PlayStation London Studio Seems to Be Making a Fantasy-Based Live Service Game

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 😑

If its like Free Realms (only the OGs know bout this) I'm all in

I’d be down for this!

I may be in the minority here but I’ve never played a live service game I actually liked.

This hyper focus from Sony when virtually every one of these projects has failed outside of Destiny, Fortnite and Warzone is pretty damning for the future on paper.

Ah yes, storytelling through a live service model. Where if you don't play and complete that content the only week it's available, you completely miss out on that part of the story.

What a waste of a golden opportunity to bring back PlayStation Home.

@Colour Destiny also actually failed and had to pull itself up again and again. Most others didn’t manage as well as Destiny did.
Only now it is in a pretty good place and appears to stabilize.

Its To Bad Sony Sold Off SOE a New Everquest Game Would Have Been Perfect For This Live Service Push That Sony Is Going Through.

@Colour Think is, you only need one to succeed and it can more than make up for all the rest that failed. Look at Genshin Impact. Almost none of us imagined it'd be that successful.

Sounds good to me as long as they don't have level scaling. That ruins the feeling of growth and immersion for me.

@kyleforrester87 yes indeed..path of exile is really good..

By fantasy I hope they mean games like final fantasy, dragon quest and Elden Ring, and not games like destiny 2 and outriders

Basically fantasy with swords and magic rather than guns

@theMEGAniggle Bro!!! You just unlocked a core memory of mine playing that game back in elementary school.
Wow, feels like forever since I heard of that game hahaha

Came to read the comments because I knew it would be full of people complaining about it being a live service game
Not exactly a fan of them but as long as I get my single player experiences which has always been done in my time with PlayStation I'm fine with them experimenting in other areas
Not every single game a company releases has to appeal to you, if Sony is making like 12 Fortnites and none of their other titles then that's where I start complaining but it's very clear we're getting those

So no PlayStation Home? ):

@Milktastrophe Its always replayable!

More live service garbage 🙄

@RawnDawn hahaha I was around the same age then too. I saw the headline and thought "Fantasy x Online x Sony? Yep I know this one"

This is looking like the best of all worlds for the future, dope single player and multiplayer experiences to come.

@theMEGAniggle not always. Genshin Impact has had a ton of story content that were limited time events that you can now never experience if you missed it.

@naruball That’s actually a really good point. I just can’t imagine 9 failed titles from first party studios is good for them long term at all. I guess they need to start gambling to keep up financially now though.

interesting to see what they do - there are a lot of talented Devs at soho studio and they are capable of great things.

@Milktastrophe good point. I guess the missing out is a great marketing/sales tactic

Cool! now I just need the name of the game so when I see an article about it I can skip by it, makes things smoother for me 👍

I'm not big on live service but I miss watching the Fortnite events with my youngest now he has moved on. A lot of folks love these games, folks that put 100's or 1000's of hours into a single game. Those same players see people like myself who play single player games as casual gamers, just as a lot of folks here talk about players of live services. As long as everyone is getting good games, all is good.

Why are some people here hating on this game before we even see it.

@Colour maybe some of those live-service games will be like Gran Turismo 7 that will be successful anyway thanks to the single player content.

@kyleforrester87 Indeed. All excellent examples.

@Grimwood At first I thought you were talking about Sony's Marvel games. Then I realized you were comparing Sony's games to Marvel, but as games. Then I realized the statement is identical and equally true with either interpretation

@kyleforrester87 It's almost as if the people that gather here chose to buy this platform product because it focused on offering the kind of entertainment they enjoy, only to find the company is shifting its focus after purchase to offer a different kind of entertainment to a totally different market that enjoys something completely different that the products these people didn't choose were known for offering and are unhappy that the vendor is changing the nature of the product they bought after purchase! The nerve!

@Colour Destiny would have been awesome if it hadn't been a live service. The world, the lore, the gunplay, the design is pure fun that's then hampered and trashed by the live service MMO respawn timer grind. I loved the single player Destiny 2 tutorial, and was hooked. Then got to the service part and all they joy was gone. Then again Destiny, without the service, is jut the real Halo 4, isn't it?

I think it's a lot like trophies. I will never understand even slightly how anyone actually cares, at all, about getting a single trophy let alone caring about getting all of them. The very concept is just nonsense to me, they have no function, value, and often represent completely random actions. Yet how many people post here about NEEDING to get every trophy, how they won't play a game unless they like the list of trophies vetted in advance? It's the whole point of their gaming universe. I thought Sony was insane in the PS3 days copying achievements. The whole thing seemed pointless. Yet, here it is.

