Key Takeaways
1. Sony’s Chief Financial Officer, Lin Tao, remains optimistic about the live-service games market despite recent challenges, including the cancellation of Concord and the delay of Marathon.
2. Concord, a live-service game, was launched in 2024 but received poor ratings and was shut down within two weeks, causing Sony to incur significant financial losses and issue full refunds.
3. The development cost for Concord was between $100 million and $200 million, yet Sony only recovered $1 million from it.
4. Live-service games have become a key revenue source for Sony, contributing to 40% of first-party video game revenue in Q1 2025, with titles like Helldivers 2 and Destiny 2 leading the way.
5. Sony acknowledges the need to learn from past mistakes in the live-service genre to ensure smoother and more efficient content delivery in the future.
Sony has been looking at the live-service games market for several years now, but it has faced some challenges along the way. Lin Tao, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, remains optimistic about the live-service genre, even after recent financial troubles with games like Concord and the delay of Marathon.
Addressing Investor Concerns
During a Q&A session after Sony’s latest financial report, Tao talked to worried investors about the company’s push into live-service games. He recognized the challenges but pointed out that Sony has made strides over the past five years. He addressed the major concerns for investors by saying,
“Last year, Concord was canceled, and this year, Marathon was delayed, so we have seen some negative news recently.”
Concord was a live-service game created by Sony under Firewalk Studios. This 5v5 multiplayer shooter launched in 2024 but received poor ratings, with user scores dropping as low as 1.9 on Metacritic, leading to its shutdown on September 6, 2024, just two weeks after its launch.
Financial Losses and Refunds
Sony ended up providing full refunds for all Concord purchases. The development of this live-service FPS was reported to have cost between $100 million and $200 million, but they only managed to recover $1 million from it.
Moreover, Bungie, the studio behind Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and the Destiny series, has been working on its new game, Marathon, since 2022. However, the developers have not given any updates on a release date, as their initial target of September 2025 has shifted.
Revenue and Future Plans
Despite these setbacks, Tao mentioned that live-service titles have been a significant revenue source for Sony over the past five years, prior to which, such games were “almost non-existent for PlayStation Studios.”
Games like Helldivers 2, MLB The Show, Destiny 2, and Gran Turismo 7 have contributed to 40% of Sony’s first-party video game revenue for Q1 2025. Tao acknowledged that the transition into the live-service genre is “not entirely going smoothly.” He added:
“Of course, we recognize that there are still many issues, so we should learn the lessons from the mistakes and make sure we introduce live service content where there’s less waste and it’s more smooth.”
In addition to these challenges in live-service gaming, Sony has encountered other complications with the cancellation of projects led by Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games earlier in 2025, including an unannounced title related to God of War.
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