410°

These leaked PlayStation stats explain Sony’s live service obsession

Sony’s massive live service push for PS5 is struggling and being called into question, but this leaked presentation shows why it went so hard.

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theloadout.com
ApocalypseShadow106d ago (Edited 106d ago )

This is all you need to know:

Sony has consistently delivered brilliant single player games and will continue to do so into the next generation. Naughty Dog isn't going to miss the PS5 era as they are working on multiple projects and not just a live service game only.

Again, when I say this, gamers asked Sony for quality online games to match their single player offerings. They also bitched and complained about games not having "road maps" for online games. That means a game that will consistently be updated with new items, new maps, new levels, with some of it being free. And some of it being priced to purchase. Like GT7. Online games TODAY, if they want to continue to live beyond the old style online games where it was online and that's all you got and nothing else, are LIVE SERVICE GAMES. They all are to stay relevant and keep player retention. Because gamers will move on to the next online game if it isn't fun and if there isn't any new content.

No one has played any of their online games yet to bitch and complain about it. Single player games like myself will still be catered to. But Sony is trying to please those who asked for online,(GaaS, yes GaaS, you asked for it) and make a little money on the side because they are a business. As companies like Microsoft try to strip Sony's revenue by buying up 3rd party publishers and franchises, royalty money that Sony made to create more high quality games, Sony has to look at other avenues to make money like with PC or mobile. They can't just make single player games only and get stuck in a rut just doing that. They are allowed to diversify. Doesn't mean you have to buy into all of it. But they are allowed to as a company to TRY. Just like with VR. Just like with Portal.

ianyoung3105d ago

I think I am actually in line with you here. It seemed there was a push to get Sony into multiplayer live service games. Round out their portfolio with what they are clearly missing. There will be misses and home runs. Who would have ever thought that the people who went hands on with Foamstars would actually enjoy their time?!?!?!

Gamers like me who enjoy the narrative based third person AAA game have a decision to make. Those games will cost a ton to make. Are we OK with paying more for such an experience? I know I am because I enjoy that type of game that much. Making those games will ultimately come with an opportunity cost.

ravens52105d ago

I agree with everything you said. For me personally, I felt 12 was too much. I understand a few but don't shift the entirety of Sony 1st party studios to gaas.

shinoff2183105d ago

Shadow, it makes sense. People just blow it out of proportion, myself included. I get it, but still don't care for it(online anything). It's just the bigger picture is well, bigger then me.

Great point about some of Sonys 3rd party revenue being cut off.

dveio105d ago (Edited 105d ago )

Understandably formulated common thread, spot on.

I actually think about re-subscribing to PS Plus again after I had cancelled when the price hike happened.

Sony has been spending enormous sums of money developing and funding great games. They have given us nothing but Game of the Year material ever since.

Now, with MS buying up huge publishers, there probably are, as you mentioned, royalties worth hundreds of millions going to decrease.

In the last four years, Sony has been clearly upping Playstation's price tag for customers.

But ... if it was just necessary for them to keep up their quality in development and funding own or even other/Third Party projects (Death Stranding, e.g.), then I would want them to continue doing that without hesitations.

JEECE105d ago

"They also bitched and complained about games not having "road maps" for online games. That means a game that will consistently be updated with new items, new maps, new levels, with some of it being free. And some of it being priced to purchase."

It's nice to see someone understanding that gamers have inflicted the curse of live service games on themselves. We get so mad when a dev says their multiplayer game is going to be a "service" or a "platform," but if a dev makes a non-live service multiplayer game you are expected to play because it has good gameplay, everyone starts blasting it and asking for a road map, new levels for a progression system, new guns, etc.

shinoff2183105d ago

Not all of us have. I'm still pretty against online gaming. Not like banish and send it all to hell but it's just not for me. I might try gta online but idk how it'll go. I've played madden and resistance in the past and just felt like what am I doing. I'm literally not accomplishing anything in this game. Kinda the same reason I stop buying sports games, cause I just had games sitting there with a story to tell. I'm sure some online games have a story going for it though.

mkis007105d ago

Dead on. Ms is trying to suffocate them the only way they can. Sony's only avenue is to have a great live service game to make up for what MS is doing.

isarai105d ago

Forcing all the 1st party devs to make a total of 12 within 1yr by splitting their resources away from their main SP projects is my major problem. 12 is overkill, and how about you let them start wrapping up current projects before dropping a new one in them. Now we're sitting here with only 1 PlayStation 1st party game expected this year and no other official announcements besides the terribly generic looking Fairgame$.

