This comes after assurances that PlayStation has taken heed from the missteps of Concord: "We have re-evaluated our processes to fully understand how and why that title fell short, and to ensure we don’t repeat those errors," Hulst stated.

Yet, when you look at Sony’s current strategy in plain sight, and despite all the outward confidence, it feels as though the company is ignoring the reality of its situation. Looking at the games listed on its live-service roadmap, we can break them down pretty clearly:

Helldivers 2 – A clear success, one of the few bright spots for Sony in this recent wave, but also a temporary win. Arrowhead, the developer behind it, is not part of Sony, and they’ve announced that due to Helldivers 2’s success, they now have the resources to fund and publish their next project independently. While they insist no offense is meant toward Sony, this move highlights that Arrowhead isn’t a dedicated internal live-service team that Sony can count on forever—they’re moving forward on their own path.

Destiny 2 – The long-running series has been something of a miracle in the live-service space, arguably helping define the genre. But with year 11 underway, things are clearly scaling back after the Light and Darkness era. The game has gone from record-breaking highs to new lows as it transitions into the upcoming “Frontiers” phase, which may keep it afloat, but will never return it to its former glory. Meanwhile, Sony won’t allow Bungie to end D2 to focus on a potential Destiny 3, which may never materialize while D2 limps along past its prime.

Marathon – Herman Hulst praised the game as “bold and innovative,” and presentations have highlighted “strong engagement,” but this rhetoric overlooks Marathon’s serious problems: 1) a weak gameplay reveal, 2) mixed-to-negative alpha feedback, 3) a major art plagiarism controversy that dominated headlines, and 4) a post-alpha livestream following the scandal that did little to restore confidence. Marathon is in real trouble, and it would take nothing short of a miracle for it to succeed as Sony hopes.

Fairgames – Its studio head, Jade Raymond, recently departed the project. Reports from internal testing say the game is underwhelming. We haven’t seen or heard anything from it in nearly two years. It’s either going to be quietly canceled before launch or face a disastrous release. If any game is headed for a Concord-style failure, it’s Fairgames.

These are the games officially listed. Other known, non-canceled projects include an upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn multiplayer monster-hunting title, about which we’ve seen very little, and which carries the risky challenge of turning a single-player fanbase into a live-service audience.

Sony also took part of Bungie and formed a new internal studio working on a game codenamed Gummy Bears, which still doesn’t have a public name or footage. Though internal tests have reportedly gone well, that’s hardly a guarantee—far from the first time we’ve heard such news.

Perhaps the most intriguing idea is the least defined: Jason Blundell now leads his own studio within Sony and may create something fresh, inspired by his Black Ops Zombies background. But again, there's literally no information available.

Sony may be showing confidence, but the truth is far from reassuring. Its next two live-service titles are far from guaranteed successes, and any future hopefuls are still years away with nothing yet revealed. Things aren’t looking good.

The above is the detailed content of PlayStation Has Its Head In The Sand About Its Live Service Future. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!