While the PlayStation 5 is flying through checkout lines worldwide, reaching almost 60 million units sold as of May 2024, Sony’s first-party games from the talented PlayStation Studios teams haven’t been that inspiring on the multiplayer front.
Gamers who got their fill from noteworthy single-player experiences have been eating real good, with Astro's Playroom, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Returnal satiating our appetites. But PlayStation diehards have been less than enthused with the gaming giant’s increased focus on profitability, particularly in its multiplayer offerings. Based on the lackluster fan responses to Firewalk Studios’ first-person hero shooter Concord and Haven Studios’ competitive heist shooter Fairgame$ (alongside the cancellations of The Last of Us Online and Twisted Metal), the company’s current push towards multiplayer games with long shelf lives and extractable monetization features hasn’t exactly been a home run thus far.
However, one major win has come from PlayStation’s newfound multiplayer focus: the third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2. Arrowhead Game Studios’ bug-busting shooter morphed into a phenomenon that grabbed the attention of millions earlier this year (despite facing a recent dropoff in players). Since this 10-year-old game returned with a bang, we think the following throwback franchises have a solid chance at revitalizing PlayStation’s multiplayer output.
Syphon Filter
We’re confident that some of you who peeped the name of this series immediately said to yourself, “Oh yeah! That’s the game that had the funny run animations as you cook dudes with a taser!” Props to you for having such fond memories of Syphon Filter. If you don’t remember anything about these games, though, they were fun third-person shooters with super-spy espionage vibes. Players were given the tall task of protecting the world from international terrorist factions thanks to the heroic acts of its main character Gabriel "Gabe" Logan, and it was a thrilling time.
But it’s been a hot minute since we got another entry in the franchise. Bend Studio, the team best known for making the post-apocalyptic action-adventure game Days Gone, is the development studio that brought Syphon Filter to life. And now’s the perfect time to bring it back from the grave and bless it with a beautiful coat of paint. A rebooted Syphon Filter could make waves with an epic single-player campaign and a player-vs-player (PvP) component that’s reminiscent of the chaotic matches that erupted during the heyday of Uncharted 2 and 3 multiplayer matches. Running into a war-torn city with your squad, blasting the opposition to bits with an array of firearms, and infuriating players by repeatedly shocking them with your taser sounds like a great time, doesn’t it?
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs
Of all the first-party PlayStation IPs that are in desperate need of a multiplayer revival, it’s SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs. This series of tactical third-person shooters got their start on the PlayStation 2 and quickly became the console’s go to PvP shooter. One team played as the United States Navy SEALs while the other group took on the role of “terrorists.” You couldn’t just go in guns blazing and pull off sick headshots in rapid succession like you could in Call of Duty; there was a strong sense of strategy and team synergy at play here that demanded players take it slow in their approach, and that methodology helped separate it from its contemporaries while appealing to military heads as well.
We now live in an age of amazing tactical multiplayer shooters, with games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Escape from Tarkov, and Insurgency: Sandstorm filling the void. Still, it would be in PlayStation Studios’ best interest to commission a brand-new SOCOM project from a brand-new development studio, especially now that the game’s original developer, Zipper Interactive, is sadly defunct. Embracing the free-to-play model for a multiplayer-only rendition of SOCOM seems like an easy bet that could pay off greatly. If it were to make a return, we’d particularly be keen to sink hundreds of hours into classic yet refreshed modes like Breach, Escort, Extraction, and even SOCOM 4’s Demolition.
Killzone
Back in the day, the term “Halo killer” was thrown around anytime major gaming media outlets previewed an upcoming first-person shooter that had a decent chance at knocking Master Chief from the top of the mountain. However, Halo proved to be too much of an FPS juggernaut that was just too hard to topple. Despite that, some worthy contenders put up a good fight, including Guerrilla Games’ Killzone franchise. The four main installments garnered plenty of fanfare across the PS2, PS3, and PS4 thanks to an unmistakable enemy faction (those damned Helghast), heavier-feeling characters and gunplay, and quality single-player campaigns.
Right now, Guerrilla Games is focused on doing more with its biggest money-maker, the monster-hunting action role-playing franchise Horizon. Don’t get us wrong. We love hunting down robotic monsters in lush, open-world environments. But at some point, we’d also love to see the studio return to the iconic FPS that originally put it on the map. A brand-new Killzone could thrive as a classic arena shooter that avoids the inner workings of your average hero shooters like Apex Legends and Overwatch. We’d welcome the return of Killzone 3’s five battle classes for competitive play and even Killzone Shadow Fall’s four-player cooperative mode Intercept if a brand-new single-player campaign had to be sacrificed in the process. Sometimes, you have to give to receive.
