Another day, another live-service game shutting down. Highguard is the latest casualty in what’s becoming a graveyard of failed multiplayer projects that promised to be the “next big thing.” But this shutdown isn’t just about one game – it’s reigniting a bigger debate about Sony’s whole live-service strategy.
The gaming community isn’t holding back their frustration. Players are pointing to Highguard’s failure as more proof that the industry’s obsession with live-service games is hurting everyone – from studios to gamers to the consoles themselves.
One viral tweet perfectly captures what many gamers are thinking right now:
“Now that Highguard is shutting down, I hope that every game studio and especially Sony will finally understand that live-service fatigue is real and gamers want good single player story driven games. Studios shouldn’t suffer layoffs and closures because the upper management forces them to make everything live-service.” — @NikTek
That tweet hits on something crucial – this isn’t just about failed games. It’s about real people losing their jobs because executives are chasing trends instead of listening to what players actually want.
The numbers tell a pretty grim story. Sony has already cancelled most of its planned live-service games for PlayStation 5. Remember Concord? That game reportedly cost hundreds of millions and lasted about as long as a mayfly. Then there’s Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which bombed so hard it probably set records. Don’t even get us started on Skull and Bones – a game so expensive they called it “AAAA” and so boring players called it something else entirely.
Here’s the kicker: all that money could have made something actually good. Think about it – the budget for just one of these live-service disasters could have funded five or six solid single-player games. Games that people would actually play for years instead of abandoning after a few weeks.
The bigger picture here is pretty depressing. This console generation has fewer PlayStation exclusives than we’ve seen in a long time. Why? Because Sony bet big on live-service games that either flopped or got cancelled before they ever saw the light of day. Instead of getting amazing single-player adventures that PlayStation is known for, we got… well, not much.
This whole mess feels like a classic case of executives not understanding their own audience. PlayStation built its reputation on incredible story-driven games like The Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon. These games sell consoles and create lifelong fans. But somewhere along the way, someone in a boardroom decided that wasn’t enough.
The live-service gold rush made sense on paper. Games like Fortnite and Call of Duty make insane amounts of money. But here’s what those executives missed – for every successful live-service game, there are dozens of failures. The market is already saturated with battle royales, hero shooters, and online multiplayer games. Players don’t have time for another one unless it’s truly special.
Meanwhile, there’s a huge appetite for single-player games that executives seem to be ignoring. Look at Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, or even older PlayStation exclusives – these games don’t need constant updates or battle passes. They just need to be good.
The human cost of this strategy is the worst part. Talented developers who could be making amazing games are instead stuck working on live-service projects they know will probably fail. When those projects inevitably get cancelled, those same developers lose their jobs. It’s a cycle that benefits nobody except maybe some shareholders who don’t actually play games.
So what’s next for Sony and the gaming industry? Hopefully, Highguard’s shutdown serves as another wake-up call. Players have been pretty clear about what they want – more single-player games, fewer live-service disasters.
Sony still has some live-service projects in development, but maybe it’s time to pump the brakes. The company built its gaming reputation on incredible single-player experiences, and there’s no reason they can’t go back to that winning formula.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see if Sony learns from these expensive mistakes. But one thing’s for sure – gamers are tired of watching great studios waste their talent on games nobody asked for. It’s time to get back to what PlayStation does best: telling amazing stories that keep us glued to our controllers for hours.
