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Sony axes two more live-service games, including one God of War spinoff

A titan wielding a grenade launcher in Destiny 2..
Bungie

In an apparent response to the Concord disaster, Sony has cancelled two live-service games, including one potential God of War title. However, in a bit of good news in light of the layoffs rocking the game industry, Sony says neither of its two studios are at risk of closure.

Jason Schreier of Bloomberg reports that Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, both PlayStation studios, were working on two separate live service games — a venture Sony has been heavily invested in. Last year, Sony saw one of its worst failures in the launch of Concord, alongside a massive success with Helldivers II. Live service games have proven to be a risky venture, but they are extremely profitable when done well.

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Of the two cancellations, one was said to be a live-service God of War title. While no details were given about the gameplay or story, fans have expressed disappointment at the loss of another game in the franchise. And though Sony said the cancellations won’t lead to studio closures, the company wasn’t clear about the potential employment impact. Bloomberg did see an internal Sony memo that said the company was “working closely with Bend and Bluepoint to determine what are the next projects and plan to do everything we can to ensure there is minimal business impact.”

A character wields a rocket launcher in Concord.
Sony Interactive Entertainment

Sony has sought to recapture the profitability of Fortnite and Destiny with its live-service games, but that exact recipe isn’t easy to recreate. At a time when almost every game has a subscription or battle pass, live-service titles need to stand out in some form. Sony originally intended to publish a dozen live-service games before March 2026, but scaled that number back to half in November 2023.

Patrick Hearn
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
3 big things I need to see from the next PlayStation Showcase
Peter and Miles from Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

It’s that time of the year again when industry insiders are teasing that a big PlayStation Showcase will happen around June. A third-party focused State of Play happened in 2022, but now Video Games Chronicle’s Andy Robinson and Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb are both suggesting that a more first-party oriented "Showcase" could be on the way sometime during the next month, potentially during the week of May 25.
PlayStation has had a rough start to 2023, with console exclusive Forspoken garnering mixed reviews, the PlayStation VR2 impressing critics while underperforming in sales, and The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port being broken at launch. With only Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 confirmed to be on the horizon for 2023, Sony has a lot to prove during its next showcase. There are three specific things I need to see from Sony if that PlayStation Showcase does come to fruition.
Give PSVR2 purpose
The PlayStation VR2 is an impressive piece of virtual reality technology, but it lacks killer apps outside of Horizon: Call of the Mountain. New game releases for the headset have been slow since its February 2022 launch, which is likely why the $550 headset has underperformed. Sony has opted to mainly relegate PSVR2 to State of Plays or PlayStation Blog posts, but it needs to revitalize excitement for the platform by giving some of its games a spotlight in a big PlayStation Showcase.

Hopefully, there’s more on the way in terms of new AAA VR exclusives from first-party studios, as well as much-demanded ports like Half-Life: Alyx. Already announced PSVR2 games like Journey to Foundation and Synapse could also use release dates. A PlayStation Showcase is the perfect time for Sony to put out a clear road map for PSVR2’s future game library, just as the September 2021 PlayStation did for PS5. Give me a reason to strap on that headset yet again.
Flesh out the system’s 2023 exclusives lineup
PS5 needs a strong lineup for this fall as well. With the exception of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, things look pretty barren for PS5 this year after the launch of Final Fantasy XVI. Several previously announced PS5 games still lack concrete release dates and could arrive in the second half of this year. It’d be nice to get a clearer picture of Sony’s PS5 game lineup for the rest of the year; hopefully, it includes titles like Stellar Blade, the Silent Hill 2 remake, Lost Soul Aside, Death Stranding 2, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

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The best live service games of 2022: 10 ongoing games we couldn’t stop playing
A Sea of Thieves skeleton sits in front of text that says 2022 Best Live Service Games.

Some games are meant to be played once, savored, and then shelved for the next one -- not unlike a book or a movie. But many other games are meant to be played and replayed over a long period of time, offering wildly different experiences each time you sit down and boot them up. There were many ongoing games to pick from in 2022, a lot of which include live service elements like online multiplayer, microtransactions, and regular content updates -- though not all are worth investing your time into.

Even though there are plenty of stinkers out there to avoid, there were also several ongoing games that kept our attention in 2022, ranging across several genres. From globe-trotting online roleplaying games to far simpler games you can play at a café bench, here are 10 games that set the bar for live service in 2022.
Fortnite

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Here’s why PlatinumGames and Sony are all-in on live service
Warriors look toward a beautiful sunrise and enemies in Babylon's Fall.

