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Herman Hulst, former studio head of Guerilla Games and now CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Group, spoke to the Financial Times about the company’s live service efforts. Following Sony’s admission that things weren’t going well, Hulst says the company is trying to learn from its failures like Concord. He emphasizes that if there are going to be failures, he would prefer they come “early and cheaply.”
“I don’t want teams to always play it safe,” Hulst said. “I would like for us to fail early and cheaply.” Since then, Sony has implemented more rigorous and frequent testing in various ways. Each failure now highlights the importance of oversight.
When PlayStation first launched its live service push, championed by Hulst and former Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan, it aimed to release 10 live service games by March 2026. Not only will that goal not be met, but most of those projects have been cancelled. However, Hulst is unbothered by the number of releases; what matters more is “having a diverse set of player experiences and communities.” A key aspect of achieving this is creating original IPs, like how Concord was a new IP.
“We take a very intentional approach to IP creation,” Hulst said. “We want to understand how a new concept can turn into an iconic franchise for PlayStation, which can then become a franchise beyond gaming.”
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Concord, a massive failure that didn’t come early and cheaply as Hulst would prefer, made it all the way to launch but only lasted two weeks before dying a costly death. Firewalk Studios, the developer of Concord, was shut down, making this moment in PlayStation history one that fans won’t soon forget.
Regarding current live service projects, there was concern about Fairgames, an upcoming live service title from Haven Studios, which had been cancelled according to Michael Pachter but was later refuted. Additionally, Haven Studio’s founder, Jade Raymond, left the studio earlier this year, raising further doubts about the game’s prospects.
Bungie is currently working on picking up the pieces of Marathon after it faced delays and accusations of plagiarism without an announced new release date.
Hulst acknowledges that PlayStation is learning from its mistakes. However, true progress will be evident when the company avoids repeating past errors. So far, there’s no clear evidence that Sony has fully absorbed the lessons from its live service push.
