PlayStation had a better 2024 than it should have. Now you have to focus

On December 25, 2024By Littum

This time last year, PlayStation had given us a roadmap for the brand’s direction going forward. It made big promises about live-service titles, put big investments into a mobile initiative, and continued to launch new hardware. If you were to judge PlayStation’s 2024 by the rubric it set for itself, it would have been a failure. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

PlayStation’s 2024 felt like a restructuring phase. On the software side, we saw PlayStation embrace young gamers again, a decision that meant a big win in Game of the Year. Behind the games, we saw even bigger changes, specifically with the appointment of two new co-CEOs, Herman Hulst and Hideaki Nishino, which could have radical implications for the brand going forward. All of this sets the stage for a necessary pivot for a brand flirting with disaster in 2024. The only problem? The new vision hasn’t been communicated yet, and fan goodwill may be in short supply after a year of ups and downs.

Changing strategy

Sony had a lot of pots on the stove this year, making it a rollercoaster ride for fans. If there was one message PlayStation wanted to communicate as clearly as possible in 2023, it was the commitment to to find a live service hit. At the time, 12 such titles were reportedly in development and slated for release between 2024 and 2026. So far, that effort has struggled to get off the starting blocks. Naughty Dog made the wise decision to cancel its Last of us online project to focus on single-player IPs like the upcoming one Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet, but the real loss was Concord.

There may never have been a game release quite as serious as this Concord. Plenty of games have come out with massive ambitions only to be shut down in a few months, but Concord was a high-budget first-party game that shut down just weeks after launch, went into permanent sunset not too long after, and disbanded the entire studio. The fallout from that game’s failure led Sony president Hiroki Totoki to scale back the company’s live service ambitions to just six of the original 12 planned titles by March 2026. Whether the remaining games even see the light of day is likely to depend on how the current slate performs. Concord has apparently, and perhaps rightly so, shaken PlayStation’s confidence in creating its own live service hit. A more targeted approach might be a wiser strategy given the enormous risk involved in producing – and maintaining – even a single live service game.

The Concord crew eats in a mess hall. — PlayStation

But if we look more broadly at PlayStation’s other titles in 2024, things weren’t so bleak. Where Concord failed, Helldivers 2 Sony’s bet paid off. The co-op shooter was a smash hit that neither gamers nor PlayStation likely saw coming. This underdog mentality gave Sony the win in the live service it desperately needed to prove its strategy had value. We’ll have to see if it has legs beyond this first year, but it was able to survive its PlayStation Network controversy through sheer goodwill and developer support that reversed the decision after fan backlash. Finding a way to integrate PSN with its PC ports remains an unnecessary thorn in PlayStation’s side that it needs to address as the gap between exclusives hitting the platform continues to shrink.

The Live service was a mixed success, but Sony faltered when it came to its mobile ambitions. It’s easy to forget that there’s an entire arm of the company focused on bringing new and existing IP to mobile, but the only time this was mentioned was when developer Neon Koi was shut down before releasing its first title to the publisher. Even then, the news was somewhat buried under the news of Concord developer Firewalk Studios was also shut down.

Right now, this mobile effort feels like a non-starter for PlayStation, which it wants to brush under the rug. Hopefully that’s not the case, and it’s waiting to surprise us all with a slew of mobile titles in 2025, but it wouldn’t be the first time PlayStation has failed to follow through on something it claims is a pillar of its strategy – just look at its PlayStation VR2, which was all but abandoned in 2024.

In terms of hardware, 2024 was the year the long-rumored PS5 Pro was revealed and released. For the people who can appreciate the graphics boost and have the money to spend on it, it’s a big (but not massive) improvement over the base model. The only problem is that the high price ends up making many think a little more critically about whether these improvements are really worth it. Whether or not the device is for you, it’s a positive sign that PlayStation isn’t ready to move away from hardware as quickly as Xbox appears to be.

The hero of Shadow of the Colossus stands in a temple. — Sony

What has gained more value is the underrated PlayStation Portal. It launched in 2023 as a companion display for remote gaming, but has essentially become a new device thanks to a 2024 update that allows it to stream games from the cloud without having to be tethered to a PS5 console. With how much potential this device now has as a cheap way to enter the PlayStation ecosystem, it’s a wonder why it isn’t being touted as such.

You can’t talk about PlayStation’s wins this year without mentioning its biggest: Astro Bot. It rightfully garnered praise from fans and critics alike, winning our own Game of The Year award among many others. As well as being an impeccably crafted 3D platformer, it celebrates PlayStation’s history with a sense of respect and optimism without falling into self-indulgence. PlayStation has found a natural mascot here that it would be foolish to abandon. It shows that Sony can give us more than the dark, dramatic epics it has been known for for the past generation and a half.

Appealing to the wider audience is a great throwback to the days when PlayStation was willing to be friendlier and more experimental, but also a lower risk endeavour. Astro was made in just three years by a team of about 60, which is a far cry from the hundreds of developers who have worked for five or six years on the biggest AAA titles.

Finding focus

After struggling to fully deliver on his overall plans, Astro Bot could turn out to be an existentially important win for Sony – if it takes the right lessons from it. The ultimate source of many PlayStation fans’ dismay at the brand, in my experience, is its constant rotation. All of the highlights of 2024 didn’t feel telegraphed, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It only becomes an issue when PlayStation has already fired its shot, only to backtrack on most or all of these claims.

There is a level of patience that should be given to the new management as they take ownership of the brand – a lot was put in place that cannot be undone. But 2024 felt like an attempt to pump the brakes on a lot of promises without a firm vision of how it will reposition the car. Fortunately, we’re starting to get a better idea upcoming PS5 games we can look forward to in 2025 and beyond, but the larger direction remains cloudy.

Is PlayStation still willing to make big bets on live service? Is mobile a path it will seriously try to pursue? Even refocusing on single-player offerings isn’t that simple, as development timelines and budgets become unsustainable. It will be a few years before Sony can really build and execute a full vision around Astro‘s success.

2025 may be a fresh start for PlayStation under its new leadership, but it will soon have to let its players into that vision. If it can’t clearly tell fans what kinds of games they can expect to play in the back half of the PS5’s life, who knows how much longer they’ll last?