PlatinumGames President Atsushi Inaba turned heads in a recent interview when he indicated that the beloved Japanese developer would move away from the kind of single-player games it is known for. While PlatinumGames made a name for itself with linear, single-player action titles like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata, Inaba believes the company should make more titles that players can enjoy for long periods of time.
"When it comes to future game production, we want to focus on creating games that are different from the past," he told Famitsu (VGC translated the comments). "I would like to focus on creating games that can be enjoyed and loved for a longer period of time ... Considering the changes in the market over the next five years or so, I think it is absolutely necessary for us to do this."
Some fans fear this means PlatinumGames is about to embrace the live service segment of the video game market. This is worrying to some as Babylon's Fall, the first game of this kind for PlatinumGames, is shaping up to be a disappointing endeavor. Meanwhile, the single-player Bayonetta 3 looks like the kind of fast fun fans come to expect from the studio. 
PlatinumGames isn't the only studio chasing the live service dream. Sony is doubling down even more. After acquiring Destiny developer Bungie, Sony Chief Financial Officetr Hiroki Totoki revealed that PlayStation Studios plans to release 10 live service games by March 2026.
Games like this are controversial because they're monetized, and they vary vary in quality. You either end up a great success like Final Fantasy XIV or become an expensive failure like Anthem and Marvel's Avengers. So why are so many companies still pivoting to this model after high-profile disasters and disdain from hardcore gamers?
It pays to win
The answer is more straightforward than one might think. In reality, it comes down to what makes money. Yes, single-player games can still be successful and perform well for companies, but data from analysts highlights how much the DLC, microtransactions, and subscription elements of live service games make. Mat Piscatella, NPD Group executive director and video game industry adviser, explained this on Twitter, noting that 60% of non-mobile game content spending comes from DLC, microtransactions, and subscriptions.
https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1490711392449486851
It's not surprising that PlatinumGames executives see that the studio is leaving money on the table by not developing games that engage players like that. Bayonetta 3 could sell millions of copies when it launches later this year, but live service games could sell the same amount and then continue to make money years after launch.
Multiple analysts have recognized this trend too. Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted a chart revealing that Sony made more from add-ons, microtransaction, and DLC content than digital and physical game sales combined. 
https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1490714400000512005
To stay appealing to investors and keep the business afloat, companies will go where the money is. This approach, unfortunately, can have some harmful side effects. We've seen it happen more recently with NFTs, but there's a history of live service games gone wrong as well. High-profile live service games like Anthem and Marvel's Avengers have failed because they got bogged down in nickel-and-diming players or did not ensure the quality of gameplay increased with the length. If your game isn't fun, no one's going to want to spend hundreds of hours in it just because they can eventually unlock some cool-looking things.
Babylon's Fall currently seems like it may not do well, so PlatinumGames needs to focus on quality if it continues to go down this path. 
Quality over quantity 
DLC and microtransactions do have a bad rap around the video game industry for a good reason. When companies merely focus on player engagement and sales data, they often forget to make games that players will enjoy. The best approach for Sony and PlatinumGames is to make sure the gameplay, story, and worlds are a lot of fun before they stretch the experience to last a long time. It also seems likely that neither PlatinumGames nor Sony should completely abandon the types of games they are known for.
In the same interview with Famitsu, Inaba states that PlatinumGames "would like to cherish and create small but brilliantly conceived games such as Sol Cresta, and games in which you can enjoy the process of clearing the game by going through one-off, well-designed stages, such as Bayonetta." Inaba also wants the games to feel like what the studio is known for, saying, "I want to lead PlatinumGames in a direction that is pure and unadulterated."
While Babylon's Fall makes this trend look worrying, we don't know if that's the only way PlatinumGames plans to create games that players engage with for a long time. PlatinumGames must learn from the shortcomings of Babylon's Fall and improve if it doesn't want to release a string of live service flops. 
Meanwhile, live service will be just one part of Sony's first-party game strategy in the future. While the Bungie acquisition may allow the company to make more live service games, plenty of single-player PS5 exclusives like Horizon Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are still on the way. Sony also intentionally acquired Bungie because of its live service experience with games like Destiny 2, so it wants to approach that kind of game correctly. 
We've seen plenty of companies get the live service model wrong as it's a high-risk, high-reward market. To stay relevant, PlatinumGames and Sony might have to embrace forever games more than their fans may prefer. Still, if making great, fun games remains a priority, these companies shouldn't go off the rails anytime soon. They'll just make more money while doing it. 

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