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Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently discussed Sony’s strategy shift towards live service games in his Pachter Factor podcast. He criticized this move, particularly the acquisition of Bungie for a substantial amount that he believes was overvalued. Pachter mentioned that Jade Raymond had been let go and her game, Fairgame$, canceled.
According to Pachter, “Sony went, ‘Oh, we need some of that,’ except they bought Bungie to do it.” He argued that while Bungie is talented (having created Halo and Destiny), the acquisition price was too high—$3.6 billion. Sony did not buy a mobile publisher like Scopely for $4.9 billion, which has higher revenue than Bungie’s $300 million or Niantic’s $1.5 billion.
Raymond’s departure from Haven Studio (which she founded in 2021) was officially announced in May. At that time, it was only known that the game had been delayed from 2025 to 2026. Fairgame$ was being developed for both PlayStation 5 and PC as a competitive heist experience. If this cancellation is confirmed, it would be another significant setback for Sony’s live service efforts, following the cancellations of Concord and The Last of Us Online.
In his podcast, Pachter directly criticized Sony, stating they are “bad managers” who “don’t know what they’re doing.” He suggested that Sony should focus on areas where they excel and acquire companies that specialize in free-to-play live service games. Examples include King, Supercell, Peak Games, or Respawn.
Sony recently acknowledged that its efforts to implement live services have not been smooth, but it pledged to learn from these mistakes.
