PlayStation CEOs Talk Live Service, PC Games, and More in First Appearance as New Bosses

Controlling Scope and Scale Without ‘Compromising on Quality’

To keep up a high level of game development Hulst said PlayStation is “increasing [its] use of external development teams, outsourcing partners, and co-development agreements with teams in lower-cost regions”. He then insisted this allows PlayStation to control the “scope and scale” of its games “without compromising on quality”.

AI is seemingly another way PlayStation is looking to achieve this. “We also see opportunities in AI to level up our own productivity and to enhance player experiences enabling us to better serve players and creators, create new experiences, and drive organization-wide efficiencies,” Nishino said.

“Research and experimentation in AI and machine learning is a focus for us,” Hulst added. “With work being done across a wide variety of our development tools and processes, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience forged from decades of gaming industry experience that will enable us to implement AI tools efficiently and impactfully.

“We have been realizing the benefits of AI in several areas, from assets creation to efficiency to accelerating coding to optimizing translation and localization processes, all while ensuring a responsible and ethical approach across the organization. We believe that AI holds great promise for the future of gaming, and we want to lead the industry in the adoption and implementation of this new technology.”

Helldivers 2 Paving the Way Forward for Sony’s Live Service

PlayStation is prioritizing a mix of tentpole single-player games alongside live service games, going forward, but will pull from the success of Helldivers 2 and launch all upcoming live service games on PC and PS5 simultaneously.

“We are bringing our titles to the PC platform and we have a dual approach here on the live service side,” Hulst said. “We are releasing our titles simultaneously, so day-and-date on PlayStation 5 and PC, but with our tentpole titles, our single-player narrative-driven titles that are, as you saw on the presentation, the backbone of what PlayStation Studios has delivered in recent years and in our history, we take a more strategic approach.

“We introduce our great franchises to new audiences, and we’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing, for example, sequels on the PlayStation platform. We have high hopes that we’re actually able to bring new players into PlayStation at large and into PlayStation platforms specifically. Actually, the same goes for the work that we do with extending our great properties onto other media such as television series and film.”

Speaking of that focus on delivering games outside of just PlayStation consoles, Nishino believes, “rather than cannibalization,” this is an “opportunity for growth.” Hulst chimed in too: “We are looking to extend the reach of our franchises by our focus on multi-platform delivery. That enables us to continue to invest these substantial amounts into creating world-class franchises.”

Helldivers 2 is a prime example of this strategy, and, according to Hulst, it “highlights the strength of our live services efforts as well as the increased returns and reach we can realize by bringing our games to new formats and audiences beyond the PlayStation console.”

This strategy won’t be the same on all different platforms, however, as the team is taking a more “measured approach” when it comes to mobile instead of the more aggressive one on PC.

“PC is obviously more adjacent to the core of our development than mobile is,” Hulst said. “Nevertheless, we’re taking a strategic approach also in the sense of working with some of the leading companies in this space. We’re working with various partners such as NCSoft and we’re learning a lot from these collaborations, and let me conclude by saying that we’re very excited about upcoming title releases that we can communicate in the future.”

Industry Is in a ‘Very Good Place’ Despite Thousands of Job Losses

In response to a question about the layoffs that have impacted the whole video game industry, including PlayStation itself when it let go of 900 people in February 2024, Hulst insisted the industry is actually “in a very good place”.

“We’re always looking to optimize the resource allocation on an ongoing basis, but I think specifically what you’re referring to in recent months and quarters is probably a slight adjustment on the back of the windfall that the industry saw during the pandemic,” Hulst said.

“So, that might be reflective of that rather than impacting the long-term growth of the industry, which I believe in general is in a very good place, but I see this as an adjustment of the pandemic years.”

Alongside PlayStation job losses, Microsoft closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda earlier in May 2024.

Bungie

Elsewhere in the discussion, Hulst and Nishino discussed how Halo and Destiny developer Bungie is improving its business, despite several of its employees also being laid off by PlayStation in late 2023.

“Bungie’s network operations expertise has allowed us to optimize the performance of our upcoming live service titles, which is really great,” Hulst said.

“We expect to see the full integration of Bungie’s capabilities into our business operations by the end of this current fiscal year. We can’t disclose financials for individual studios in our portfolio that includes Bungie, but whilst we don’t expect a profit contribution from Bungie in Fiscal Year 24 on a standalone basis, that is obviously to do with the fact that they are working on a new IP that is yet to be released.

“It’s really important to state that we are already seeing returns on our investment in the form of process optimization and capability growth across SIE, particularly in live services. And that was always the goal behind the acquisition, that it has helped us to progress faster. It’s helped us with cost optimization, and then obviously with the upcoming releases of Destiny: The Final Shape and later with Marathon, we are going to see significant revenues coming in to SIE.”

The meeting also revealed the PS5 generation is PlayStation’s most profitable console to date and that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sales have swung all the way up to 11 million units since launch.

PlayStation’s big week continues today, May 30, as its gearing up to present its latest State of Play that will feature “14 PS5 and PS VR2 titles, including a look at PlayStation Studios titles arriving later this year.”

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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.