What Does Sony Expect Us To Do With 10 Live Service Games?
2026 isn’t very far away in gamer years. Our favourite titles take years to make and are increasingly expensive to produce, meaning developers and publishers are frequently looking for ways to make the creative process more lucrative and streamlined to avoid taking any unnecessary risks. That’s why sequels, remakes, and remasters are increasingly common; because they all but guarantee a profit that might otherwise go unearned. It sucks and is woefully cynical, but that’s the direction we're going in so buckle up and accept it.
The industry’s growing infatuation with live service games became even clearer during Sony’s latest financial earnings call when the company said it hopes to develop a grand total of 10 games in such a mould by 2026. That is only four years away, meaning it aims to have almost a dozen titles under its belt in under four years time that maintain the same level of player retention as Destiny 2, Fortnite, or Apex Legends. Yes, good luck with that, since I think it’s borderline impossible to create ten entire games with enough quality to remain culturally relevant when the market is already so incredibly saturated.
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Such a move is also a far cry from Sony’s current trajectory, which is a keen rejection of service-based products and a continued dedication to traditional narrative blockbusters like The Last of Us Part 2 and God of War. These games are beautifully made, but they occupy a mould that has provided PlayStation with ample success and a leading position in the console wars that it is yet to surrender. The strategy is working, but if Sony is willing to change, it must be aware of how much money is in the live service market, and how its
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