Several insiders have suggested Sony is shifting its PlayStation strategy on multiple fronts, but don’t expect live service games to disappear entirely.
Sony’s pursuit of a live service hit is a well-documented disaster at this point, and while the immediate future suggests it isn’t stopping anytime soon, there are rumbles of some changes in strategy behind the scenes.
Over this weekend, Sony is doing playtests for Bungie’s Marathon and Horizon Hunters Gathering, ahead of their launches later this year, with the two titles being the company’s latest attempts to land an ongoing, financially lucrative hit like Fortnite or Apex Legends.
We’ve already seen how several of these attempts, like Concord, have gone south – with the time spent developing the games coming at the expense of offline games that Sony is typically known for, like God Of War and The Last Of Us.
However, according to one insider, there are ‘loads of changes’ happening at Sony, which could see single-player games become the focus again down the line.
This comes from SneakersSO, who accurately leaked Xbox’s shift to releasing games on PlayStation 5 ahead of time. In a post on NeoGaf, SneakerSO responded to someone who suggested Sony was ‘backing away’ from traditional single-player games.
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‘This couldn’t be further from the truth, particularly now,’ they wrote in response.
After someone pointed to the lack of single-player titles in Sony’s slate of upcoming games – Marvel’s Wolverine, Saros, and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet aside – SneakersSO suggested we’d have to wait a few years to see the effects of the change in direction.
‘We’re talking about games in the future,’ they added. ‘I understand if folks are disappointed with the output on this front, but there are loads of changes happening now that we’ll see increasingly over the next 3-4 years that are more in line with what folks preferred from them. That isn’t to say live service titles are done and dusted [by the way].’
While there’s little public evidence to support any shift at Sony, especially after the shutdown of Bluepoint Games, if changes are happening, it sounds like we won’t see the fruits of them until the PlayStation 6 arrives – which might not be until 2029.
But it seems Sony might be adjusting its PC strategy too. Over recent years, we’ve seen Sony bring many PlayStation 5 exclusives to PC, but based on the word of several insiders, the company might be pulling back from this approach as well.
This was first discussed on the Triple Click podcast with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, where he suggested Sony was ‘backing away’ from putting their single-player titles on PC. While this was initially touted as speculation on his part, he’s since clarified it’s more than that.
In response to a discussion about his comments on ResetEra, Schreier wrote: ‘I mean, it’s not speculation, but sometimes topics come up on the show before I’m quite ready to publish a story about them. More to come soon I’m sure.’
Subsequently, reliable insider NateTheHate has corroborated Sony’s changing attitudes towards PC. ‘Sony is shifting their PC strategy, absolutely,’ he posted on ResetEra.
At the moment, Sony’s PC strategy appears to be unchanged. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is coming to PC on March 19 and Sony is launching Bungie’s Marathon across PC and consoles on March 5, but as the latter is an online multiplayer title, that’s perhaps not a good example.
However, if these changing winds are true, we could see a shift with how Sony approaches its future PlayStation 5 exclusives. The big test might be Marvel’s Wolverine, which is set to launch on PlayStation 5 on September 15.
Developer Insomniac’s last game, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, eventually came to PC, but it was two years after it launched on PlayStation 5 in 2023. As such, any shift in strategy will likely have come into effect for Wolverine, if these rumours are to be believed.
Overall, it sounds like Sony is rolling back some of its decisions during the PlayStation 5 generation – both positive and negative – in preparation for the PlayStation 6. We’ll have to wait and see, however, if it will have the effect we’re all hoping for.
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