Concord – one of Sony’s many planned live service titles (Picture: Sony)

A reader has a theory as to why Sony is suddenly so interested in live service games and suggests they and the PS5 Pro are a perfect combo.

I see a lot of people worrying about the direction PlayStation is going in at the moment and… I get it. The lack of communication from Sony this year has been very strange, and I have no explanation for it any more than anyone else has. Although I will say that there does seem to be some sort of corporate war going on in the boardroom, that Jim Ryan has lost, and we may never know the true story.

I’m not here to defend any of that but I am going to say that the PS5 Pro and live service games make a lot more sense than some people are giving them credit for. Sony may be acting weird at the moment but they’re not stupid. The sales figures show that whatever they’re doing, or not doing, is working and they’ve never been more successful.

And I think that will continue with the PS5 Pro, because while it is another big ask in terms of expenses it fits perfectly with the new focus on live service games, most or all of which will be free. So while you do need to shell out for the hardware you don’t have to worry about buying any new games.

I’m convinced that the new mid-gen upgrade and the live service concept was conceived at the same time, to complement each other, and I actually think it’s a really good idea. If you can’t afford the PS5 Pro the live service games will still work on the original models, so instead of having to worry about having to buy a new £70 game you get a bunch of them for free.

People say that Sony are out of touch with the amount of money they’re expecting people to spend on hardware recently but none of the new devices have been essential. They’re just bonuses, essentially, and I think that rather than just jumping onto the Fortnite bandwagon the live service games are meant to account for the cost of living crisis, which clearly isn’t going away anytime soon.

Everyone knows that Sony can’t afford to put new games on PS Plus from day one, like Microsoft does with Game Pass, so I think this is their alternative. Free games from day one but for everyone, and without even needing a subscription.

Plenty of people will say they’d prefer the old way, of paying upfront for single-player games, and I’m sure they’ll continue to do that – we already know that Insomniac is working on Wolverine and they’ve hinted at a Venom spin-off too.

Those games aren’t going away but, at least for now, they’re becoming too expensive for most people to afford. Imagine if Sony did announce a bunch more or had released three or four for Christmas. Would you have been able to afford them all? I know I couldn’t, but if they’re free I can play all the live service games.

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If the live service games are bad then maybe Sony will have to rethink things but the important point to remember is that it’s the same developers making them, that made the single-player versions, so there’s every reason to think they’ll be just as successful.

We already know that Game Pass and PS Plus aren’t proving as popular as expected. We also know that spending £70 on a game is not something most people can do often, so I think live service games make perfect sense. And if you can get a new PS5 Pro to play them on then all the better.

By Grackle

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A reader has a theory as to why Sony is suddenly so interested in live service games and suggests they and the PS5 Pro are a perfect combo.