Sony Cancels Two Live-Service Games, Stays Committed to Long-Term Monetization

Anusuya Lahiri

January 17, 2025

Sony Group Corp’s (NYSE:SONY) PlayStation dumped two unannounced live service projects at Syphon Filter and Days Gone developer Bend Studio and God of War game developer Bluepoint Games after a strategic review, Bloomberg reports.

PlayStation is currently discussing with the studios how to determine their following projects.

PlayStation remains aggressively invested in live-service games, which can be monetized months and years after their launch.

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Sony’s strategy bore it a hit in 2024’s Helldivers II and several flops, including Concord, prompting it to cancel several live-service games over the last few years, including one based on Spider-Man.

Sony sold 3.8 million PlayStation5 units in the fiscal second quarter of 2024, compared to 4.9 million a year ago. Sony’s Game & Network Services revenue rose 12% to 1.07 trillion Japanese yen (on top of consolidated sales of ¥2.91 trillion), and operating income grew 184% to ¥138.8 billion.

The video game industry battled challenges in the last two years, including losing thousands of jobs. Notable gaming studio closures included Netlix Inc’s (NASDAQ:NFLX) Southern California AAA game studio, Team Blue, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc’s (NASDAQ:TTWO) London’s Roll7 and Seattle’s Intercept Games, Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) several video-game studios within its Xbox division, and NetEase Inc’s (NASDAQ:NTES) Ouka Studios.

Reportedly, Krafton Inc. of PUBG: Battlegrounds earmarked over 200 billion won ($136 million) to over twelve game studios in sync with its artificial intelligence investment.

Over the past two years, Krafton incurred $680 million in investment in game studios. It also tapped Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to showcase more lifelike non-player characters in its Inzoi life simulation game.

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, remains focused on its AI-driven game studio. It is challenging the giant game studios, which, according to the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) chief, prioritize profit over player engagement and creativity.

Last October, JPMorgan analysts expressed optimism over mobile gaming trends and spending on consoles backed by the gaming pipeline.

Sony Group stock surged over 11% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock through Avantis International Equity ETF (NYSE:AVDE) and Invesco International Dividend Achievers ETF (NASDAQ:PID).

Price Action: SONY stock traded higher by 1.13% at $20.55 premarket at last check Friday.

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