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Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has stirred debate in the gaming industry by claiming that live-service games don’t qualify as real games. In a recent interview with The Ringer, Layden described live-service titles as “repetitive action engagement devices” rather than traditional games.
Layden explained his definition of what makes a game, saying it requires three key elements: “I need a story, I need a character, and I need a world.” He pointed to PlayStation exclusives like Horizon, God of War, and Uncharted as examples that include all three components. In contrast, he said live-service games only need “a repetitive action that most people can get their head around, an ability to communicate in that world with other like-minded people, and [the player’s] desire to do it again and again and again.”
Layden departed from Sony in 2019 and during a period when Sony was heavily investing in the live-service model, initially planning to release around a dozen such games by 2026. The company later reduced that target by half.
Sony’s live-service efforts have produced mixed results. Concord failed badly after launch, while Helldivers 2 became a major success. Despite the challenges, Sony continues to invest in live-service. The company has put over $1.45 billion into Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite. Sony’s next major live-service release is Marathon from Bungie, though the game faces an indefinite delay and is currently dealing with an art theft scandal.
Layden warned other companies against entering the live-service space solely for financial reasons. “If you’re trying to go into that space because you have this illusion in your mind of big sacks of money coming every day for the rest of your life, for most it doesn’t happen,” he said.
Several Sony live-service projects have been cancelled, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Online, which director Neil Druckmann called the company’s most ambitious game ever. Another Sony live-service title, Fairgame$, is still in development, though the company has remained quiet about it recently.
