has been rejected for it. 

 

What makes you think the current live service trend has been rejected? Ever heard of Fortnite? Minecraft? Destiny 2? Forza Horizon? GTA V? Rocket League? Genshin Impact? They are bringing in a constant flow of bazillions of dollars and that's why they are supported year after year. Look at the most played games on TrueAchievements and TrueTrophies. Live service games are completely dominating outside your bubble. No one is rejecting them. Consumers are feeding them more and more time and money and that's why we are seeing these investment. It's a tough market to break into but that's where the big money is if you are successful.

 

Did you know that a larger percentage of Sony's revenue comes from add-on content than full games? DLC and microtransactions gives Sony more money than full game sales from digital and physical combined. And this is in 2023 where most of their first party games aren't even live service.  That is why Sony wants to invest in live service games.

Edited October 3, 2023 by iriihutoR84

[EDGES]

you need to fall to get back up, it's time for a hard fall, then we can come back to what matters