Of all of the wild tales that crossed our desk in 2024, Harmony’s chaotic launch and subsequent elimination from historical past after simply two weeks stand out. We could by no means know how a lot cash Firewalk Studios and Sony finally sunk into the challenge (actually far an excessive amount of). Nonetheless, the times of a first-party multiplayer launch anticipating an in-built viewers from the leap ought to be firmly behind us. Regardless of all of it, Sony stays dedicated to what does, admittedly, seem like the way forward for gaming however guarantees to not overlook its extra conventional single-player followers alongside the best way.
In an interview with Famitsu, co-CEO Herman Hulst addressed the room, if not the elephant conspicuously in it (Harmony’s implosion): “The sport enterprise is consistently altering resulting from numerous elements, together with technological advances, new genres and methods of taking part in. Nonetheless, one factor that continues to be fixed is folks’s need for nice leisure experiences, and a spotlight to video games continues to develop.” No agency is proof against the whims of the business, and Hulst continues, admitting that the service house is unforgiving:
“Nonetheless, this has additionally created competitors, and like many firms within the business, we’ve needed to make adjustments to our enterprise to solidify a extra sustainable working base. Going ahead, we’ll proceed to give attention to growing reside service titles together with the story-driven single-player titles that our gamers need. We’re studying quite a bit as we set up the flexibility to develop high-quality reside service titles inside SIE. Helldivers 2 attracted many gamers by way of steady content material provision and achieved outcomes that help the potential of reside service titles.”
