While the PS3 era saw Sony dabbling in online experiences with the likes of Warhawk, Killzone, and Resistance, in recent years, for the most part they’ve been focused on story-driven single player titles, and one look at the vast majority of their upcoming lineup, which includes the likes of Death Stranding and The Last of Us Part 2, is ample evidence to suggest that that’s what they’re going to keep on doing.
While speaking with Game Informer, PlayStation boss Shawn Layden suggested that a narrative-driven single player approach is something Sony is going to stick with. He did, however, also say that Sony isn’t opposed to the idea of making service-style online games, for instance, and that if there is something interesting that can be done in that area, they would try to do it.
“I think we have to do both,” said Layden. “That’s not a cop-out. I think we have set the high-water mark for being the best in long-form narrative gaming. We have some of the best storytellers in the business working on Worldwide Studios projects, whether that’s Sucker Punch or the team at Bend working on Days Gone, and of course Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studios. I think that’s a super strength of ours. I was very happy to see that three of the five of the game of the year nominees are Worldwide Studios games.”
“To know that the choices we’re making to lean heavily into stories and narrative and to create worlds where people will lose themselves in the story of another person or culture or an environment,” he added. “We’re very proud of that. We will continue to execute our franchises on that.”
He then went on to talk about games revolving around things such as service models or e-sports, and admitted that though that is an area where Sony hasn’t historically performed well, that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in tackling it at all. “As far as games-as-service and esports, or recurring revenue models or whatever,” he said. “If we can do something interesting and meaningful in those areas, we’ll do it. If we were going to partner with another team in some capacity to deliver, again, something interesting and meaningful, we’ll be there and we’ll do it. It’s not that we’re not interested in those areas, it’s just an area we haven’t historically performed very well.”
“We want to push the boundaries in all the different areas of gaming. It’s important for us to do that,” Layden said.
Layden also recently talked about Sony’s approach while deciding what kinds of games to make, how they’re not interested in chasing trends, and how they’ve recently shifted to a model of spending more time and resources to make fewer games, but ones with higher quality standards. Read more about that through here.
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