Sony cuts Live Service titles from 12 down to 6

[Gediminas]

Yeah, Jim definitely got fired.

The real question now is, how long will it take for studios to recover from this.

would say, mid PS6, maybe a bit earlier.. some devs can never recover..

 

[Gediminas]

I'm sure some people will have missed this, but it's important to note that there's a slide that mentions the following:



Considering that FY23 ends in 03/24, we know for sure that first party titles are being delayed (plural). Additionally, we now know that of the 12 Live Service titles, half of them are being reviewed (not cancelled, though the more they delay, the more likely this is).

As I had predicted, this is just the beginning of the Jim Ryan effect on PlayStation. Accuse me of all the doom and gloom you want, but it's becoming more and more clear that he got the boot, and why he got the boot. His decisions literally compromised employee satisfaction, product pipeline, and the bottom line of shareholders (by impacting revenue figures due to lack of games).

Only problem is who comes next.

i mentioned that multiple times, it is not doom and gloom. his real effect will show up 2023 upwards. especially when new games supposed to hit.. and all of them are delayed, canceled or in dev hell. for figure..

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

GaaS gamers are very risky, unless you have something really special to keep people hooked up in the long run, as well as something catchy to get them in.

This is most of a winner take all than anything else in gaming.

 

[Yurinka]

Deviation had their project scrapped.

Sony said they still have these 12 GaaS planned, but 6 of them have been delayed to after March 2026.

Meaning, the Deviation game has not been cancelled but very likely been delayed to after March 2026.

Deviation was founded in 2020, so considering that nowadays AAA games take at least 5-6 years of development, a release in late 2026 or 2027 would be normal timing even without a delay specially considering it's the first game of the studio, a new IP and a GaaS.

i mentioned that multiple times, it is not doom and gloom. his real effect will show up 2023 upwards. especially when new games supposed to hit.. and all of them are delayed, canceled or in dev hell. for figure..

The 12 GaaS are still there, some already released and 6 of them delayed to after March 2026. None of them seems to have been cancelled.

 

[Vertigo]

Sony said they still have these 12 GaaS planned, but 6 of them have been delayed to after March 2026.

Meaning, the Deviation game has not been cancelled but very likely been delayed to after March 2026.

Deviation was founded in 2020, so considering that nowadays AAA games take at least 5-6 years of development, a release in late 2026 or 2027 would be normal timing even without a delay specially considering it's the first game of the studio, a new IP and a GaaS.

I’m only finding reports of layoffs and statements that the game has been cancelled with Sony ending the funding. I’d love to see something saying otherwise.

Delays are unsurprising. Sorta ridiculous tho they planned to debut so many within such a small window.

 

[Say1nMan]

Dropping 12 GAAS on us within a year would have been overkill. Glad they're delaying some of this.

 

[Yurinka]

I’m only finding reports of layoffs and statements that the game has been cancelled with Sony ending the funding. I’d love to see something saying otherwise.

Delays are unsurprising. Sorta ridiculous tho they planned to debut so many within such a small window.

Here you have Totoki saying that the 12 GaaS plan is still there (don't plan to add more) but now by March 2026 they think 6 will be released and are still working with the other 6 to know when they will release them (sounds that pretty likely after 2026), because they want to ensure they are good enough because for gamers the most important think is quality:
https://www.irwebmeeting.com/sony/fast/20231109/m8q63fxg/202403_2q_02_en/index.html

VGC correctly transcripted it.

So sounds that there have been delays to improve quality instead of cancellations.

He also got asked about the reports of layoffs in the media, and he says that one of the goals of the acquisitions was to improve efficiency and as part of it Bungie fired around 100 people in 'indirect' (I assume he means secondary, not gamedev related) divisions (which I assume would be redundant due to having other SIE team doing the same job).

A important game getting delayed may also result on someone in charge of some mess getting replaced or fired, or some contractors/support studio/outsourcing studio/testers not being needed for some months (or more than a year), so they would have to move to other project during that time and -if their studio doesn't have other project tto work on- to fire them (and maybe hire them or someone else back later when needed).

And yes, delays are very common in game developmentt. Specially when the team has enough money and aren't too pressured by reaching specific dates and can afford to get extra time to improve more their games.

Well, 12 games in 6 years isn't a lot for a big game publisher. And they already had released several GaaS before such as PS Home, Little Big Planet series, Gran Turismo Sport, MLB etc. plus knew they were going to work with Bungie (Destiny makers), Firewalk (Destiny and Halo makers), Haven (Rainbow 6, AC, etc. makers), Deviation (makers of CoD and other top shooters) etc. Plus Helldivers 2 and Firewall Ultra were smaller projects, sequels with their own existing niche made by their successful (for that niche/scale) devs. Yes, it's bold but I'm pretty sure the majority of them will be profitable and 2 or 3 of them will be big hits.

Dropping 12 GAAS on us within a year would have been overkill. Glad they're delaying some of this.

They don't plan to release 12 GaaS in a year. They plan to have released 6 GaaS by March 2026, and already released MLB, GT7 and Firewall Ultra. Helldivers 2 also seems locked so theres two more, which I assume will be Concord and Marathon.

Then they have 6 more that they think need to be improved and have been delayed to improve them, but aren't sure when are going to be released, but sounds that most likely won't be before April 2026.

So pretty likely TLOU Online (started in 2019, Deviation's game (studio founded in 2020), Horizon Online, Firesprite's MP game, London Studio's new IP and some another game (maybe Matter/Insomniac's MP project/GoT Legends 2 if branched out to a standalone game?), or at least most of them, will be released later than March 2026.

 

[Vertigo]

Dude… if you have no statement of any kind citing that the deviation game isn’t cancelled or still in dev. Oh forget it.

To everyone else… it’s canned. Other game rumors have been a bit nebulous. Not so much the deviation project. Sony stopped funding.

 

[Yurinka]

Dude… if you have no statement of any kind citing that the deviation game isn’t cancelled or still in dev. Oh forget it.

To everyone else… it’s canned. Other game rumors have been a bit nebulous. Not so much the deviation project. Sony stopped funding.

I shown you Totoki saying to their investors that they continue with the 12 GaaS but that half of them have been delayed most likely beyond March 2026.

The Deviation game is one of these 12 games and he can't lie to their investors, which means isn't cancelled but instead super likely got delayed instead.

Here you have the transcript: https://www.videogameschronicle.com...ed-half-of-its-12-planned-live-service-games/