Sony Isn't Giving Up on Live-Service Games Despite Concord's Failure and Marathon's Troubles
Diana Golenko
Despite high-profile scandals like the abrupt "death" of Concord and plagiarism issues surrounding Marathon, Sony's leadership remains optimistic about live-service games. The company plans to learn from these setbacks and continue pursuing this direction.
During a financial report discussion, Sony's CFO Lin Tao stated that the problems with Concord and Marathon will not affect the company’s decision to release live-service titles. According to her, this represents an additional revenue stream that Sony couldn't have even dreamed of five years ago:
Last year Concord [shut down], and this year Marathon was postponed, so somewhat negative news has been coming out. But if we look at the past five years, five years ago live service games were almost non-existent for PlayStation Studios. We [now] have Helldivers 2, MLB The Show and Gran Turismo 7, and Bungie's Destiny 2, so we have these four live services contributing to sales and profits in a stable manner.
Moreover, in the last quarter alone, live-service games accounted for 40% of Sony Studios' total revenue. On an annual basis, these kinds of projects brought in 20–30% of total income.
As a side note, Sony recently agreed to launch Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X/S — the game will be available on the new platform starting August 26. As for the shooter Marathon, it's now expected to release in early 2026, following the cancellation of its previously planned September launch.
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