Sony has stated that it has big aspirations for future live service experiences, in addition to continuing to release the popular single-player games for which it is well-known. The corporation has also enlisted Bungie’s assistance to make sure it is truly approaching it the right way, with a projection that 60% of its upcoming investments will be devoted to live service projects.
After Bungie was acquired by PlayStation, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan discussed how the two companies are now able to draw on each other’s knowledge in various fields during a recent webcast (via VGC). “We’ve been working with Bungie for almost a year, and the learnings in both directions have been very significant,” he stated. They exceeded my expectations, and I believe Bungie is really enthusiastic about what they can get from SIE in terms of their global reach, marketing, collaboration, and capacity to amplify their intellectual property.
In the meanwhile, Bungie is being used for “a pretty rigorous portfolio review process” for PlayStation’s next live service titles, according to PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst, who also noted Bungie’s skills and experience with live service models.
“Bungie has taught us a lot in a lot of different ways,” he said. Naturally, working on single-player, narrative-driven games doesn’t require the same set of skills as working on live service titles does.
And Bungie has assisted and advised us in setting up these capabilities inside PlayStation Studios. Furthermore, we have a deeper understanding of what success in live services implies. Historically, the goal of our games was always to win, so this represents a significant cultural shift. A game’s debut is only the first step; it also comes with a variety of [key performance indicators].
These are just a few instances of the knowledge we have gained from working with Bungie. “We also work with Bungie on a pretty rigorous portfolio review process that we apply to all 12 live service titles that we have in production,” the company continued.
Sony clearly believes this is an area where it may see considerable growth over the coming years as seen by its plans to deliver 12 live service games before April 2026 and the significant investments it has made in their production. Bungie does, of course, seem like the right fit to provide guidance on that front. Sony has previously stated that this was one of the reasons it was acquired in the first place. The Destiny franchise has experienced great success with the live service model for a consistent period over several years, so Bungie does, of course, seem like the right fit to provide guidance on that front.