According to Shawn Layden, a live-service game “isn’t really a game.” The former PlayStation executive said in an interview that a live-service game is better described as a “repetitive action engagement device.”
Then what is a game? Speaking to The Ringer, Layden said a game needs three elements. “I need a story, I need a character, and I need a world,” he said. “And Horizon, God of War, and Uncharted have all three of those things,” he said. “If you’re doing a live-service game, you just need a repetitive action that most people can get their head around, an ability to communicate in that world with other like-minded people, and [the player’s] desire to do it again and again and again.”
Layden left Sony in 2019. He hasn’t said exactly why he left, but explained in the interview that live-service was “not my skillset.” At the time, Sony was investing heavily in live-service and was planning to release a dozen live-service games by 2026. Sony later cut that projection in half, and some of the titles it has released, like Concord, failed spectacularly. Others, like Helldivers 2, have been enormously successful.
Researcher Joost van Dreunen told The Ringer that Sony’s misses in the live-service department “sting, but they’re not fatal.” He said, “Even if live-service fizzles, the PS5 business is strong. The real risk isn’t collapse–it’s wasted time and money that could’ve gone into what Sony already does best.”
Sony has invested more than $1.45 billion into Fortnite developer Epic Games, so the company likely stands to benefit as Fortnite continues to grow and grow. Sony is also continuing to invest in its own live-service projects, and the next big release is Bungie’s Marathon. The game has already had a rocky road to release, though, as it was delayed indefinitely and is caught up in an art theft scandal.
For his part, Layden said companies should not look to live-service to help turn their businesses around. “If you’re trying to go into that space because you have this illusion in your mind of big sacks of money coming every day for the rest of your life, for most it doesn’t happen,” he said.
In 2023, one of PlayStation’s most important people, Connie Booth, left the company after 30+ years. She has never explained her departure, but former PlayStation developer David Scott Jaffe, the creator of Twisted Metal and co-creator of God of War, said Booth was fired.
“She was fired. She was not let go. She didn’t retire. She didn’t quit. She was fired,” Jaffe said.
Jaffe went on to say that former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan gave a mandate for PlayStation’s teams to make more games-as-a-service titles, which in turn reportedly upset a number of PlayStation developers. “All of this was somehow blamed on Connie,” Jaffe said. “The blame has fallen on Connie.”
One Sony live-service game that is not going forward is Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Online, which Neil Druckmann said was the company’s most ambitious game ever. A live-service God of War game was reportedly planned at one point as well before apparently getting canceled.
Another upcoming live-service game from Sony is Fairgame$, but Sony has been quiet on the project of late, even as multiple senior staff have left, including the founder of its development studio. Despite all of this, Sony has said time and time again that it remains committed to live-service and has learned from the mistakes of Concord.
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