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[HeisenbergFX4]

In a report published by Nikkei, it was revealed that Sony intends to ‘pour’ financial resources into gaming research and development – to the tune of around $2.13 billion. That’s reportedly an investment that’s being made before the end of fiscal year 2024, and it’ll account for a whopping 40% of Sony’s entire R&D spending.

Not only that but Sony Group has also expressed a desire to pivot towards a model that focuses much more succinctly on live service titles, with Nikkei’s article referencing the fact that ‘Sony itself has yet to make a splash in live service games.’

PlayStation to Pivot​

For years, PlayStation’s bread and butter has been in remarkable single-player exclusives, which have dominated markets globally but don’t typically have much staying power – unless sequels are released, of course. That’s partly why, in 2022, Sony stepped up and bought out Bungie for $3.7 billion, recognising that the minds that brought the world Destiny could offer something unique in the ever-growing market of live service games.

According to the report published by Nikkei.com, Sony plans to allocate a staggering 60% of all PlayStation 5 development spending to live service games exclusively for the year ending March 2026. It was also stated that there’s a grand goal in place to have no fewer than twelve live service games in the PlayStation portfolio within that same timeline.

Furthermore, it was explained that Sony Group also has plans to break into the metaverse in a much more meaningful way, exploring avenues made up of ‘extended reality’ and making use of studios around the world to drive research and development into the space.

 

[Del_X]

60% to live service is insane. They want the next Fortnite.

 

[DenchDeckard]

PIVOT!!

Guess they ran the numbers and these huge single player games aren't sustainable after all?

 

[ThisIsMyDog]

Now you know why the last showcase was so weak, most Sony studios are working on live service games. Let's hope it bites them in the ass.

 

[Elbereth]

As long as the quality isn’t diminished, I don’t see the problem.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Those son of a bitch Homer sexual deviants

 

[Gudji]

Now you know why the last showcase was so weak, most Sony studios are working on live service games. Let's hope it bites them in the ass.

No it was weak because their single player big budget blockbusters aren't ready to show. Dev cycles are only increasing and new IP takes even longer to make.

 

[Bernardougf]

No shit.. after their last gaas extravaganza presentation

My Hope is that they are trying to find some money maker to found the other projects

And also CUT the COD dependence...

This acquisition spree by MS is going to change a lot of things going forward, independently of the final result

 

[Panajev2001a]

PIVOT!!

Guess they ran the numbers and these huge single player games aren't sustainable after all?

Or you are FUD-ing in a Sony related thread and this is just stating what Sony mentioned a while ago when they announced their financial results where they were ALSO growing the money allocated to the traditional AAA segment of games on top of investing money in the live services segment…

 

[JaksGhost]

This is the same number Sony provided to their investors. What's new here?

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Aren't they about 7 years too late? People who play live service games have dug into their games of choice. And if its like with me and my crew, the inertia of having played the same game for years is really hard to overcome to switch to a new one

 

[TrebleShot]

The beginning of the end for our beloved Sony

 

[MidGenRefresh]

If you're wondering how the future of Sony's GAAS looks like, just look at the microtransaction hell of Destiny 2. That's their template.

 

[SJRB]

Getting a bad feeling about Sony after all this Live Service bullshit lately.

 

[SlimySnake]

What a waste of money. Invest in the games that turned you into the giant you are today instead of chasing the next fad. The cod casual, the fortnite kid, the kinect mom or the wii grandpa didn't make give you the lead, it was the single player millennial who stuck by you.

Just dance with the one who brought you.

 

[EverydayBeast]

What? All these platforms, services etc. real games are because Sony exists, you can make 1-3 AAA games a year and that’s not being moody.

 

[tusharngf]

I hope they bring some good mp fps game this time.

 

[Crayon]

Yeah if they could lose cod at some point they should start trying to land a live service hit YESTERDAY. They have years to throw shit at to wall. They aren't even trying to counter with exclusives. They just need to be ready to replace that cashflow.

