Sony projects that it will have 12 PlayStation live-service games by the end of fiscal year 2025, according to an investor relations presentation headed by Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan. Also by that time, the platform holder plans to have 55 percent of its investment be in live services over more “traditional” games.
Sony hopes to leverage Bungie and Haven Studios as “live-service developers”
In one slide of the presentation (as shown above), while Sony is proud of its diverse portfolio of single-player games, it currently counts MLB The Show 22 as its sole live-service game (Gran Turismo 7 is oddly not there). The company hopes to change that within three years, growing the cumulative number of SIE live-service franchises to 3 by the end of this fiscal year, 6 by FY 2023, 10 by FY 2024, and a whopping 12 by FY 2025.
Earlier in the presentation, on a slide showing its “Ongoing M&A Activities” (M&A stands for Mergers and Acquisitions), Sony labels both Bungie and Haven Studios as “live service developers,” with Bungie also being a “live service publisher.” In fact, the company focuses on the former Halo developer specifically in the next slide labelled “Bungie Synergies” on which it touts Bungie’s “live services expertise to PlayStation Studios.” More than that, it will help build a “SIE live services center of excellence” and bring “live service business operations to platform business.”
Referencing internal projections from PlayStation Studios, Sony plans to have almost half of its PS5 investment to be in live services by FY 2022. That’s a huge increase from FY 2019 where only 12 percent of PS5 investment was in that particular business model.
While it is known that Jim Ryan confirmed in February this year that PlayStation Studios was making “several” live service games, it was relatively unknown how many live-service games would be in the company’s portfolio over this console generation. That is, until now. Ryan also told GamesIndustry.biz in March that live-service games “fit the bill better than a subscription service” for sustained user engagement.
In other news, TV manufacturer TCL projects that the PS5 Pro will release in 2023 or 2024, and Sony has reportedly fixed the PS Plus upgrade pricing for discounted users after receiving backlash.
