The most charitable reading of PlayStation’s live service push would be mixed. Between the cancelled projects, delisting of Concord, delay of Marathon, and lack of any real information about Fairgames, let’s just say I share the community’s hesitance regarding the decision to go so hard so fast into the live service space. I don’t think it was the wrong move to try and create its own live service game, but maybe starting with over 12 was a bit ambitious.
As of now, the only two remaining live service games from that initial push yet to come out (not counting any sports games) are the aforementioned Marathon and Fairgames. Marathon has an uphill battle to climb already after numerous controversies, shifting leadership, poor player feedback, and an ambiguous delay into 2026. As for Fairgames, well, I just don’t know enough to have an opinion yet, despite knowing of the game’s existence since 2023.
But the hit PS5 live service game might not be either of those games, and the fact that Sony isn’t making a big deal about it has me even more excited.
Bring the legends back to life
Teased at the very end of the last Ghost of Yotei trailer was the reveal that the Legends mode from the first game would be making a return as free DLC sometime in 2026. Heading over to the official PlayStation Blog post gives scant few additional details. All we know at present is that the mode will be free, come in 2026, and feature both two-player story missions and four-player survival matches. In either mode, players will have four classes to pick from to face off against “demonic, giant versions of members of the Yotei Six, plus a variety of new enemies that fight alongside them.”
This description is nearly identical to the original Legends mode for Tsushima. That mode, which came as a complete surprise to what we all thought was a purely single-player adventure, also had two distinct modes: Survival and Story, with a third called Rivals added in a later patch. Story was the two-player co-op mode with a 10 arc series of missions against AI, while Survival allowed four players to survive as long as possible against waves of enemies. So far, that all sounds exactly like what Ghost of Yotei‘s take on Legends will offer.
That third mode, though, is where things got interesting. Rivals was a unique asymmetrical competitive mode that split two teams of players onto their own sections of a map to fight enemies, similar to the Survival mode. However, by defeating enemies and collecting a currency called Magatama, players could either purchase buffs for themselves or debuffs for the enemy team. The first team that clears all the waves wins.
So, what does all this have to do with live service?
Ghost of Tsushima‘s Legends mode was a surprise hit for both players and Sony. For as much praise as the base game got, Legends was equally lauded for offering something new and addictive. Typically, tacked-on multiplayer modes are forgettable at best, but this was something special.
From an outside perspective, I can only guess that the team at Sucker Punch never planned on giving this mode a ton of support before putting its full attention on developing the sequel. But I also struggle to believe that it and PlayStation didn’t see a huge opportunity with the mode. Wins like that can’t be ignored, and the fact that this new Legends mode was revealed before Ghost of Yotei launched tells me there are far grander plans this time around.
When most people think of live service games, they think of battle passes, microtransactions, hundreds of skins, daily and weekly quests, giant content roadmaps, and as many FOMO hooks as possible. I might be overly naive and optimistic here, but I think Sucker Punch and PlayStation know they had a golden goose with the first Legends and don’t want to kill it with this new version. My only evidence for that is the fact that it is still free and the sheer hope that Sony has been observing the industry to see how unsustainable that model is in 99% of cases.
If Legends plays its cards right, it could be the Last of Us Online we all wanted. That being a free multiplayer mode that is content complete and fun right from the jump, but offers substantial expansions at a reasonable price. Were I to throw out a rough idea of something I think the community would mostly support, it would be free characters and modes over time, but with paid cosmetics and maybe some kind of premium battle pass. Basically, it can follow in the footsteps of Helldivers 2, which was another surprise success story that does live service right.
With a measured approach, Ghost of Tsushima Legends has the potential to be an ace up PlayStation’s sleeve. It all comes down to execution, but based on the game it is attached to, how Sucker Punch handled Legends last go around, and the lessons PlayStation has (hopefully) learned regarding live service in general, this could be the surprise success story it’s been waiting for.
