PlayStation, Bungie Still Going Ahead with Internal Live Service Team

Could be a Concord 2 announcement soon 🤔

This f***ing live service push will end up wasting the entire generation, so much time and money poured down the drain…

Regardless of thoughts on live service. This does make good business sense.

Ah yeah, nah....

I have a plan to hit my back log for a while and see how the rest of the gen pans out at this point.

I very much dislike a lot of the noise coming out of Sony, MS may well pull the plug on Xbox the way things are going and that leaves us with whatever cabbage hardware Nintendo drop on us.

I'm not a PC guy, but I feel like I'm being pushed further and further out of modern gaming right now.

It's worked out so well for them so far.

Helldivers 2 wasn't really all that successful though. Great launch, no doubt about that, but it has lost 90% of its peak player numbers.

@LifeGirl it was most certainly successful. The initial sales alone made it a huge a success.

@LifeGirl Concurrent players only means those that are playing at the same time. Many will have moved from being daily active users to weekly or monthly active users. The playerbase is still very healthy and engaged. The game did better than Sony's or Arrowhead's wildest expectations.

The writing’s been on the wall for a while now. I just don’t know why they’re doubling down when it’s a free PR win to put out waffle about going back to their roots.

@IOI
Totally agree, it has spoilt the PS5 generation games wise, especially big AAA campaign type games.

@Waa-Laa Concord Folie a Deux?

Why make new games when you can just throw out attempts to be the next fortnite and see if one sticks?

@naruball If they wanted initial sales they'd have made a single player game. They want that 10-20 year revenue pumping cash factory, that's the purpose of making these games. Not flash in the pan one year wonders. Helldiver's succeeded in the way a single player game succeeds. As far as the suits that push this initiative are concerned that's still failure.

And lets not forget Destruction Allstars too - another Live service 'flop' this generation from Sony. As for the cancellation of Factions, I do wonder whether it would have succeeded without a strong 'Single Player' game - after all, both Uncharted and Last of Us MP's were originally sold with arguably the 'best' Single-player games.

Stripping out that Single Player mode (or selling the MP separately if you want to look at it that way) cuts out a LOT of the Fanbase that would buy the game just for the Single Player and I don't know that those 'MP' modes would sell well enough on their own.

I think it could work if they went back to delivering MP modes along with the campaign or maybe go the Free to Play route if MP/Live service only. Their 'successful' games also generally have a solid Single Player offering too

@nessisonett I think the problem is - they know where the money is going (in terms of actual profit vs investment). Once the ROI starts getting too low on single player one-and-done games, investors (and hence Sony) will quickly find other opportunities. It never used to be that way, but Sony has changed a lot in the last 5 years.

I think there's a real reason why XB is moving to 3rd Party publishing... because the money isn't there in the tradtional gaming space (or it's getting too risky... which is why we're getting sequel-itis / remaster-bation). The exception is live service - where if you look at the big wins for MS, it's largely in the multi-platform GaaS category (outside of GP), where they're printing money.

Edit- I thought I could claim authorship of the term remaster-bation; but unfortunately the band Suckerpie beat me to it. The hyphen is all mine however.

These f***ers just don't learn do they? DO YOU WANT KILL PLAYSTATION!!?? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE DOING HERMAN!!!!

Another day, and more money thrown into the pit that is live service. Wonder what happens when marathon doesnt hit

@Medic_alert something like a steam deck seems like the way to go for the next generation. If Sony don't have competition they'll get greedier.

And if most sales are taking place digitally, and the PS6 doesn't ship with a mandatory disc drive, you're entirely in Sony's hands when it comes to game prices and game preservation.

PCs these days get more games, they get indie games much earlier, they've got mods, and they've got multiple store fronts. With Steam decks they even play well on a TV with a controller now.

If Sony are serious about the live service push they need to stop bringing Bungie into the discussion. Bungie live service model is the worst in the business so as soon as Sony mentions Bungie they lose all credibility in my eyes.

@ThomasHL I've had a steam deck before, I think on that front I'm waiting for another generation or so of those hand heads.

Feels like we are just getting the power/battery ratio right there. I'd also be more interested in one that can use gamepass out the box.

I have no problem with Sony wanting live service success, and this seems like a good way to help with it.

I've been playing a sony exclusive live service game almost daily for the last 30 months. GT7 is excellent. People need to learn the difference between live service and predatory gatcha, or whatever other mechanic it is that makes them foam at the mouth.

@LifeGirl I tried Helldivers 2 due to all the hype and all the articles played maybe 2 or 3 hours and dropped off it. I can't put my finge ron why though, I guess it just didn't click with me as much as with other people

@Medic_alert Grab a cheap mini pc, hook it up to the big tv and relish in the golden era recently been playing Pure, Split/Second and Scud Race and having a blast, im done with gacha,dlc,roadmaps,season passes,pre order bonus content,subscriptions etc etc.

@Jrs1 in some ways that's what I'm doing with my back log right now.

I have probably enough games to last me till the day I die, I should probably play some of them.

I'm literally starting the first Red Dead Redemption (remastered) as we speak.

@LifeGirl how can something that has over 20 million sales not be successful? Player count doesn't change that

Because PlayStation's live service initiative disrupting their pipeline, costing them billions of wasted dollars, and putting a stink on their image hasn't been bad enough this gen...

@themightyant
I know they aren't all bad and yeah the two examples you mentioned are great too. The funny thing though is that those two have been dabbling in the live service business before Bungie came around.

With Helldivers it feels like they were caught off-guard with how successful it was. Then they canceled TLOU Online after years of development. Then Concord...

It just seems like all Bungie has brought to the table for them is more problems, not less... which isn't good considering Bungie are supposed to be the "experts" in this field.