Japanese games giant Sony Interactive Entertainment has admitted that its plans for its live-service business is not going very well. 

Speaking to investors – as reported by TWIVG – Sony's CEO and CFO Lin Tao said that the transition to a service-based portfolio was not "going entirely smoothly". This follows the company cancelling Concord after it had been released and postponing the release of Bungie's Marathon – in addition to cancelling several over in-development service-based projects. 

"Somewhat negative news has been coming out, but if you look five years ago, live-service games were almost non-existent for PlayStation Studios,” Tao said.

“We have Helldivers 2, MLB, [Gran Turismo 7] and Bungie’s Destiny 2. So we have these four live services contributing to sales and profit in a stable manner."

They continued: “For Q1, the live-service ratio was about 40 per cent. For the full year, it’s a little less – probably between 20 to 30 per cent.”

“In terms of the transformation, it’s not entirely going smoothly, but from a longer-term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there has definitely been change.”

“Of course, we recognize that there are still issues – many issues – so we should learn lessons from mistakes and make sure that we introduce live service content, where there’s less waste and it’s more smooth.” 

Tao was also asked about the Marathon, which was delayed from a September release date following a less-than-stellar alpha test. The game currently doesn't have a release date, but Sony is expecting it to launch in this fiscal year, so by March 2026. 

“But having said that, this is not a commitment, and no official announcement has been given yet," Tao said.

“Based on the progress [made] in the Autumn timeframe, we believe we can communicate when we will be launching.” 

“We are now fixing the problems. So we believe this launch will happen. If this launch is cancelled, we need to do a revision of the valuation. However, as of now, this is not expected.”

Finally, Tao was asked about the status of Bungie and its relationship with Sony; when it was acquired, the Destiny maker was an independent subsidiary but this has changed recently. 

"We have gone through structural reform, as we announced last year. So this type of independence is getting lighter. So Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios.”

“In the long term, you can see this as an ongoing process, so the direction is to become part of PlayStation Studios”.