For years, PlayStation has established itself as the premier destination for massive, narrative-intensive blockbuster games. However, the shift towards live-service gaming has been met with considerable doubt. Among the skeptics is Shawn Layden, former head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios from 2014 to 2019. Layden is quite vocal about his reservations, expressing that he does not even consider live-service titles to be true games. He stated, A live-service game to me isn’t really a game. It’s a repetitive action engagement device,
during an interview with The Ringer. He continued, For me, a game – because of where I come from – means I need three things. I need a story, I need a character, and I need a world. Horizon, God of War, and Uncharted have all three of those things. 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.
Concerns About Live-Service Gaming
Nearly eleven years after the debut of Destiny 1, the former CEO of Bungie emphasizes that live service isn’t suitable for every game, stating, It’s pretty clear that we can’t just pick a business model and say that’s a reason to make a game.
The architect behind Sony’s troubled dive into live-service gaming believes that failures can yield positive outcomes, as they prepare for more rigorous and more frequent testing.
Even as challenges persist with titles like Marathon and Concord, which was nixed just two weeks post-launch, Sony has acknowledged that its live-service strategy is not progressing as planned.
Layden’s Departure and Live-Service Strategy
Layden has expressed that live-service games are not my skillset
, and he cites Sony’s push to shift away from single-player titles as a significant factor behind his exit from the company in 2019. Ironically, Helldivers 2—which Layden approved before leaving—has emerged as PlayStation’s only indisputable live-service triumph in recent years. Adding to the irony, the game’s developer, Arrowhead, plans to self-fund its next project.
Layden views the pursuit of live-service gaming as a siren’s call
for publishers. He metaphorically describes it, saying, It’s like a mirage on the top of a sand dune. You pursue it. You can’t quite get there. Or if you do get there, what you brought to the party no one wants to play anyway.
One prime example upon which Layden reflects is Sony’s own The Last of Us Online, a project that struggled to find traction. Concord, too, stands as an illustration of a game that failed to attract enough players. Hermen Hulst, current CEO of SIE, remarked that the publisher is now committing to much more rigorous and more frequent testing.
Layden observed, The highway is littered with people wanting to take on Fortnite, with people trying to do Overwatch with different skins.
He cautioned, 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.
As anticipation builds for Bungie’s Marathon, the question remains: can it revitalize Sony’s fortunes in the live-service arena? It will require considerable effort to divert players from the top online games they are currently engaged with.