PlayStation finally unveiled some of their live service titles during their PlayStation Showcase on May 24, 2023, and from what it looks like they are objectively making some more bad decisions. This is based off very little shown on these titles and based off the speculation of what these titles will possibly or likely be when released. While the games do look to have some diversity, all of them seem to be shooters in some shape or form. Not only is this an overcrowded genre in the live service games field, this genre already has its established marquee titles, think Fortnite, Apex, Overwatch, etc. making it a very hard genre to really gain traction in.

The titles that were announced/featured during the Showcase were the debut title from Haven Studios Fairgame$, Firewalk Studios Concord, Arrowhead Studios Helldivers 2, and Bungies Marathon. Fairgame$ appears to be a team based competitive heist game, seemingly comparable to the Payday series. Concord, didn’t show much, just a space themed teaser trailer for the game. Helldivers 2 is the most known property shown off in this showcase with it being a sequel, however it appears to be changing to a third person shooter from the original title’s top down view. And lastly Marathon, which is a rebirth of an older property from Bungie.

Now obviously there is a huge risk doing a Live Service titles vs. a standalone or traditional title, there is no shortage of Free To Play titles out there between mobile and console already. Live Service titles also need a long-term plan and a buy-in from the developers, producers, publishers, etc. to set out and stick with a road map but also be able to adapt to the players as quickly as possible or more accurately quicker than possible. Games in the live service realm need to also have enough intrigue to get enough players to buy in to the title, but balance the titles to be worth playing for those who don’t want to spend money. But what also is needed is to be able to uniquely differentiate your title or in this instance titles from what is out there and available already.

Going heavy in the field of Live Service shooters again seems to be a great miscalculation, there are multiple behemoths already in that genre. PlayStation would be wise to reach back into their back catalog and revive/reimagine something like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale or ModNation Racers as a Live Service model. Personally as a massive ModNation Racers fan back in the day, that would be the first choice, for those unaware of what ModNation Racers is/was…

Modnation Racers, released in 2010, was likely the best non Mario Kart cart racing game to ever exist, it had great controls, tracks, character, and such an exceptional track creator option. Developed by United Front Games and PlayStation’s San Diego Studio was inspired by the Little Big Planet play.create.share idea of games with solid user generated options/content. The game had such success that there was even a sequel made for the PlayStation Vita as well in 2012’s Modnation Racers: Road Trip, which brought largely the same great content to the handheld console. Dusting off this franchise and launching it as a free Live Service franchise would be a far better idea than developing multiple titles within the greater shooter based genre. Presenting ModPlayStation Racers!

ModPlayStation Racers would bring the same amazing gameplay and unique style of the ModNation Racers franchise while upping it to the graphical standards of the PlayStation 5 console generation. Update/recreate various tracks from ModNation Racers and ModNation Racers: Road Trip, even take a few of the highest rated community created tracks for the base version and initial season. Have a decent selection of available carts and racers from the start as well, with a limited selection of mods from the start for both, and full access to the track editor in terms of strictly creating tracks.

Expanding the game from there and the base version would have seasons/season passes that include various unlockable items in addition there would be rotating shop items such as unique themed carts or characters. The items would be various things for the carts and racers, both cosmetic and various colors that can be unlocked, track editor items such as decorations that tie in with whatever the current season’s theme would be. By having these type of items as what is unlockable and/or available for purchase it keeps it in the Fortnite realm of having your items be cosmetic based rather than other titles where there is a need to rebalance the game whenever there is new content brought in.

Each season would utilize the incredible depth of PlayStation properties, Uncharted, Infamous, Resistance, Killzone, Horizon, Gran Turismo, Syphon Filter, Twisted Metal, just to name a few. With each new season focusing on a property from the immense gaming catalog PlayStation has amassed over the decades. Having characters from the the featured season as unlockable racers in the uniquely adorable ModNation style, unlockable carts either customizations themed to each season or specific vehicles from a property, and track editor decorations as well. In addition to the carts, characters, and themes each season would bring at least one, maybe two unique courses based on that season’s property.

One season you will be be racing against Navarro in and out of the Amazon rainforest in an homage to Uncharted, next season you find yourself rolling through the Helghan capital of Pyrrhus City from Killzone. And what makes this even more amazing is that not only had you unlocked Aloy from a previous season, but you just bought the shop exclusive kart inspired by Sweet Tooth’s glorious ice cream truck from Twisted Metal. Hopefully over time there would be the possibility to crossover to other properties again the best example would be Fortnite having seemingly partnered with every corner of pop culture, but should that work out there is enough first party properties to last many seasons over years if handled right.

In addition to the purchase of the seasonal pass users would be able to earn currency from finishing races, winning races, competing in and winning various timed challenges. There would be weekly featured community tracks and challenges as well for the ability to earn additional currency. As briefly mentioned before have a daily or weekly shop list with either exclusive or previous season’s characters, carts, themes, etc. that players can utilize their earned currency on. And for those who are still hankering for some same console multiplayer with friends and family there would be splitscreen racing, but without the ability to earn the currency. Just some good old fashion gaming among family and friends, getting practice and gaining expertise on the various tracks.

Time will obviously tell what becomes of the various Live Service Titles from PlayStation, but I certainly have a fair level of skepticism. There seems to be better or more unique options for PlayStation to pull from, or even if they are hell bent on staying with the shooter genre…why not dust off SOCOM. There seem to be no lack of odd decisions from PlayStation lately, the VR2 headset was a bad use of resources and will never reasonably compete with comparable Oculus headsets, the seemingly great mishandling of the upcoming (hopefully) Factions multiplayer from the TLOU2, the powers that be at PlayStation seem to not have their fingers on the pulse of gamers as of late. But like most people, I’ll stay optimistic, but damn I would love to see a bold move like what was outlined above in ModPlayStation Racers.

What do you all think? What are you hoping these announced Live Service titles end up becoming? What older PlayStation property would you want reimagined as a Live Service title?

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