 

[SlimySnake]

No it was weak because their single player big budget blockbusters aren't ready to show. Dev cycles are only increasing and new IP takes even longer to make.

if they take so long to make then you would think they would invest MORE in those games to get them out faster. Instead they showed up with a total of ONE single player game and like five gaas trash.

 

[gothmog]

This is the same number Sony provided to their investors. What's new here?

Exactly. This is old news someone rewrapped as new news.

 

[Panajev2001a]

In a report published by Nikkei, it was revealed that Sony intends to ‘pour’ financial resources into gaming research and development – to the tune of around $2.13 billion. That’s reportedly an investment that’s being made before the end of fiscal year 2024, and it’ll account for a whopping 40% of Sony’s entire R&D spending.

Not only that but Sony Group has also expressed a desire to pivot towards a model that focuses much more succinctly on live service titles, with Nikkei’s article referencing the fact that ‘Sony itself has yet to make a splash in live service games.’

PlayStation to Pivot​

For years, PlayStation’s bread and butter has been in remarkable single-player exclusives, which have dominated markets globally but don’t typically have much staying power – unless sequels are released, of course. That’s partly why, in 2022, Sony stepped up and bought out Bungie for $3.7 billion, recognising that the minds that brought the world Destiny could offer something unique in the ever-growing market of live service games.

According to the report published by Nikkei.com, Sony plans to allocate a staggering 60% of all PlayStation 5 development spending to live service games exclusively for the year ending March 2026. It was also stated that there’s a grand goal in place to have no fewer than twelve live service games in the PlayStation portfolio within that same timeline.

Furthermore, it was explained that Sony Group also has plans to break into the metaverse in a much more meaningful way, exploring avenues made up of ‘extended reality’ and making use of studios around the world to drive research and development into the space.

How is this new news compared to:

from their May 2023 presentation? This is where they stated that their traditional gaming spend was growing, but that they were spending even more in live services games.

 

[DrFigs]

Sensible. They need something to replace the lost revenue if COD goes to xbox.

 

[vivftp]

Now you know why the last showcase was so weak, most Sony studios are working on live service games. Let's hope it bites them in the ass.

Of SIE's pre-existing studios before their recent acquisitions, only Naughty Dog, London Studios and Guerrilla are expanding into the live service realm. That adds them to San Diego Studio who makes MLB. That's while ND and Guerrilla continue to make single player games as they're both multi-project.

All the other live service games come from newly acquired studios and partner studios such as Bungie, Arrowhead, Haven, Firewalk, Firesprite (assuming Twisted Metal is one of them), First Contact (assuming Firewall Ultra is one of them), and Deviation (if their game isn't cancelled, which it might be).

Around half or more than half the games SIE are working on are traditional single player games. All of the above has absolutely nothing to do with the Showcase and what was and wasn't there. That would entirely depend on what stage each game is at in their development and the time tables Sony has for each game to be revealed.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

How is this new news compared to:

from their May 2023 presentation?

Guess I didn't see that presentation, mods can take thread down if desired

 

[ThisIsMyDog]

Guess I didn't see that presentation, mods can take thread down if desired

Not your fault, insider gaming was so deep inside that only now they've crawled out.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Nothing new here. We knew this.

 

[bitbydeath]

Article seems a bit over the top, there’s nothing staggering about 2.1B, and the amount is being compared to R&D which is generally associated with creating new hardware.

 

[rofif]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck gaas

 

[Sanepar]

Less money for what make they stronger and special(SP pure games) and a lot of money for 12 games that will fail hard.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

I hope every gaas game they create fails miserably, they take heavy losses and have to pivot to producing good games more than once every 2.5 years.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Less money for what make they stronger and special(SP pure games) and a lot of money for 12 games that will fail hard.

Nope, try trolling

harder …

 

[JaksGhost]

Less money for what make they stronger and special(SP pure games) and a lot of money for 12 games that will fail hard.

They're actually pouring MORE money into SP games.

 

[LakeOf9]

Ten years late to a party that burned the entire street down, go Sony!

 

[DenchDeckard]

Ah same old news. I thought it was a new 2.1 billion. Didn't know it was already announced.

