After Helldivers 2 and Astro Bot success, live service and family games are genres PlayStation wants to "expand in the future"

gamesradar.com:

PlayStation's already planning to make more games akin to Astro Bot and Helldivers 2 after both became critical hits.

During a recent financial call, spotted by VGC, Sony president Hiroki Totoki reaffirms plans to make more family-oriented and live service games following the success of Helldivers 2 and Astro Bot, which seemingly gave the publisher a confidence boost in its upcoming slate.

Totoki specifically points to Astro Bot's big wins at The Game Awards 2024 where the celebratory IP mash-up swept up four trophies, including wins for Best Family Game and the big 'un: Game of the Year. Sony had previously announced the platformer sold 1.5 million copies in its first nine weeks, too.

"In addition, the live service game Helldivers 2, which was released in February last year, won Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game awards," he continues. "The fact that titles in genres we are planning to expand in the future, including titles for families and live service games, have received these awards is a major stride towards building a broad title portfolio."

PlayStation had already been loud about its live service prospects, despite Concord's historic flop and the cancellations of several games, including The Last of Us Online and an unnamed God Of War project. The publisher is still working on multiplayer projects like Fairgames and Bungie's multiplatform Marathon reboot, plus a few more we probably don't know about.

But Sony's focus on bringing out more family games seems louder than ever. As good as the PS4's library was, you can't deny there wasn't a lot of variety. The cinematic, third-person, story-driven, action-adventure game with light RPG/stealth/open-world elements published by Sony could refer to, like, 12 different things. It got a bit dull compared to the company's inarguably funkier output from days past that included off-the-wall stuff like Patapon, PaRappa the Rapper, and Ape Escape, which is making a minor comeback in the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake,