PlayStation to Launch 'More Than 10' Live Service Games By 2026

ign.com:

PlayStation plans to release "more than 10" live service games by March 2026, a feat that will be helped by its acquisition of Bungie.

Speaking during Sony's latest earnings call, CFO Hiroki Totoki said, "Through close collaboration with Bungie and the PlayStation Studios, we aim to launch more than 10 live service games by the fiscal year ending March 31 2026."

Live service games are games that are updated with new content over time, often making the majority of their money through in-game purchases, rather than initial sales. Totoki pointed to a huge jump in revenue from these kinds of games as part of the reason for Sony pursuing the model:

"From calendar year 2014 to calendar year 2021, the size of the global game content market doubled, driven by add-on content revenue from live game services, which grew at an average annual rate of 15% during this period. We expect this trend to continue going forward."

Bungie's early investment into live service games with the launch of Destiny in 2014 allowed it to accumulate "a wealth of experience and superb technology in the space," Totoki said, something Sony sees as a major asset in acquiring the studio.

"The strategic significance of this acquisition lies not only in obtaining the highly successful Destiny franchise as well as major new IP that Bungie is currently developing," explained Totoki, "but also in incorporating into the Sony group the expertise and technologies that Bungie has developed in the live game services space.

"We intend to utilize these strengths when developing game IP at the PlayStation Studios, as we expand into the live game services area."

It will be something of a major shift for first-party Sony games, which have tended to focus on single-player