Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Hermen Hulst says the company is "continuing to invest in new live services" despite the massive debacle with Concord.
The games industry's biggest punching bag in 2024 was Concord, PlayStation's big new live service title that was pulled offline mere weeks after launching, only for Sony to shutter the studio and keep the game offline for good just over a month later. Yet despite this, PlayStation is still all in on its live service ambitions, with boss Hermen Hulst confident that future releases like Marathon won't meet the same fate.
During a fireside chat for investors, Hulst was asked how committed Sony was to live service games, and if it is investing as much money into the development of them. He answers, "We remain very, very committed to building a diverse and resilient live service portfolio," adding, "We have MLB The Show, Destiny 2, Helldivers 2, and these are all really good examples of the type of titles that we're looking to develop."
Of course, Concord was mentioned during this discussion, with Hulst acknowledging the challenges PlayStation faced with the game, saying, "ultimately that title entered into a hyper-competitive section of the market. I think it was insufficiently differentiated to be able to resonate with players." But Concord's failure has been factored into the company's approach for future titles, as Hulst adds, "We have reviewed our processes in light of this, to deeply understand how and why that title failed to meet expectations, and to ensure that we're not gonna make the same mistakes again."
PlayStation insists Marathon has "strong early engagement," even after a very public art scandal and divisive playtests