Resistance
Insomniac Games gets the nod from gamers for being PlayStation Studios’ most reliable development team. Its output over the past couple of years has done a phenomenal job of giving PlayStation console owners a reason to keep their systems in rotation. PS2 owners got their money’s worth from the Ratchet & Clank and Spyro the Dragon franchises, while PS4 and PS5 owners have enjoyed the web-swinging exploits of Marvel’s Spider-Man games. During the PS3’s prime, however, Insomniac Games introduced an all-new IP called Resistance, and it was fascinating. This alternate history-focused first-person shooter did an excellent job of standing out from its genre stalwarts thanks to a combination of unique weaponry and a large number of players going at it on the battlefield simultaneously, which ultimately made Resistance 2’s 60-player Skirmish mode absolutely goated.
Based on that massive Insomniac Games leak from December 2023 that revealed the studio’s plans around its future projects, we know the team is busy working on several games centered around Marvel characters and universes. Those plans seemingly wouldn’t give the studio the time it needs to pivot to bringing Resistance back from the dead. But since we’re hopeful, we’d be open to PlayStation Studios handing over the Resistance keys to one of its trusted first-party studios (Destiny’s Bungie could be a solid pick based on its FPS expertise) that could turn it into a major player within the PS5 and PC multiplayer space. The war between the human resistance and invading Chimera aliens must continue!
MAG
Remember Zipper Interactive from earlier? Well, the team didn’t just put out SOCOM. It also worked on the online first-person shooter MAG, which did the unthinkable by allowing up to 256 players (divided into eight-player squads) to engage in epic warfare. A total of six modes were featured, including Acquisition and Interdiction, and they all did a commendable job of offering unique ways to partake in some intense run-and-gun action. MAG got some solid reviews when it originally launched on the PS3, gaining a sizable fanbase from the console’s massive player pool, but unfortunately, the Grim Reaper came knocking in January 2014 to shut the online servers down for good.
When you take a look at the current first-person multiplayer shooter landscape, there are a ton of titles that embrace what MAG was going for all those years ago. Games like the militaristic first-person shooter Battlefield 2042 and the free-to-play first-person shooter The Finals feature modes where players get locked into some of the most vigorous firefights we’ve ever witnessed. And with contemporaries like these paving the way for large-scale multiplayer battles again, an easy free-to-play win for PlayStation Studios could come courtesy of a MAG rebirth, bringing back everything that worked in the original game while providing a modern-day visual sheen that could be a winning formula for a resurgence.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
Fighting games have been going through something of a renaissance as of late. Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Guilty Gear Strive are at the forefront of a new golden age for the genre that’s reminiscent of the good old arcade days of the 90s brought on by Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. 2D, 3D, and anime fighters have all been enjoying an upswing in popularity thanks to some well-implemented rollback netcode, which provides a smoother experience when playing online. Another sub-genre that’s doing well is the platform fighter, with notable releases including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Brawlhalla, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, and MultiVersus. Back in 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment following an internal merger in 2016) jumped onto the crossover platform fighter bandwagon with the SuperBot Entertainment-developed PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
That first-party brawler was solid. While it was celebrated for featuring an eclectic roster of cool characters and creative stages, it got a ton of flack for its focus on only being able to knock out characters with super moves. Plus, some of its roster choices stuck out like a sore thumb; we’re still not over the exclusion of PS1 mascots like Crash Bandicoot from his eponymous series, Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife, and Spyro from Spyro the Dragon, and the inclusion of Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke and BioShock’s Big Daddy never made much sense for a PlayStation-focused brawler. With the current upswing in fighting games, we think PlayStation Studios should take another swing at its platform fighter concept. Reward players for getting points by knocking each other off the stage to their doom regardless if a super was used or not, introduce some meaningful single-player content, bring in some fan-favorite characters (such as The Legend of Dragoon’s Dart Feld, Bloodborne’s The Hunter, and the three aforementioned PS1 icons), and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale could be another exceptional contender in the platform fighter genre.
These are just six of Sony’s more recognizable IPs that would make the most sense for a multiplayer comeback, but of course, there are plenty of other games under PlayStation Studios that deserve another chance. Did your favorite first-party game make the list? What are some games you think should get brought back from the grave? Let us know in the comments. Here’s hoping at least one of these dream scenarios comes to fruition.