PlayStation Studios today announced the latest addition to its growing portfolio of developers, teamLFG.
PlayStation’s many years of success lie at the feet of its portfolio of game developers. Especially during the dark ages of the early PS3 days, these studios have continuously managed to churn out beloved titles that have drawn hundreds of millions of players to PlayStation consoles across the generations. Given the importance of these studios to PlayStation, it’s always exciting to hear that another developer is joining the fold. Today, that studio is teamLFG, and they’re ready to join PlayStation Studios.
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From Bungie with love
teamLFG is a new studio from a team that originated at developer Bungie. Due to layoffs at the developer last year, the team behind what was then known as Gummy Bears was spun off and brought into the PlayStation fold. Now, they have a full name and studio filled to the brim with talent that has worked on titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Robloc, and Rec Room, and ready to provide some initial details about their new game.
According to the studio, the LFG in their name stands for “Looking For Group,” which is part of their core mission statement. The studio aims to create games around friendship, community, and belonging. Their games will be immersive multiplayer titles propelled by action games, “that players can learn, play, and master for countless hours.” For their first title, the studio is working on a team-based action game that pulls inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games. It’ll be set in a mythic, science-fantasy universe and lean heavily on comedy. teamLFG did not mention when they intend on revealing more details about the game.
A mixed history with live services
Probably the most eye-catching part of the announcement is the confirmation that this title will indeed be a live service. While live service titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Helldivers II continue to succeed, the genre still sees more bombs than successes. For PlayStation, their record is 1-1, with Helldivers II finding extreme success, but Concord flopping horrendously. The company purchased Bungie in 2022 to help guide the creation of more live service games, though PlayStation has since walked back many of its live service plans and canceled numerous projects. Even some of the genre’s most successful titles, including Apex Legends and Destiny 2, are seeing major lulls in player retention.
It’s critical that we stay nimble enough to react to player feedback, not just in our lead-up to launch, but throughout live service as we continue to grow the game and community for years to come.
Hopefully, teamLFG can deliver a product that keeps players engaged. First though, it’ll have to find its audience, a struggle that has doomed many live service titles, including Concord. We’ll let you know should teamLFG or PlayStation Studios make any additional announcements regarding this game.
