Despite Failures Like ‘Concord’ And ‘Foamstars’, PlayStation Co-CEO Herman Hulst Promises Sony “Will Continue To Focus On Developing Live-Service Titles, Along With The Story-Driven, Single-Player Titles That Our Players Demand”
Despite their failures in the genre far outweighing their successes, Sony Interactive Entertainment co-CEO Herman Hulst has assured players that the PlayStation brand is still fully committed to developing live-service titles.
In honor of the PlayStation 30th anniversary, Sony Interactive Co-CEOs Hideaki Nishino (who heads the subsidiary’s Platform Business Group) and Herman Hulst (who runs the sister Studio Business Group) sat down with noted Japanese news outlet Famitsu to reflect on their experience and history with the brand.
While Nishino’s thoughts centered more on PlayStation’s technology and hardware, Hulst discussed the software side of the business, in doing so broaching such topics ranging from his favorite games and outlook for the future.
During the interview, as machine translated by DeepL, Hulst was eventually pressed on the subject of Concord‘s near-instant failure (and the two studio closures that resulted from it), with Famitsu inquiring as to whether the disaster that was Firewalk Studios’ hero shooter had prompted the company to make “any changes in your strategy for live service games and mobile games?”
In turn, the Sony exec asserted, “The game business is constantly changing due to a variety of factors, including technological advances, new genres, and new ways to play games. The one thing that has not changed, however, is people’s desire for a great entertainment experience, and the focus on games continues to grow.”
“But with that comes competition, and like many companies in the industry, we have had to make changes to our business in order to solidify a more sustainable operating base,” he then admitted. “We will continue to focus on developing live-service titles along with the story-driven, single-player titles that our players demand. We are learning a lot as we build our ability to develop quality live-service titles within Sony Interactive Entertainment. Helldivers 2 has proven the potential of live-service titles by attracting a large number of players through continuous content delivery.”
Regarding mobiles games, Hulst explained, “we want to develop PlayStation IP in a way that maximizes synergy with our console offerings. “To this end, we will first focus on collaborating with outside development studios: in November 2023, we announced a strategic partnership with NCSOFT to collaborate in the mobile space; in October 2024, NetEase Games is developing and publishing the game; and in October 2023, we announced the launch of our first mobile game, Destiny: Rising, a mobile game based on the Destiny IP.”
Next asked if PlayStation would continue the trend of launching titles on PC, Hulst asserted, “Since live service titles are released on multiple platforms, the key to success is how to attract new players and increase the number of players. Therefore, maintaining momentum and broad player adoption at the time of release is especially important in the live services sector.”
“Single-player games are a key component of the PlayStation platform’s appeal, and each title has a strategic sales period,” he said. “While consoles remain our core business, expanding to PC and other platforms will allow us to bring our games to a wider audience. Our priority is always to provide the best possible experience for our players, and as part of that, we are also promoting the integration of PSN accounts on PC.”
Further, when asked if future Sony titles could, like the recently released LEGO Horizon Adventures, simultaneously release on platforms other than the PlayStation, Hulst affirmed, “Live service titles are released on multiple platforms because it is important for multiple players to be able to play the game together. For other titles, we will consider and decide on the best sales format for the players and the company.”
As noted above, Hulst and Sony’s continued commitment to developing live-service games is genuinely puzzling from a financial and operational standpoint given just how bad the company is with handling the genre.
In addition to the crashing-and-burning of the aforementioned Concord, last year saw Sony publicly announce the cancellation of six in-development live service titles, including multiplayer offerings for such series as Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, and their own Twisted Metal, as well as the announcement that their Splatoon-at-home styled game Foamstars would be ending service in mid-January 2025.
Heck, truly the only live-service title that has seemed to work out for the studio is Helldivers 2, which despite balance issues and a mandatory PSN account requirement, even on PC, the game has continued to maintain a loyal, dedicated, and genuinely interested player base.
While Sony is ostensibly continuing to chase the easy profit streams that live-service games often produce, their track record suggests they would actually make more money by not blowing millions on following trends and instead really delivering on what players are really starved for, which is new entries into their single-player IPs, like God of War, Astro Bot, or even Ratchet & Clank.
But alas, it seems like Sony will have to burn their hand on the oven a few more times before they truly remember where their strengths lie.
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