PlayStation executives engaged in a fireside chat with investors earlier today. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO and president Hideaki Nishino talked about the platform’s future, as reported in this article, while Hermen Hulst, who now heads the Studio Business Group but reports to Nishino following the latest shuffle, talked about Sony’s commitment to making and maintaining live service games following early successes (Helldivers 2) and failures (Concord). On that note, Hulst said that while much work went into Concord, the game launched into a hyper-competitive segment and was not unique enough to stand apart. Needless to say, the goal is to avoid repeating the same mistakes with PlayStation’s next big live service launch, Marathon.

We remain very committed to building a diverse and resilient live service portfolio. We have MLB The Show, Destiny 2, and Helldivers 2. These are really good examples of the type of titles that we’re looking to develop. These titles have already established an enduring set of player experiences and communities across quite a wide range of different genres. Together, that provides a really good foundation for our ambitions in this category. I would say that, additionally, we are continuing to invest in new live services, with Helldivers 2 providing such a great example of the level of success we can achieve if we get everything right. That game has been a true breakout success. It’s been attracting and retaining a significant community. This ongoing success is further evidenced in how we deal with the monetization, as microtransactions now make more than half of that game’s revenue. We’re also very excited about Marathon’s anticipated launch in this fiscal year.

With live service, we really see that as a great opportunity for us, but with that great opportunity, there are some unique challenges associated. We’ve talked about the early success with Helldivers 2, but we also faced some challenges with the release of Concord. I think that some really good work, actually, went into that title, some really big effort. But ultimately, that title entered a hyper-competitive segment of the market. I think it was insufficiently differentiated to be able to resonate with players. We have reviewed our processes to ensure that we’re not going to make those mistakes again. We have introduced much more rigorous processes for validating our creative, commercial, and development assumptions, and we now do that on a much more ongoing basis. 

That plan will ensure we are investing in the right opportunities at the right time, all while maintaining much more predictable timelines. For Marathon, it’s our goal to release a very bold, very innovative and deeply engaging title. It’s going to be the first new Bungie title in over a decade, so we are really excited for that release. Going through the test cycle, we’re monitoring the Closed Alpha that the team have just gone through. We’re taking all the lessons learned and we’re using the capabilities we’ve built to understand how audiences are engaging with the title. Some of that feedback, frankly, has been varied. But that’s super useful; that’s why you do this testing. When launch comes, we’re going to give the title the optimal chance at success. This cycle of test, iterate, test again, it’s such a key component of the live service success, both leading up to launch but also throughout the life of the game.

Marathon, an extraction first-person shooter game based on the old Bungie franchise, will be released on September 23 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.