There’s no question that the thing that has differentiated PlayStation from the Xbox has been the former’s exclusives.
Sony’s greatest strength has been its consistent ability to churn out single-player story-focused cinematic AAA games that often draw some of the year’s best reviews, win awards and do incredibly strong sales.
These include franchises like “God of War,” “The Last of Us,” “Uncharted,” “Horizon,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” “Infamous” and “Ratchet and Clank” to remarkable one-offs like “Ghost of Tsushima,” “Bloodborne,” “Shadow of the Colossus,” “Days Gone,” “Until Dawn,” “Returnal,” and “Demon’s Souls”.
The company has been very consistent about delivering that to players. Now though, in an effort to expand, it appears their interests have shifted elsewhere according to their own financials.
Gaming Bible reports that according to newly released financial results on Sony’s own website, they spent 55% of their PS5 investment budget on live-service games and only 45% on single-player titles in the current financial year (FY2023).
In addition, it’s expected that by FY2025, the difference will grow to a 60% live-service/40% single-player split as the company chases those social gaming dollars. Compare that to back in FY2019 when the investment split was just 12% towards live service and a whopping 88% towards single player.
The graph also indicates PlayStation’s expansion of live service game investment is about increasing their total spending to cover the increased live service investment rather than cannibalising funds from the single-player investment budget.
In addition, FY2025 will see 50% of its PlayStation Studios investments be in new IP, a big jump over the 20% spent on new IP in FY2019. PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst confirmed last week PlayStation currently has twelve live service games in production.
Source: The Verge
