PlayStation spending $1.2 billion on live service PS5 games

Sony is massively increasing the amount of money they spend on R&D budget for video games, but most of it is going on live service games.

Since it’s now looking very likely that Microsoft will be able to buy Activision Blizzard, Sony’s attention is going to have to shift from trying to block the buyout to countering it their own initiatives.

For a while now it’s been obvious that they’re planning a change of direction, away from single-player narrative games and towards live service titles – even though most fans seem to be highly sceptical of the idea.

Sony isn’t doing things by half though, with a new report revealing that they’re planning to spend 300 billion yen (£1.66 billion) on video game research & development this year, which is 40% of Sony Group’s entire R&D budget and more than double what they were spending in 2020.

Of that 300 billion yen, 55% of the budget (£912 million) will go will go on live service games this year, rising to 60% by March 2026.

This is despite the fact that they don’t currently operate any major live service games themselves (unless you count Destiny 2, from the recently purchased Bungie) and haven’t yet shown any of the 12 live service titles they plan to release by 2026.

In fact, the one game that everyone assumed was live service – The Last Of Us multiplayer spin-off – has reportedly been put on the backburner, after an internal review by Bungie took issue with it.

The other thing Sony is supposedly focusing on is what a Nikkei Asia report calls ‘extended reality’, which sounds similar to what Apple is planning with their new ultra expensive Vision Pro headset.

There’s no indication that Sony is planning a new headset but since the launch of the PlayStation VR2 in February they haven’t announced any new first party games at all.

They also haven’t emphasised AR or mixed reality when it comes to the PlayStation VR2, so if they’re suddenly going to pivot towards that they could potentially upset even more PlayStation fans.

Until Sony announces something officially it’s hard to judge what their plans are, as even the obsession with live service games has yet to result in anything tangible.