Sony Opts for Safeguards, Studio Oversight to Protect Itself From Concord-Like High-Profile Failures

Sony is reportedly learning from its high-profile failures like Concord and bringing more control over its first-party output, while balancing creativity freedom of its studios. The PlayStation parent is ensuring it has more safeguards in place to protect itself from misfiring releases, with the company preferring its riskier projects to fail “early and cheaply” as opposed to being damaging and costly debacles like Concord.

A new wide-ranging FT report (paywalled), that interviews more than 10 of Sony's top games executives, has shed light on the company's efforts to increase oversight over its gaming business while maintaining the independence of its creative teams. According to PlayStation's studio business group CEO Hermen Hulst, Sony first-party studios are allowed to take measured risks and “think big” for PlayStation's next big blockbuster game.

Sony Learning From Concord's Failure

“I don't want teams to always play it safe, but I would like for us, when we fail, to fail early and cheaply,” Hulst told FT. The executive was likely referring to Concord, perhaps one of gaming's most high-profile and costly flops that reportedly lost Sony upwards of $200 million. The live service shooter was released in August 2024 and was taken offline after a dismal two weeks in the wild after it failed to attract players. Hulst admitted at the time that Sony did not hit its targets with Concord.

Talking to FT, Hulst said the company was putting in safeguards to limit the damage from misfiring releases as it searches for its next blockbuster title. “We have since put in place much more rigorous and more frequent testing in very many different ways,” Hulst said. “The advantage of every failure... is that people now understand how necessary that [oversight] is.”

Since Concord's disastrous launch, Sony has pushed the brakes on its live service push. Earlier this year, the company said it had cancelled two of its unannounced live service games from Oregon-based Bend Studio and Texas-based Bluepoint Games after an internal review. According to the new report, Sony is focussing more on group testing, communication between in-house studios, and closer relationships between top executives at the games business.

The focus is also on turning popular PlayStation IP into multimedia franchises, as seen with the recent success of The Last of Us TV series, based on Naughty Dog's games. Consequently, approach to creating new IP now includes consideration on how it can turn into a bigger PlayStation franchise, as per the report.

The report arrives days after Sony-owned Bungie announced a leadership change, confirming the departure of CEO Pete Parsons. Bungie, which was acquired by Sony in 2022 in a deal worth $3.7 billion, is also restructuring to integrate itself more closely with its parent company. In its first-quarter FY 2025 earnings call this month, Sony said Bungie's independence was getting “lighter” and the studio was shifting towards becoming more a part of PlayStation Studios.