Sony Interactive CEO Says Company Plans To "Grow Our Live Services Segment" Despite 'Concord' Failure
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Herman Hulst doubled down on the company’s goals to grow its live service segment despite the failure of a number of live-service games this year including Sony’s own Concord and Warner Bros. MultiVersus and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
In an interview with Japanese website Famitsu, Hulst was asked, “How do you evaluate the recent achievements of PS Studios and its current structure?”
As part of his answer, Hulst stated, “We also continue to grow our live services segment, and Helldivers 2 has been a great success. In building a strong portfolio, the Studio Business Group focuses on a rigorous selection of games that offer players a great experience. We are also focused on expanding our IP in new areas, such as the film version of Ghost of Tsushima, which is being produced by PlayStation Productions.”
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Hulst was then asked a follow-up specifically about Concord and Firewalk Studios and whether its failure affected its live service and mobile game strategies, “On the other hand, Concord was discontinued in about two weeks and the closure of two studios, Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios, was announced. As the Corona disaster settles down, I assume that the game business is undergoing rapid changes. Are there any changes in your strategy for live service games and mobile games as a result of these studio closures?”
Hulst responded, “The game business is constantly changing due to a variety of factors, including technological advances, new genres, and new ways of playing games. The one thing that has not changed, however, is people's desire for a great entertainment experience, and the focus on games continues to grow.”
He continued, “But with that comes competition, and like many companies in the industry, we have had to make changes to our business in order to solidify a more sustainable operating base. We will continue to focus on developing live-service titles along with the story-driven, single-player titles that our players demand.”
“We are learning a lot as we build our ability to develop quality live-service titles within SIE. Helldivers 2 has proven the potential of live-service titles by attracting a large number of players through continuous content delivery,” he stated.
Furthermore, Hulst noted that Sony and PlayStation will continue to release live-service games across multiple platforms rather than making them exclusive.
Hulst stated, “Since live service titles are released on multiple platforms, the key to success is how to attract new players and increase the number of players. Therefore, maintaining momentum at the time of release and broad player adoption are especially important in the live service sector.”
“Single-player games are a key component of the PlayStation platform's appeal, and each title has a strategic sales period,” he explained. “While consoles remain our core business, expanding to PC and other platforms will allow us to bring our games to a wider audience.”
“Our priority is always to provide the best possible experience for our players, and as part of that, we are also promoting the integration of PSN accounts on PC,” he concluded.
Helldivers 2 was extraordinarily successful for Arrowhead Game Studios and PlayStation. The game was listed in Steam’s Platinum bucket for Top Sellers in 2024. That means it was one of the 12 top selling games based on gross revenue for the entire year.
Furthermore, the game was extraordinarily successful at the beginning of the year. It hit an all-time peak concurrent player count of 458,709 a couple of weeks after it released in February.
However, after a number of controversies the player base began to slowly taper off and eventually hit a 24-hour low of 15,636 in September. However, with the release of Omens of Tyranny earlier this month, a significant number of players returned and it had a recent 24-hour peak of 98,757.
On the opposite end, as noted by Famitsu, Concord was shut down in less than 2 weeks and then Sony announced it was closing developer Firewalk Studios about a month later.
The game only hit an all-time peak of just 697 when it released at the end of August.
What do you make of Hulst’s comments regarding investing and growing live-service games despite Concord’s failure?
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They're going to grow that live services sinkhole, alright. lol