Sony buys Bungie: The big chance for better service games
Sony wants to penetrate the market for service games. This could not only pay off for Sony, but also positively influence the entire genre.
The “90” has probably become Sony’s favorite number in recent years. God of War, The Last of Us Part II and Uncharted 4 have all jumped this rating hurdle on Metacritic. However, there are even more similarities between these three titles: They are all, sometimes more, sometimes less, linear action-adventures with a strong story focus, clear dramaturgy and a “real” ending. Sony built its success on such titles in the last console generation, but now the Japanese console manufacturer is venturing into new gameplay territory. By 2026, Sony plans to release ten live service games – games that are constantly expanded after their release and maintained with DLCs or regular events. Sony took the first step toward that goal this month with its purchase of Destiny developer Bungie. This acquisition could prove to be a win-win situation for both parties and solve one of the biggest problems of live service games: the lack of beginner-friendliness.
The add-on bachelor’s degree comes before the fun of playing.
Anyone who wants to get into Destiny 2 today, five years after release, should be prepared to first take a few semesters in add-on lore at YouTube University. This preparation is indispensable to find out which content packs, Season Passes, and expansions are necessary today to even start the game reasonably. Once you’ve completed the add-on bachelor’s degree, you’ll quickly realize that over the years, the mechanics of the base game have become impenetrable, and due to the many updates, the quest log already overflows at the first start of the game. In short: Destiny 2 is now a nightmare for newcomers, even if they have a lot of ambition and patience. And this is exactly where Sony can change something.
Success through strong, creative vision with a fun focus.
Because Sony’s big hits have a secret to success: a clear and strong creative vision. Titles from Sony’s in-house studios follow a clear, conceptual line and reflect on their individual strengths in terms of story and emotional gaming experience. This is helped by a certain financial freedom that their developers enjoy under Sony’s auspices. The titles are not already subject to the compulsion to maximize profit on the level of game mechanics. The actual monetary profit of a title is rather secondary for a tech giant with a hardware focus like Sony. Sony primarily wants to gain satisfied users for its platform and retain them. This happens, quite successfully as the sales figures of the PS4 prove, through games with a strong vision. Sony is obviously very interested in not diluting the most important brands in its own portfolio, but to deliver a well-rounded gaming experience that grabs all gamers from the first second.
For the Players? YES PLEASE
Hopefully now, this philosophy will carry over to Sony’s new foray into the live service sector. Destiny 2 would certainly be a more enjoyable experience for newcomers today if Bungie didn’t have to constantly keep in mind that their small-scale update roadmap has to pay the bills at the end of the day. A stronger focus on larger, but better structured and more meaningfully integrated updates could work wonders here. This way, potential new customers wouldn’t be faced with a confusing mess of game versions and optional bundles at the beginning or even after five years. And that would also pay off for Sony at the end of the day, because nothing hurts a live service business model more than a stagnating or even declining number of users. Not to mention the importance of titles with such a long shelf life for customer loyalty to their own hardware platform and thus their own ecosystem.