If you haven’t noticed in the game industry, there have been a lot of movements by the biggest players. Not the least of which is Sony and Microsoft, they’ve been snatching up major 2nd and 3rd party teams in order to build up their library of not just makers, but gaming titles. It’s honestly becoming a bit of a bidding war out there, and it makes many wonder how this will affect the PlayStation and Xbox systems in the near and far future.
Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst discussed not only the newly acquired Haven Studios by Sony, but also discussed the future of their “gaming balance”, including noting that they WILL continue to make singleplayer story games:
“Obviously we will always carry on making these single-player narrative-based games such as Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and Horizon Forbidden West,” Hulst said.
“But you’ve spotted correctly that we have invested in live service games, because that’s incredibly exciting for us. It allows us to build larger worlds, it allows us to create really meaningful social connections between players. “We have quite a few now in development or conceptualization, so yes we are setting up capabilities internally. But exactly for that reason, it is so exciting for us to welcome to the family a group of people who have a lot of experience with live service games.”
So Sony and their new console are taking the middle road by trying to be there for both sides of the equation. Those who want to play solely on multiplayer titles, and those who want a deep narrative experience. That’s good because both sides have had a lot of great titles over the last few years, and to disregard one would be detrimental overall.
As for who is getting bought next? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see on that front.
Source: GameIndustry.biz