While trophies may be all about hardcore OCD, I get the sense services are a lot like that, it's all about completing the checklists and not missing the dailies. The lists, not the game, is the satisfaction. People that like services are pretty much natural born accountants. Right @SplooshDmg ? It's sad, because it's actually true....

@kyleforrester87 I don't think anyone thinks it's brainless from a profit perspective. But (like a conversation I was having earlier on another thread with @tintin ) I think it's less about the hobby "changing" and more about an entire market segment, their existing customer base, that still exists and is, in fact larger than ever, being discarded and replaced by a completely different even larger market segment that's determined to be more profitable. It's not that their segment "changed" it's that its one group/market being cast aside for a different market.

Modern business approach is that only satisfying the largest market is the way forward, instead of fulfilling various smaller markets that are underserved, even if those markets are also profitable, simply because they're not as profitable as the largest market.

It's also a key reason that industry in all categories (not just entertainment) are consolidating into only 2-3 players in general.

Which is a little weird in Sony's case, in that, as a big media company/monopoly in other media they're the prime example of "big media companies" serving only the largest, most mainstream markets. Yet on the other hand Sony Electronics' business model revolves mostly around moving into niche, undeserved markets and charging ridiculous premium to fulfill it. SIE's approach seems to by hybridizing the two: Serve only the largest most mainstream market, step away from the existing market it previously served, and then charge ridiculous premiums for all of it.

@Titntin @kyleforrester87 I thought of this and I think it sums up well the position many of us find ourselves in, and thoughts I was trying with more words and less pictures where we feel we are right now:

@kyleforrester87 When the existing market doesn't shrink in size, and generally grows, but the producers shift to totally different markets, it's not so much about a niche, so much as moving onto new markets. There's no business mantra of "new business" I hate more than "the ones that brought you here won't get you there." It's the most sinister and cynical view of all. Sure, indies will still cater to that market, but that won't make people that spent $500 on a Sony console because they like the kind of software Sony makes only for Sony to shift to making primarily a different type of software for a different market.

It's more subtle, but I'd liken the apparent Sony shift to this larger service market to be a similar sort of thing as when Nintendo went "blue ocean" with Wii to the "casual" market. They replaced the market of the existing Nintendo gamer and the market competition for Sony and Sega's customers, and just wholesale replaced it for a totally different, "larger" market that wanted a completely different product from the start.

Of course for Nintendo it backfired, and they saw that new bigger market correctly, but that bigger market ended up finding a different product that suited them even more in mobile, and that new product ended up being a bigger cash cow than all of the rest of the field combined. But it's also just that, a totally different market that wants a different product entirely, and the two markets don't really cross that much.

It's not all hopeless. EA went that route, found some success but also unexpected failure in it, and now is not just circling back to reviving their traditional market but doubling down on it (removing all multiplayer functionality from DA4) in a way I thought impossible.

I'm multi-plat, so Sony shifting won't affect me much, I'll just end up using my PS5 a lot less in time as MS has WRPG after WRPG for years (someday....eventually....if they stop delaying them.....) And the shine from PS somewhat dulled for me midway through the PS4 generation when they abandoned the Japanese games I loved them for and focused on an all Western market, so to me it's more of a parade down the same road to meh. But for a Sony-only player, I can sympathize. When you chose the platform because it's the platform known for a focus on single player games, avoided the competing platform because it's the platform known for live service and multiplayer, only to find Sony now throwing everything into live services while MS is building a huge cache of single player games (eventually.....).... That's kind of a bait and switch (or Switch bait?)

Plus the shift to services in the industry in general is a cynical one from the start. The whole basis is the psychological warfare against the consumer, casino-style, to illicit indiscriminate spend into the product, and to consume the customer's time as completely as possible to prevent their engagement with competing products. It's everything casinos have spent decades and centuries researching and exploiting, distilled into a regulation-free loophole. It's no surprise the masses would be enthralled by it, even if it's objectively poor, it's a whole concept designed around breaking the human psyche.

@SplooshDmg I'll accept it in faxed format only. But I'll give you a nifty confirmation sheet and the machine will make a beep sound!

