To counter Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard a while back, Sony has purchased Bungie and Jade Raymond’s new Haven Studios. One is known for the highly-popular multiplayer game Destiny, while the other is currently working on another unannounced online live-service game, leading many PlayStation fans to surmise that the company is losing sight of what won them the eighth generation a few years back; single-player, narrative-driven titles that continually draw acclaim from the gaming community.
According to PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst, though, that assumption couldn’t be farther from the truth. During a recent chat with gameindustry.biz, the exec assured fans that the brand will continue to develop compelling single-player experiences.
“Obviously we will always carry on making these single-player narrative-based games such as Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and Horizon Forbidden West,” he says. “We have invested in live service games because that’s incredibly exciting for us. It allows us to build larger worlds, it allows us to create really meaningful social connections between players.”
In fairness, PlayStation has a number of its veteran studios currently working on such narrative-driven titles. Guerrilla Games (Horizon), Naughty Dog (Uncharted, TLOU), Santa Monica Studio (God of War), and even Insomniac (Marvel’s Spider-Man) are just a few names that come to mind, reinforced by many other talented teams from across the world.
For Sony, this push towards more multiplayer experiences is basically a knee-jerk reaction to the mood of the market over the past few years, which has seen the rise of numerous high-grossing titles such as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Minecraft, PUBG, etc., so as Hulst has aptly explained the situation, there’s practically no need for concern, at least for the time being.
