Well, yeah I think that was obvious when they announced so many at a time: the desire to get some of them to work even if the others didn't. The alternate is to make 1 live service, wait and see how it does, then start another. Clearly, Sony are trying to get into the live service arena sooner rather than later. I don't think thats a controversial take, nor do I think the idea behind it is necessarily wrong. 

But that said, the devs clearly had the choice to do a live service or not. There is no indicatation that any of the studios were forced into it. the fact that Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Housemarquee, Team Asobi and Firesprite are all working on non-live service games is evident that this is the case. 

Sure it hasn't exactly worked out as planned, but besides Concord there aren't really any failures for them so far. So what if some other live service projects got cancelled? Their are tons of single player games that have been cancelled, too. Just because reporters aren't reporting on those but rather focussing on the live service titles shouldn't be evidence alone that the live service move isn't working. Helldivers 2 is doing well. Fairgames, Horizon Online, the game from TeamLFG could all do well. 

And I think you're heavily mistaken on Astro Bot. That game was getting marketing. But it's a lower budget game with a marketing budget to match the audience they were expecting to get. No one should belive that something like Astro Bot is going to pull off Uncharted/ Spider-man numbers on PlayStation. That just isn't what the general audience is playing.

It's a good time. You should play it. But I think it overstays it's welcome after a while. But yeah, I recall when playing it making connections to the Order. It's strange how a team that did a Jak spinoff and 2 God of War titles someone decided not to infuse their own original IP with actual melee combat. Such a strange and ill-placed decision that was. Too bad, The Order could've been something special.

I hope it's not an Uncharted remake. Move onto a new generation and let Sony Bend take the reigns of remaking/ remastering UC trilogy and Golden Abyss. They are the ones who need guaranteed hits: Naughty Dog should look to innovate on their IP.

Ex-Bungie Dev Says Marathon Leadership Was “Extremely Toxic And Humiliating” To Work With: “Bungie Leadership Needs To Be Gutted Completely”

Seems like a constant theme at Bungie. I wonder if there are employees hoping that Sony will take over more.  

Give me that Lost Legacy 2 with Sam and Sully! 

At this point, it would be the only thing that would save Bungie from completely self-imploding. Multiple times, even with Marathon, there's been reports of devs warning higher ups about bad ideas, and they've 100% of the time been ignored.

Pete Parsons only took over the role of CEO in 2016. Not that that's when Bungie's problems began. But under his tenure, every major bad business decision that has now put Bungie in this position, has been made by him. Including opting to make Marathon an extraction shooter, which Paul Tassi said was an upper management decision. I'm starting to wonder if Jason Jones is even still alive lol. Dude became a recluse. Doesn't surprise me though. Jason Jones abandoned his team during Halo 3's development, leaving the studio to manage everything themselves. Which ironically, was the best thing to happen lol.

Bungie's leadership has almost always been shit, Sony can save Bungie by firing upper management instead of letting upper management fire all the talented employees in Bungie to save their own skin, I almost hope Marathon is delayed so that Bungie's upper management finally gets given the boot, IIRC Sony is allowed to take full control if revenue goals aren't met and they definitely won't be met if Marathon is delayed. Upper management can't get away with firing hundreds of people to save their own skin forever. Though at this stage I worry about Marathon either way, whether it is delayed or not, I question if Sony will be satisfied with how it performs unless it's a massive hit.

Can somebody inform me w/ what’s up with Sony? Am I correct in saying their first-party output as been abysmal as of lately? (I am genuinely asking. I don’t know Sony all too well.)

Games take way longer to develop and Sony has had a few misfires with cancelled live service games and unwanted remasters. But remember 2019 where their only big titles were Death Stranding (not 1st party) and Days Gone? We're not in a much worser state than that. Doesn't help that they've gutted their AA studios outside of Team Asobi but they now rely on 3rd party deals for that. 

See Midnight Walk:

I Think people forget PS4 didn't get a legit huge 1st party hit until 2016 in Uncharted 4 and then from that point it's been a case of having 1 or 2 major hit each year. And that builds momemtum and brand image, especially when one is being marketed next to the release of another. i.e Spiderman and God of War being shown around the time of Uncharted 4 launching

2016: Uncharted + Ratchet
2017: Horizon + GT Sport
2018: God of War + Spiderman
2019: Days Gone

Several years have had an even stronger exclusive line up because of third party collabs (Death Stranding, Final Fantasy, etc). This year is solid so far with Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei but I think we're definitely in a weak period, Traditionally there would have been another big single player experience sitting between Spiderman 3 and Ghost of Yotei.... And future games would be way more tangible with gameplay reveals and hype pushing us towards release (Wolverine, Intergalatic, Saros etc). But that's I think some impact of live service choices and longer development times. Probably they'll pick up pace again next year

IDK maybe I just have rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Sony’s PS4 years. I remember 2016-2020 as being very strong when it came to first-party releases, though the output admittedly doesn’t appear too dissimilar to the PS5: every year has seen a major first-party release accompanied by a major second-party release. The first-party hasn’t really hit my taste, each game feeling a little too similar to predecessors. And 2025 has felt unusually quiet: From what I’ve heard, it doesn’t even sound like a Sony presentation is in the works for May. I’m not very optimistic, though I do have faith Sony will turn things around by the time PS6 comes out. Astro’s the only first-party that’s really excited me this gen; during PS4, every game on that list you provide had me ecstatic.

A lot of games were also cancelled with the live service push. 

And they've closed multiple studios this gen (Firewalk, London Studio, Japan Studio, Neon Koi, Pixelopus - which two of these didn't exist during the PS4 gen)

Sony have had extremely strong years, no doubt. Having 4, 20m sellers released in 2 years (2016-2018), alongside smaller titles like Ratchet, Gravity Rush 2 and The Last Guardian and 2nd Party titles like Detroid is nothing to scoff at. I just think the wow factor is missing because we've either had lots of cross gen (2020-2022 which were incredible on an output level) and sequels instead of original experiences. Again I think PS5 will have it's 2018 moment in 2028 where the branding is riding an absolute high from quality software either released or being marketed  (3 years delayed relative from launch compared to when PS4 experienced its branding peak), with 2024-2026 being slightly softer years compared to the norm.