@theMEGAniggle NOW thoughs were good times

@Milktastrophe yeah not true lol technically mmos are live service and I play like eso and you can experience it anytime, also destiny is mmo. You can experience it anytime. Say actual facts next time

Also for everyone complaining grow up there still making all the great singleplayer games we know and love so let them make these, also you don't have to play play others, I play eso, division 1 and 2 and destiny 1 and 2 all solo by myself like a singelplayer game. Ppl really don't use there Brains anymore

@SerJosh97 it is a fact and is very common in live service games.

Try exploring the golden apple archipelago in Genshin Impact. Oh, you can't because the entire game area and storyline was temporary for a live service event. In that case try the Tolga and Fatin zombie hunt in Dying Light. Oh no, another limited time live service that's no longer available. FF14 must be safe then being one of the biggest and most successful MMORPGs ever, surely you can go and experience the meteor... Nope, you had to be there live since they scrapped the original game.

@SerJosh97 The Division was one of the most boring things i played the same goes for Destiny it has nothing to do with not using my brains its about them be being boring.

Gaas is something i will pass on no problem, always online is something i will skip it just means ill keep more money in the pocket. And if it gets to bad i can always go for older games for next to nothing.

@Sam_ATLUS Well i hear about liveservice from Sony all the time dont hear a lot about the singleplayer games though anymore.

It isnt really that much of a issue now you can buy older titles for cheap and skip the avoiding the GAAS games. If it becomes GAAS only i can always jump ship.

@Milktastrophe grow up lmao, 2 of your arguments are invalid genshin I'll give you, even tho I love the game you can hate all you want but it's a beautiful game and combat is fun you would know If yall type of ppl didn't hate everything online yet your using internet to be on this website lmao hypocrites your using online rn. Anyway dying light is a singleplayer game so ohhhh you missed a quest line it's not live service and invalidates your argument, plus life happens. Get over it. Town next to me is having comic con, I've always wanted to go but I can't cuz kf money issues rn. So im a mature adult and accept it. XD like yall should be most of you gamers are toxic man beards who complain about everything. Online sucks it's woke blah. Blah. You should like the high school girls I knew who cried over a broken nail 🤣🤣 also ff14 of course! They re made the while game cuz gamers wanted better so duh you can't go back and see the world destroyed common ***** sense bro. God your dense. Also you want these events go to YouTube! That's what I do. So no technically you cant miss an event cuz you can just watch it. On YouTube. Oh wait YouTube is online which you hate. My bad XD

@Flaming_Kaiser then your ignorant. Just cuz Sony wants to do online games doesn't mean your not getting singleplayer games. Yall ppl are pathetic. Look at what were getting!!! More God of War! More horizon! More spiderman and wolverine! Plenty of great triple A Singleplayer experiences!!! But of course you wanna just focus on online games and act like your not getting great story games. Sony can do both!! And I hope they do just to piss you off. XD use your Brain. They know there the best in story driven games why we keep getting more and more duh. I love both so I get the best of both worlds. I won't ever punish myself and keep myself from playing games like yall. Yall are hypocrites tho. Ghost one of the best exclusives story also has an amazing online component but you wouldn't know cuz you hate online so much lmao

@SerJosh97 sounds you're the one who needs to grow up, perhaps you can start by learning to spell? (PS mature adults don't need to go around assuring other people that they're mature adults, I think that's more for yourself).

Of course Dying Light is a live service game, it's had continuous updates and limited time content updates for nearly a decade now. There's no requirement that a live service game is an MMO. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is another notable single player live service game. Hell, Dying Light is really similar to Genshin Impact in that regard, they're both primarily single player with co-op components.

I never said anything about hating Genshin Impact either. I like the game and have cleared all the permanent content through Inazuma. I haven't played since some of the most recent updates though.

So in the end you agreed with me on actually 2 of my examples, Genshin Impact and FF14, while you mistakenly believed that Dying Light wasn't a live service game. Now that that's been corrected it brings you're agreement up to all 3 of my examples.

Lastly, I guess there's no reason to ever play any game because you can just watch it on YouTube, right? Sure sounds fun. I hope you enjoy yourself, I'm going to continue playing games and having fun that way though.

2 things that don't mix together: Live service games + me.

@SerJosh97 Mate you can rant al you want but if i sont like something then thats my choice. The Division and Destiny where game i really found boring and dissapointing deal with it.

Sony would not be the first company that goes overboard when seeing the money. Dont forget EA/Ubisoft was a fantastic company one long time.