Sony’s strategy for making single player, narrative-driven games has really come into its own this generation, with the likes of Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, and many, many others showing in no unclear terms that there’s great success to be had in this area for those who deliver memorable experiences. And clearly, it’s a direction that Sony will keep heading in for the foreseeable future as well.
But though Sony isn’t interested in chasing trends like battle royale, more multiplayer options are something we’re probably going to see them focus a bit more on with the next generation of consoles. While speaking with Business Insider, PlayStation boss Shawn Layden got to speaking about multiplayer games, and how that’s one area where PlayStation’s exclusive lineup has been a bit lacking in recent years, and how, as such, it is also one area where we might see Sony redoubling their efforts with the PS5.
“Couch co-op — I mean that’s a whole category I think the industry needs to look back at,” Layden said. “We have that with sports titles, and some racing titles, but not with much else. And I think that speaks to the power of the Internet on the one hand, but otherwise we might wanna revisit that to get more family engagement in the gaming experience.”
“But, no, I was referencing more with the things like GTA 5 Online, or you look at Call of Duty, or Fortnite, or any of those experiences,” he continued. “Worldwide Studios, like I say, we’ve been going really heavy into story-driven gaming. The power of the narrative. Big, spectacular experiences. But not a whole lot in the multiplayer side of things, I think. That’s an area where you will likely see us start to make more noise in the new term.”
While the PS4 has largely been dominated by Sony exclusives that place their focus on narrative-driven single player experiences, it’s worth noting that especially during the PS3 era, we saw Sony investing in multiplayer games thoroughly. From the likes of Starhawk, Warhawk, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, to even games with single player components that also had excellent online modes as well, such as Killzone, Resistance, and LittleBigPlanet, there was plenty of quality multiplayer content available on the PS3. To see Sony balance these two aspects of their experiences once again when the PS5 rolls around is surely something a lot of people would be very interested in.
