- Sony’s chief financial officer Lin Tao has admitted that its current live-service strategy “is not entirely going smoothly”
- Tao said, despite Concord’s shutdown and Marathon’s delay, she still believes in Sony’s strategy but will learn from its mistakes
- Live-service games accounted for 40% of Sony’s first-party software revenue in Q1, but “for the full year it’s a little less, probably between 20-30%”
Sony has admitted that its current live-service strategy “is not entirely going smoothly” following the disastrous launch of Concord, but says it will continue with its plan and learn from its mistakes.
During a recent Q&A session after the company’s latest financial results (via VGC), one caller asked the panel of executives for an update on PlayStation’s live-service strategy amid the delay of Marathon and following the shutdown of Concord.
In response, Sony’s chief financial officer Lin Tao said that she still believes in live-service games, despite recent negativity, explaining that other games like Helldivers 2 and Destiny 2 have managed to produce a steady revenue stream that didn’t exist five years ago.
“Last year Concord [shut down], and this year Marathon was postponed, so somewhat negative news has been coming out,” said Tao (via an interpreter).
“But if we look at the past five years, five years ago live service games were almost non-existent for PlayStation Studios. We [now] have Helldivers 2, MLB The Show, and Gran Turismo 7, and Bungie’s Destiny 2, so we have these four live services contributing to sales and profits in a stable manner.”
During the presentation, it was revealed that live service games accounted for 40% of first-party software revenue for Q1 and “for the full year it’s a little less, probably between 20-30%”.
“So in terms of the transformation, it’s not entirely going smoothly, but from a longer-term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there’s definitely been a change,” Tao added.
“Of course, we recognise that there are still many issues, so we should learn the lessons from mistakes and make sure that we introduce live service content where there’s less waste and it’s more smooth.”
Concord was shut down just two weeks after its launch due to poor sales and a low player count.
At the time, game director Ryan Ellis said Firewalk Studios was exploring options, had ceased the sale of Concord, and offered refunds to all PS5 and PC players.
While this live-service game overwhelmingly underperformed, PlayStation’s Helldivers 2 was a massive success, selling 12 million copies in its first 12 weeks on sale. The game was so popular at release that Arrowhead was forced to increase its concurrent player cap to 700,000 after it breezed past 450,000.
Developer Arrowhead Game Studios also recently announced that the Sony-published game will launch on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on August 26, 2025.