The Last Of Us multiplayer – are PlayStation developers revolting? (Picture: Sony)

Sources claim PlayStation exec Connie Booth was fired, as she is blamed for ‘internal strife’ from developers working on live service games.

She may be someone that most PlayStation fans have never heard of, but the exit of Connie Booth , former head of internal production at Sony, could prove to be just as significant as the imminent departure of PlayStation boss Jim Ryan .

Although Sony has not spoken about her in public, former Sony developer David Jaffe, creator of Twisted Metal and the original God Of War , has claimed that she was in fact fired. Not only that, but that she has been blamed for ‘internal strife’ at Sony over the company’s pivot towards live service games .

Jaffe claims to have two separate sources at Sony, who suggests that the move towards live service titles (aka games as a service), ‘Made a lot of the studios unhappy’ and that Booth and her team were blamed for the discontent.

Booth’s job is to oversee all first party production at Sony but the push for live service games is believed to be the idea of Jim Ryan, not her. According to Jaffe, Ryan was ‘convinced that games as a service was the future.’

‘Apparently, when the Naughty Dog game was cancelled that was a bridge too far for a lot of people, a lot of the studios,’ says Jaffe. ‘They got very upset that the game had been cancelled and very upset that they, or at least some of them, were being forced to make these sorts of games.’

That’s a reference to the multiplayer The Last Of Us project supposedly being put on the back burner, after an internal review by Bungie. Like everything else though that’s unconfirmed, and Sony and Naughty Dog have never discussed its fate or explained why they suddenly stopped talking about it.

According to Jaffe, the decision to pivot to life service titles was ‘not taken in with a lot of love’. Implying that numerous studios are currently unhappy with the direction of Sony’s first party output.





So far none of the live service games seem anywhere close to release and no gameplay footage has been shown of any of them – just pre-rendered trailers of Fairgame$ and Concord .

Although Jaffe does not comment on Ryan’s exit, the timing is certainly curious. But with no public commentary on the situation it’s impossible to know exactly what’s going on and whether the new Sony boss, whoever that might be, will more or less enthusiastic about live service games.

However, one of Jaffe’s sources commented on Booth’s replacement, Angie Smets from Horizon developer Guerilla Games, suggesting that she is well respected by developers.

However, the source apparently has ‘no love’ for Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios since 2019, and suggests that he was ‘all in favour’ of the closure of Japan Studio in 2021 .

More: Trending Games Inbox: Has Xbox Game Pass been a failure? Alan Wake 2 to Silent Hill – every major horror game scheduled for 2023 and beyond Game Pass seems to have missed its sales target for the third year running

There’s no indication of how he feels about live service titles though, or if Sony intends to use this moment to double down on them or move back towards a focus on single-player titles – perhaps encouraged by the record-breaking success of Spider-Man 2 .

The idea that multiple studios were suddenly put to work on live service games, in some cases against their will, would explain the recent lack of announcements from Sony, although given their almost total lack of communication this year it’s hard to know for certain what is going on.

What is for sure though is that it’s going to be very interesting to see who the new head of PlayStation is and what they have to say about live service games and Sony’s single-player legacy.





Email  [email protected] , leave a comment below,  follow us on Twitter , and  sign-up to our newsletter .



MORE : Sega cancels live service shooter Hyenas as multiple games canned





MORE : Not all PlayStation live service games will be shooters says Sony





MORE : PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida thinks too many live service games would be ‘boring’



Follow Metro Gaming on  Twitter  and email us at  [email protected]

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our  Submit Stuff page here .

For more stories like this,  check our Gaming page .
Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site. Sign up Privacy Policy » This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.