Story-driven Single Player Games to Remain a Cornerstone for Sony, Says Jim Ryan
During last year's undisclosed investor call, PlayStation's chief executive Jim Ryan was said to have admitted that exclusive games with an emphasis on story remain a priority for Sony, despite its heavily developed live-service game segment.
Recently, there have been leaks, suggesting that in the coming years the basis of operations for Sony Interactive Entertaiment is to be long-lived live-service games.
What's more, the Japanese giant's recent moves seemed to confirm these rumors. The company revealed its multiplayer titles, such as Concord or Fairgame$, which fit into the premise of so-called live-service games .
Court documents relating to Microsoft - Sony dispute regarding the Activision acquisition, circulating on the web reveal that PlayStation still intends to base the strength of its brand on exclusive single-player games.
According to the disclosed materials, Jim Ryan, PlayStation's chief executive, was said to have pointed out during a classified Q&A session with investors last year that although live-service games are being intensively developed by the company, their full success is doubtful, and the "cornerstone" for PlayStation remains high-budget titles with an emphasis on story ..
"Let's not forget that at the same time [while developing live-service games - editor's note] we will continue to publish games that have served us so well for years. These single-player games - graphically beautiful and rich in narrative - will continue to be the cornerstone of our publishing business."
So fans of SP games from Sony can breathe a sigh of relief. For there is no indication that such hits as God of War Ragnarok or Marvel's Spider-Man, are to be relegated to the "sidelines" in the near future.
The situation is different for Elecronic Arts, whose chief executive Andrew Wilson recently admitted that his company will bet on huge, constantly evolving brands, so that they can eventually become giant "game-platforms" on the scale of Marvel or Star Wars. This policy has already affected the Need for Speed series.
Sony considered buying Activision
Interestingly, on the occasion of the revealed transcript of investor call, we also learned that Sony was considering the acquisition of Activsion Blizzard.
However, the key obstacle turned out to be the amount of $69 billion, which scared off the Japanese giant. They preferred to purchase - at a much lower price - studio Bungie, with which Sony has high hopes in terms of business.
"We know Activision very well. They are probably one of our main partners. In terms of using Sony's capital, looking at $69 billion for Activision versus $3.6 billion for Bungie, we think Bungie can give us much more than the $69 billion acquisition of Activision."