We want a new factions, or Killzone MP, or Warframe, not another Valorant, Fortnite or Overwatch, big difference

Shane Kim104d ago

That is not what sells or will be played though.

TheEroica105d ago

My goodness, that is some top tier apologist garbage right there folks.

InUrFoxHole105d ago

Ok thank you for telling us all we need to know... 🤡

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 104d ago
Reaper22_105d ago (Edited 105d ago )

At the end of the day it doesn't matter what we think. Sony's goal is to make more money whether its single player or GAAS. And thats what they're gonna do. They're gonna support both. The fact is that a game can sell well and still not bring in the profits that are needed. Development cost is just one expense to recover. Stuff like advertising and other things are eating away some of the profits. That successful game that cost 100 million to make may cost almost double the next time. If this was the 1990s or early 2000s this wouldn't be as bad. Sony makes good single players games and they sell but in today's gaming industry it may not be enough to sustain them for the next decade or two. They may not have much of a choice but to invest more in GAAS.

UltimateOwnage105d ago

"Live service obsession". What a bunch of BS hyperbole.

BeHunted105d ago

It's true. It brings in unlimited amount of money.

105d ago
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100°

Outriders Dev's Next Game Has Been Canceled After Publishing Agreement With Take-Two Fell Through

Outriders developer People Can Fly's next game has been canceled after its publishing agreement with Take-Two Interactive fell through.

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twistedvoxel.com
Tacoboto1d 12h ago

"the capital group of PCF Group S.A."

If you're getting funding from a group that needs two different ways of Acronyming itself, things will not go the way you want them to.

banger881d 6h ago

If it was more online-only crap then good riddance.

jjb198116h ago

Outriders was crap. They slapped that game together and threw in a loot system to get players' attention. This game was absolutely jank and the always online nonsense made it stutter like crazy. People Can't Optimize.

thorstein15h ago

I liked Outriders but I could see where the artistic vision was compromised. The way the industry is now, it wouldn't surprise me that upper management would scrap something that didn't pull in money via gaas, mts, or other means.

290°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

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theverge.com
darthv721d 9h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle20h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic188117h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio17h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning7712h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga20h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

darthv726h ago

to you it may seem like the minority... but your bubble is shrinking because more and more are following suit. convenience is a hell of a drug and its also why physical sales only amount to 30% of overall game sales. times are changing, you either get with them or you get left behind.

neutralgamer19921h ago

Darth

30% physical sales: yet Phil and xbox division are in a rush go give up on that 30%. they don't have any right to give up any piece of the pie since the control such a little of the pie to begin with

also, the market is clearly speaking that the model Xbox is pushing isn't working right now the keyword being right now. you are right about freedom to play anywhere so i hope they put their games on steam

shinoff218319h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga18h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan14h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

S2Killinit6h ago

MS is after diminishing consoles as a medium. They want to destroy this market because they couldnt win. MS’s vision is to dissolve console gaming.

romulus2312h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv7212h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

TheEroica6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

Perfectly reasonable post down voted by insecure corporation friendly folk.... But not gamers. Real gamer want accessibility and ease of acquisition for all.... Company shills are the only ones still telling us that hardware locking people from games is good for us.

Chevalier1h ago

@Darth

You should stop parroting metrics like an idiot without context.

"Xbox content and services revenue grew 62% in Q3 from a year earlier, “driven by 61 points of net impact” from the purchase of the third-party video game giant, Microsoft said."

61 of the 62% was from their merger so net increase is ONLY 1%

https://www.mesaonline.org/...

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purple10122h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos22h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-12h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac21h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad21h ago(Edited 21h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple10121h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos20h ago(Edited 20h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic19h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead12h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

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90°

An Update on This Year’s BlizzCon and Blizzard’s 2024 Live Events

Blizzard writes: "After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years."

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blizzcon.com
PRIMORDUS1d 7h ago

How about you not hold Blizzcon anymore period. You fucking POS company. I really hope Blizzard would just die.