Sony confirms half of planned live service games won’t release until after 2025
SonySony has revealed that, out of the twelve live service games it planned to launch by the end of fiscal year 2025, half are pushed further into the future.
Sony‘s big push into the world of live service games is going to take longer than intended.
In an earnings call, the company announced that, while it previously planned to release 12 live service and multiplayer titles by the end of fiscal year 2025, half of these won’t be released until after that point. FY2025 ends in March 2026.
While Sony did not provide much specific information, the announcement is a pretty significant shift that could have implications for some of your favorite PlayStation franchises.
Naughty DogMajor PlayStation IPs like Last of Us and Horizon have live service games in the works
As reported by VGC, Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki told investors, “[Of] the 12 titles, six titles will be released by FY25 – that’s our current plan. [As for] the remaining six titles, we are still working on that.”
While explaining why so many games are being delayed, Totoki reiterated the company’s to expand its service and multiplayer game offerings, but said “game quality should be the most important [thing].”
No specifics were given on what games are impacted by the delays, but we do know that PlayStation Studios has multiplayer games based on The Last of Us and Horizon franchises in development. Fans of the former got bad news last month when it was reported that The Last of Us multiplayer was “on thin ice” following Naughty Dog layoffs.
The news comes just over a week after massive layoffs at Bungie, the Destiny 2 developer that Sony acquired in 2022. At the time, Sony cited Destiny’s strength among other ongoing games as one reason for the acquisition. It also discussed plans to use Bungie to expand PlayStation’s offering in the live service realm.
Though the decision to lay off around 100 employees reportedly came from Bungie itself and not Sony, it would not be a surprise if that contributed to the delay given the developer’s key role in PlayStation’s live service push.