Reaction: Sony's Live Service Push Has Been a Disaster of Utterly Insane Proportions

Image: Push Square

Live service. The two words that every PlayStation fan seems to pop a blood vessel over. And you know what? That kind of visceral reaction now seems justified.

Under former CEO Jim Ryan's leadership, PlayStation had announced its intent to blitz the live service market — to create PS5 mega hits that would rake in unprecedented dough. To be fair, everyone wants a piece of this pie — but Sony saw fit to go all-in.

This was despite strong criticism from hardcore fans — those who had seen the company dominate the previous console generation through the production of unstoppable single-player blockbusters. But with modern, AAA development cycles being so colossal, there was simply no turning the ship around.

Except that's exactly what Sony is in the process of doing as we write this article. In case you haven't seen the news, the company has just cancelled two live service projects from Bluepoint (the team behind the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls remakes) and Bend Studio (the developer of Days Gone).