This job, where I write about the video game industry, can feel repetitive sometimes. It doesn’t take a lot of time, or even intellectual acuity, to see how trends and patterns emerge, ebb, and flow. I’ve started feeling like I’m saying the same thing over and over, but it’s not really my fault – it’s because this industry, and the major players in it, make the same mistakes over and over.
These are glaring mistakes, as commentators on the industry have said, repeatedly and emphatically. And still the cycle repeats, and I complain, and it feels like I’m voicing the same criticisms over and over, because I am.
Sony’s Live-Service Games Have Been Flopping
Case in point:Sonyhas just announced a new untitled live-service game, developed by an all-new internal studio. The company’s live-service slate has been a hot topic for the last couple of years. WhileHelldivers 2has been a hit, we’ve seen countless more cancellations, many of which led to studios shuttering.
Concord, infamously, wasshut down weeks after launch, and its studio shutteredsoon after. Foamstarswas sunset after less than a year.Naughty Dog’s Factions game was cancelledbecause it would have diverted too many resources from the studio’s single-player games.
A Spider-Man live-service gamewas also cancelled, as wasa Twisted Metal project. Most recently, Sony announcedin the wake of Concord’s failurethat two unannounced live-service games, one of which was aGod of Wartitle,have also been cancelled. Several projects are still in development, including Bungie’s extraction shooterMarathon,Fairgames, and aHorizonMMO, but the general sentiment seems to be that these games are fighting an uphill battle towards success.
You’d think the continued failure of Sony’s live-service games, and new titles in the genre more widely, would have taught it that these massive investments rarely pay off and are largely unpopular with players who’ve already found a game they love and are sticking with it.
Sure, there are some outliers – Helldivers 2, for instance – but these are blips of success in a pattern of failures.
These cancellations should indicate a pivot away from a style of game that’s fast falling out of favour with audiences, or at least that the company would be slowing down and evaluating the success of its current strategy after the games still in development have been launched. But you’d be wrong to think this entirely reasonable strategy was the one Sony’s adopted.
But Now We Have Another In The Works
Sony boss Hermen Hulst announced on thePlayStation Blogthat teamLFG (LFG meaning ‘looking for group’, not the other thing that you probably immediately thought of), a new internal studio, is working on a live-service game. The team is “composed not just of industry veterans who have shipped titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room, but also industry newcomers with fresh creative perspectives and skills”.
Some have speculated that this is Bungie’s project, codenamed Gummy Bears, that was shifted to a new studio, but we don’t have any official word on this at the time of writing.
The team promises to “make immersive multiplayer worlds propelled by action games that players can learn, play, and master for countless hours” and to have players “be a part of our development process through early access playtests”.
Its first project is a “team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games” in a “lighthearted, comedic world” in a “mythic, science-fantasy universe”.
I don’t know what a frog-type game is, nor how all these influences will fit together. I would like to see something of it before passing judgment, as would any reasonable person. I’m not interested in dunking on this game that we know next to nothing about. What’s the point? I don’twantthis game to fail, nor do I want to predict that it will and gloat about being right if it comes to pass.
The point here is that Sony doesn’t seem to be learning its lesson, and its push to create live-service games in a landscape that’s so hostile to their survival is, at this point, irresponsible. I’m tired of seeing studios get shut down because of live-service failures. I’m tired of seeing games get cancelled after millions of dollars have already been pumped into their development because Sony finally came to terms with what its audience has been telling them.
This new project isn’t doomed to be dead on arrival, but itisan egregious failure on Sony’s part to read the writing on the walls. I’m sick of writing the same articles, but Sony just keeps on making the same mistakes.
