Sony Bet Billions On Live Service, But The '12 Games' Plan Went All Wrong

People once thought that Sony's live service was a brave step into the future, but it's now looking like it was one of the company's worst decisions. Jim Ryan's plan to focus on live service experiences for multiplayer games starting in 2020 was meant to expand PlayStation's offerings beyond the single-player wonders that the brand had become known for. 

But now that several shows have been canceled, studios have been shut down, and Sony's live service attempt is starting to look more like a lesson than a change in strategy. Sony had high hopes for Fairgame$ as a standout online game.

The futuristic-looking game was made by Haven Studios, a group run by Jade Raymond, best known for her early work on Assassin's Creed. It was a stylish cooperative heist shooter where rival teams fought over high-stakes loot in huge urban playgrounds. It was sold as a sleek and competitive modern Robin Hood story.

But there was more to the story than the cool video. Not long after Sony officially bought Haven, rumors started to spread that people inside the company were unhappy. Reports say that pre-alpha testing wasn't very good. Early reviews said that the game's gameplay felt broken, slow, and unfinished. Players were hoping for a polished experience, but what they got was an extraction-style shooter that didn't fit together well or have any skill.

The real red flag was when Jade Raymond left the studio. It's still not clear if it was a quit or a quiet firing, but the lack of leadership that was left behind was a sign of bigger problems. Fairgame$ has been in development for almost four years, with Sony directly owning two of those years. It is still not available, and its future is unclear. 

It's hard to see Fairgame$ as anything other than a troubled project trying to stay relevant when internal trust has been shaken, and the progress seems to have stopped. If Fair Game$ is shaky, Marathon is really rough. Bungie's remake of their 1990s shooter was meant to be a hit—a stylish PvP extraction shooter based on the studio's history but made for a modern, competitive audience. 

But the road hasn't been easy since it was first shown in 2023. After the news came out, Bungie fired people and changed its leadership, most notably firing director Christopher Barrett over claims of misconduct. Joe Ziegler, who used to work for Valorant, took over the project and made it move forward. This changed the project's direction, but it also slowed it down and required changes to its scope, which caused it to be pushed back to September 2025.

Then there was the trouble. Early in 2025, Bungie posted a new trailer for Marathon. Later, it came out that some of it used stolen art from a digital artist. Bungie said they were sorry and would fix the problem, but it was too late. More and more people were asking about the company's internal oversight and quality control.

Even worse, rumors spread that Sony had no plans to put money into a big marketing campaign for Marathon, which was strange for a game that was meant to be their big multiplayer release. Though it hasn't been proven, the rumors show that people are losing faith in the game's ability to make money.

This is all happening after Sony spent a lot of money on Bungie, a studio that was meant to lead the way in live service and help other teams make similar games. Now that Bungie is dealing with internal strife, mass layoffs, and angry ex-employees coming out, Marathon feels like it has a lot more to carry than it should. With a price tag of around $40 to $50, it looks like Sony is still betting on it, but that bet is becoming riskier every day.

Let's go back. In 2020, Sony boldly claimed that they would release 12 live service games by the end of fiscal year 2026. This group of twelve multiplayer games called the "Dirty Dozen," was meant to make PlayStation a strong brand in the always-online multiplayer market, where games like Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex Legends are popular. Sony clearly wanted to make money over and over, keep players interested, and get a bigger share of the market.

But the effects have been terrible.

Sony originally approved twelve live service games, but nine have already been canceled or shut down completely. This has led to a string of expensive failures and internal chaos at several companies. Concord, made by Firewalk Studios, was one of the most well-known versions.

Even though it came out in August 2024, the game got terrible reviews right away, and players stopped playing it. The game was only out for two weeks before Sony pulled the plug, and Firewalk Studios closed soon after. How much it costs? A crazy $200 million.

Then there was Naughty Dog's stand-alone social game, The Last of Us Online, which used to get a lot of hype from fans. At first, the project was meant to be a rich, evolving continuation of the popular series. However, in December 2023, it was officially canceled. 

Naughty Dog said that the game had grown beyond what they had planned, and they said again that they didn't want to become a live service company. The very secretive Insomniac game Spider-Man: The Great Web never made it past the early stages of development. The plan was for a co-op game based on the Spider-Verse, but the project was quietly shelved in 2022.

Another big project that Bluepoint Games was working on was an online multiplayer game set in the world of God of War. But this nameless project was shelved in January 2025, which was a clear move away from the idea. Another big project for Bend Studio was a sci-fi co-op shooter. The company is best known for making Days Gone. It never got past the early stages, though, and was thrown away in early 2025.

Firesprite's Twisted Metal reboot was meant to bring back the classic vehicle-based battle series as a live service game. It was canceled in February 2024, during pre-production, so it never even got to full production. A fantasy-themed co-op game was being made by London Studio. A lot of people thought it could be something special. But in early 2024, the project was shelved, and the company shut down for good.

Even Bungie, which was still working on live services, wasn't safe. They were making a third-person looter gun game set in the world of Destiny. Inside the company, they called it Payback. It was called off in August 2024. Deviation Games was another victim. This company was made up of former Call of Duty players. 

Their secret project was canceled in mid-2023, and the company closed in early 2024. Even the supposed Horizon MMO, which was said to be being made with NCSoft's help, was canceled in late 2024 before it could be officially announced. Another new company, Neon Koi, was working on a mysterious (but never released) game that never made it to the public.

It wasn't going to happen in 2024, and the studio closed soon after. All of these withdrawals caused Sony to lose a lot of money, waste good talent, and have their reputations hurt a lot. A few of these ideas were never taken further than the prototype stage. Others fell apart after years of progress. Some closed down their whole studios. Sony's bet on a live service not only failed, it completely fell apart.

Only three of the original twelve live service projects are still being worked on. First up is Fairgame$ from Haven Studios, which has had a tough time with constant changes in leadership and negative comments from early testers inside the company. Then there's Marathon by Bungie, which is a remake of one of their old IPs as an escape shooter. 

People inside the company have delayed and criticized the game, but work is still being done on it, and a release date in 2025 is still being considered. Last but not least, Guerrilla Games' Horizon Online is the only project that looks like it's going forward steadily. Monster Hunter-style co-op gameplay means that players will have to work together to defeat robotic monsters in the huge Horizon world.

Every cancellation costs a lot of money. Some had studios shut down completely. Others made people in high places look bad. Sony took on too much; that much is certain. Even though there have been failures, these three projects are Sony's last chance to save its plans for a live service. We still don't know if they can make it where others failed.

These games are Sony's last chance to win in the live service market. Even these survivors are under pressure to do well because development is taking too long, and confidence is low.

Sony is already starting to get back on track. The company seems to be cutting back after years of going too far. The goal of working on twelve online projects at the same time turned out to be too much to handle. Sony is now focusing on backing only a few good games and turning its attention back to what PlayStation does best: single-player games with stories and cinematic settings.

The live service gold rush guaranteed a steady income and kept players for a long time. But it also needed knowledge, infrastructure, and a deep understanding of how to involve the community—things that Sony and its carefully chosen companies were not really ready for.

On paper, Jim Ryan's plan might have made sense. It has led to some of Sony's most expensive and well-known game failures in real life.

At this point, Fairgame$, Marathon, and Horizon Online are the only three games that can change how this approach is remembered: as a minor detour or a disastrous misstep.

In any case, Sony's risky live service has already cost them years, companies, and a lot of money. What happens in the next 18 months could decide whether the payoff ever comes.