PlayStation might be making more live-service titles soon, but it’s not giving up on prestige single-player games.
Ever since PlayStation’s acquisition of Bungie, there’s been plenty of hubbub about all the live-service games in development at the company. Some fans (understandably) worry that single-player titles like God of War or Horizon Forbidden West will no longer be a priority for Sony. During an interview GamesIndustry.biz (thanks, IGN), PlayStation boss Herman Hulst states that those sorts of games aren’t going anywhere.
“Obviously we will always carry on making these single-player narrative-based games such as Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and Horizon Forbidden West,” Hulst said. “But you’ve spotted correctly that we have invested in live service games, because that’s incredibly exciting for us. It allows us to build larger worlds, it allows us to create really meaningful social connections between players.
The latter part of Hulst’s comment refers to PlayStation’s purchase of Haven Studios earlier this week, which will help the company create live-service titles for PS5 and beyond.
Excited to officially welcome @HavenStudiosinc to PlayStation Studios! Super impressed by @ibjade and her talented team, and their vision for an original multiplayer game for PlayStation. Congrats to everyone at Haven! pic.twitter.com/EjWFbh1HEc
— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) March 21, 2022
“We have quite a few now in development or conceptualization, so yes, we are setting up capabilities internally. But exactly for that reason, it is so exciting for us to welcome to the family a group of people who have a lot of experience with live-service games,” Hulst continues. “It’s really exciting for our central services and technology groups. For these to be working with a world-class outfit like Haven, that’s great. And it is aligned with the strategy of diversifying the kinds of games we are offering to our fanbase.”
So don’t worry, PlayStation fans. Games like God of War Ragnarok will indeed still exist.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.