The new obsession playstation seems to be the game service sector. Even if the manufacturer tells us that despite this desire to explore a new sector, single-player games will not be affected and will not decrease, we see that it is determined to invade this market by putting a lot of resources into it. Hermen Hulst made the rounds of several media today to answer a few questions, and the subject of service games was quickly put on the table.
Existing licenses redesigned for the game service?
First of all, Stephen Totilo of the site Axios was able to speak with the boss of PlayStation Studios to learn more about the number of projects currently in development.
Hulst thus confirmed that 12 service games were currently in development at PlayStationas in Haven Studios or Firewalk. It also indicates that of these 12 games, not all will necessarily be new licenses :
” We’re not ruling out bringing some of our beloved existing licenses to the game service realm.. »
That doesn’t mean that god of war Where Marvel’s Spider-Man will turn into service games tomorrow, but we can easily think that the series Horizon is heading towards this with a multiplayer opus, or else Twisted Metalwhich may soon return. This does not signal the gradual death of single-player gameswhich remain among the most profitable games according to Hulst.
Simultaneous releases on consoles and PC for service games
Hulst also spoke with Julien Chièze, which you probably know a little more about. The subject of service games also came up during the interview, with confirmation that PlayStation service games would be released on PS5 and PC at the same time:
” I think that in the future we will see at least a year between the release of one of our games on PlayStation consoles and then on PC. Probably except service games. These games are a little bit different in nature because you need a strong community, high engagement right from the start, right from launch. So for this type of games, we could make simultaneous releases on PC and PlayStation. »
We would therefore be moving towards faster releases on PC, with only a year lag, and simultaneous releases for certain service game titles.