PlayStation and live service games don’t mix, but Sony wants to change that as soon as possible.
At the company’s quarterly investor conference, Sony executives shared several details about PlayStation’s strategy. They confirmed a shift from a hardware-centric business model to a platform-based approach focused on engagement beyond PlayStation consoles. We also learned that Bungie’s Marathon reboot will definitely launch by the end of March.
Despite earlier assurances after the acquisition, Bungie will lose much of its independence as it is gradually integrated into PlayStation Studios. Live service was a frequent topic during the Q&A, and Sony CFO Lin Tao admitted that the plan—originally aiming for ten live service game launches by March 2026—hasn’t progressed as smoothly as hoped. However, he noted that not everything is bad and that these lessons will prove useful for future projects.
“Last year, Concord was canceled, and this year, Marathon was postponed, so somewhat negative news has been coming out. But if you look at the past five years, five years ago, live service games were almost nonexistent for PlayStation Studios. Now, we have Helldivers 2, MLB The Show, Gran Turismo 7, and Destiny 2, so four live services are contributing to stable sales and profits. In Q1 of 2025, the live service ratio was around 40%. For the full year, it’s slightly less, probably between 20 and 30 percent. In terms of the transformation, things are not going entirely smoothly. However, from a long-term perspective, if you look at the changes over the past five years, you will see that there has definitely been progress. Of course, we recognize that there are still many issues, so we must learn from our mistakes and ensure that we introduce live service content with less waste and more efficiency,” Tao said.
Helldivers 2 is undoubtedly PlayStation’s biggest success in the live service segment, but it wasn’t developed by a first-party studio. This fact alone highlights how much Sony still has to learn to succeed in this crowded category, where players have limited time.
The fate of Marathon will surely be a turning point—will it soar like Helldivers 2 or flop like Concord? We’ll know more in a few months.
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