Despite what the live service push announced some time ago, PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst is reportedly not forcing teams to develop live service games.
As reported by Push Square, former PlayStation Studios CEO Shuhei Yoshida spoke with Sacred Symbols+ about the now infamous live service push that has yet to produce any result, saying that, to his knowledge, first-party studios are not being forced by current CEO Hermen Hulst to develop live service games, although the big initiative did in some way push studios to work on this type of game. According to Yoshida-san, when studios see the company has a big initiative, riding on it gives them a better chance to get a project approved and supported.
Among the games that were part of the PlayStation Studios' live service push but were eventually canceled was The Last of Us Online. During the interview with Sacred Symbols+, Shuhei Yoshida confirmed he had played the game and that it was great. However, after a conversation with Bungie, Naughty Dog realized they couldn't support a live service game and work on Intergalactic: The Heretic Project at the same time, so they canceled the project to focus on the upcoming sci-fi single-player game:
The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it. But Bungie explained them what it takes to make live service games, and Naughty Dog realised, ‘Oops, we can’t do that! If we do it, we can’t make Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.’ So, that was a lack of foresight.
As already mentioned, PlayStation Studios' live service push has yet to produce any results from internal studios. Last year's Concord was a complete failure, going offline shortly after launch, while other projects that were part of the initiative, including a God of War game by Bluepoint, have been canceled. The only success was Helldivers II; however, that one is made by Arrowhead, a game development studio not owned by PlayStation.
