Many companies over the years thought they could create that one live service experience that would captivate fans forever, bringing players back, day in and day out. That game was created and though Fortnite still remains as one of the go-to-live service experiences on the market, it is hard to compete with the 100 million concurrent players each day (still to this day, mind-blowing). Many want that hook and never-ending revenue stream.
Enter, Jim Ryan, now former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who left the company; at its fall of live service games back in March 2024. Jim Ryan’s time as CEO would see the closure of three studios: Japan Studio, PixelOpus – RIP Concrete Genie, and London Studio. Ryan would then go on to help with the purchase of three replacement studios: Firewalk Studios, Haven Studios, which recently saw the departure of their CEO, Jade Raymond, and Destiny creator, Bungie.
The push was for live service games to help offset the cost of high-budgeted AAA game experiences, which seems to make sense, doesn’t it? However, what we saw was the fall of PlayStation’s focus on the big-money-making returns of games like God of War, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima and the like. Instead, what we saw in turn was one game after another, after another becoming canceled with its counterpart studios following quickly behind with closures. Placing their money in one basket that is already owned by Epic Games, Fortnite is a hard nut to crack.
Thanks to Radec on X, here is a list of live service games from the past, canceled and still in development. Three games have survived (sort of) out of 18 live service titles at the time of this writing. Destruction AllStars, which launched in 2021 and is now no longer available with servers getting shut down in May 2024. Grand Turismo 7, which continues to get frequent updates, and Helldivers 2 from Arrowhead. Helldivers 2 is an absolute smash hit and continues to keep the community engaged with new Warbond’s, features and additional content, consistently adding to the game and seeing the return of many players.
What about the rest of the list?
The largest failure to date was the recent release of Firewalk Studios’ Concord in August of last year. Which, in an unprecedented move, was removed from storefronts only 2 weeks after launch due to the lack of player base, and unfortunately, would also see the studio’s closure not long after the games’ removal. Though Concord was supposed to be a one-time purchase, the title still falls in the live service category under PlayStation, which had a roadmap planned to keep the hero shooter going.
Seven games from the list have been canceled, not seeing the light of day at all. The biggest of all was The Last of Us Online from Naughty Dog. Factions was on the brink of making its return when Marathon creator Bungie stepped in with some advice. (Looking back, do you really want to take any advice from Bungie?) The fear of becoming a live service studio and the constant influx of needed content to keep the community going, made the studio take another look at the teams vision of a story driven team, and voted not to become a live service studio.
Other canned titles during the line of Ryan’s reign and the pass of the baton to Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst (Co-CEO’s) are titles like, Twisted Metal, Bend Studio’s Live service title (a military shooter), London Studio’s title, and the closure of the studio itself only 2 weeks after Ryan went to visit the team. Blue Point was supposedly working on a God of War live service title and the king of Marvel releases, Insomniac’s Spider-Man: The Great Web title had been canceled as well.
What’s Left?
There are still, shockingly, 7 titles set to release that are still in development. Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, appears to have created mistrust once again for the studio. With the recent news of artists using unauthorized artwork from other artists and getting called out for it. More on that here! Not only that, the early alpha tests of Marathon show that many fans are not all that thrilled with the vision Bungie has created for the title. The game is scheduled to release on September 23rd, if it’s not delayed by fan feedback and the overly popular competition of Arc Raiders. (Get my full thoughts on Arc Raiders) Marathon has not struck a cord among fans at all, and leaves to question the future of Marathon and Bungie. Destiny can only carry them so far.
Fairgames is scheduled to release later this spring. However, in a turn of events, Haven Studio’s CEO, Jade Raymond, suddenly departed the studio, which leaves the future of Fairgames up in arms. Full details on those events can be found here. With the departure of Jade Raymond, Fairgames has now been rumored to be pushed back to 2026. I’d be shocked to see the generic title even see the light of day. I expect to see the game canceled. Which would likely be one of the reasons Raymond left in the first place. With Raymond seeing the writing on the wall, and deciding to move on.
Though there are still other studios that give us a bit of hope for some form of live service on the PlayStation platform, the Horizon MMO from NCSoft, or the Horizon multiplayer game from Guerrilla Games that’s rumored to be similar to a Monster Hunter-like experience, Media Molecule is creating something, Dark Outlaw Games and their upcoming title or the recently revealed TeamLFG with their Bungie spin-off studio, these titles are still in development. However, we can’t help but wonder what PlayStation and Sony are doing with the call to live service games and the lack of successful hits when perusing the path of least resistance.
PlayStation has completely fallen on their face when it comes to the PlayStation 5 live service market, with the exception of Helldivers 2. ONE game isn’t enough when it comes to the line of failures. Games are expensive to create, take years to make and, with one canceled game after another, PlayStation has taken a handful of spaghetti noodles, tossed them on the wall to see what sticks and all have fallen but one. Who is screening these games? Who had gone in, took a look at the doc, and said, “greenlight, greenlight, and greenlight all of these” to then scrapped them all. Mismanagement has cost the company billions at this point.
Some Will Rise, While Others Will Fall
The live service market is no easy feat to hold on to. But, when you have a game that connects with the audience, GTA Online, Fortnite, Escape from Tarkov to name a few. Finding that unique perspective in our industry can pay off tenfold. PlayStation has done nothing but chase the live service market and it’s not working. Will they be able to find something that works?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on live service games. Do you play them? Leave a comment below and let us know what you’re playing.