 

[SlimySnake]

Nope, try trolling

harder …

Why is he wrong? There is definitely less money allocated to SP games today in FY23 than they had allocated in FY19.

FY25 looks to be on par with FY19 which adjusting for inflation and rising costs of game likely means less money would be allocated to single player games than they did six years before FY25.

The proof is in the pudding. they revealed 5 GaaS games and 1 SP game at their PS conference. No TLOU3, Cory new IP, Wolverine, GoT2, Death Stranding or Bluepoint's new remake in sight. Clearly, the single player studios dont have enough resources to get these games out faster because the extra money they needed to combat rising costs went instead to gaas trash.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Can't wait for World of Wargods, where every NPC refers to you as "boy".

 

[bitbydeath]

Less money for what make they stronger and special(SP pure games) and a lot of money for 12 games that will fail hard.

It’s talking about R&D which isn’t games related. It’s hardware.

 

[Punished Miku]

All anyone can do is just wait considering we haven't even seen any of the games. GAAS really is a broad term that can mean many things. It just comes down to how good the games are, how compelling the ongoing support is, and how repulsive any monetization is. I have to assume they have some kind of plan for success. They seem to be doing alright at the whole "making games" thing.

At the very least, this will be a new era for Sony that shakes up the single player 3rd person adventure they've been criticized for sticking to so frequently.

 

[StereoVsn]

Welp, I guess I will be Pivoting away from the PlayStation.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

Mmmmm some fresh outrage to old news

 

[mansoor1980]

they cant rely on COD , they are trying to develop an organic alternative

 

[StueyDuck]

gotta do what you can i suppose, they know now trying to rely on pubs is futile, they'll all belong to MS soon.

I guess all you need is one fortnite, well i wish you the best Sony, i'll be there on the otherside when it all goes to shit.

 

[mitch1971]

PIVOT!!

Guess they ran the numbers and these huge single player games aren't sustainable after all?

Or they ran the numbers and found the SP games had made that much money that they could take the risk of pivoting.

 

[graywolf323]

This is the same number Sony provided to their investors. What's new here?

just more FUD about Sony focusing only on GAAS when they’ve never said that

 

[FUBARx89]

Just think, Bungie are reviewing Playstation GAAS stuff, pretty funny considering the absolute shit state of Destiny 2 right now after Lightfall.

So look forward to shitty servers at the very least

 

[Z O N E]

I'm still shocked that they are planning 12 live service games... AND they will probably all try to copy the Destiny 2 formula, which makes it just extremely depressing.

 

[Banjo64]

I think this is a mistake. The big players are such a tiny percentage of the overall market.

Just look at Microsoft, whose focus has always been online games, their only live service hit of the entire generation has been Sea of Thieves, which holds a very respectable population but isn’t a behemoth. Halo, Gears and Grounded have tiny populations.

I predict that none of Sony’s attempts will be successful, waste of money if you ask me.

 

[ElCasual]

Time to jump off from this Titanic and the iceberg is called Jim Ryan.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

What a confused and misdirecting OP.

Sony's games development investment into Live Service gaming has no relation to their $2b R&D spend.

Nowhere is there any statement by Sony linking these two things. The OP and this shitty article he's citing are conflating two entirely unrelated things.

Sony's gaming R&D spend will cover hardware and software R&D, and a big chunk of that will be future hardware development, e.g. Project Q, PS6, a Pro (if it's coming).

Sony's 60% investment in Live Service games has been reported on already and is unrelated. Their total spend on SP games is marginally increasing from 2019 and Live Service game development is largely increasing because they recently purchased new studios who are working on Live Service games, so the increase in investment merely represents the additional overheads of those new studios who they've recently bought.

Nothing to see here folks. Other than people being disingenuous to try to build a stupid narrative that's tantamount to spreading FUD.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Instead of doubling down on the types of games and experiences that have made them console market leader, Sony is going to blow its load trying to create the next Fortnite blockbuster GAAS game. I don't think I'll be interested in a PS6 looking at the way Jim is steering this company.