Despair at prospect of new PlayStation live service game lifted by mysterious mention of frogs

Sony have announced a new PlayStation studio made up of former developers of Destiny, Halo, League Of Legends, Fortnite, and Roblox, plus a few industry newcomers. Called teamLFG - where "LFG" stands for Looking For Group, not the other, naughty phrase you're thinking of - they're based in Bellevue, Washington, and are dedicated to "exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds". Uuuuuurrrgh. Their first project is a "comedic" and "lighthearted" team-based action game set in a new science-fantasy universe.

The PlayStation blogpost announcing all this is a wearying paean to an idea of the live service game that dates back to the original Destiny in 2014. It's written in the style of a cyborg that is trying to remember how to love. There is, however, a spark of eccentricity at the end that makes the labour of being preached to about engagement processes worthwhile: the team claim to be inspired by "frog-type games". What is a frog-type game? A Frogger homage? A real estate sim about Finishing Rooms Over Garages? Did they just misspell "frag"? The mind froggles.

You should have led with "frog-type game", Sony - it's easily the most interesting part of this announcement, which otherwise makes me feel terribly old. But perhaps you placed it at the end to test the willingness of news writers to wade through yet more paragraphs of live service pablum. On which note: "We are driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging," the post explains. "We want our players to feel excited when they log on to discover their teammates already hanging out online. We want our players to recognize familiar names and to make myths and memes out of each other. We want our players to love remembering that one time where they pulled off That Play that changed the whole story of the match. As we say on the team - dat's da good stuff."

I refuse to believe that you say "dat's da good stuff", teamLFG, and I do not appreciate your attempts at being colloquial, after threatening to make me feel excited about the prospect of seeing somebody I know online. Still, it's possible the clunky roguishness here is a ruse, and there's a cunning reference to discover. A quick Google of "dat's da good stuff" leads me to an Instagram image of a football player inhaling the scent of pastry. Perhaps the real frog-type games were the baked goods we memed along the way.

The post promises to make action games that people can play for "countless hours". There's also talk of early access playtests and "[growing] the game and community for years to come." This from a studio owned by Sony, who recently gutted hero shooter Concord at launch.

As for teamLFG's debut project, it'll take cues from "fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, [and] life sims", in addition to "frog-type games". It seems likely this is the very same sci-fantasy action game that was disclosed as part of mass layoffs at Bungie last July. It also seems likely that teamLFG include a few of the former Bungie devs who were relocated to form a new PlayStation studio as part of Bungie's cost-cutting. What's left of Bungie are still working on Destiny 2 and the Marathon reboot, each an out-and-out live service production. You can never have too much frogspawn in the live service basket.

I petitioned the RPS hivemind for their thoughts on "frog-type games" before writing this piece. Jeremy pointed me towards Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, "a cozy frog collecting game, where you take pictures of frogs, play mini-games and decorate your habitat". It seems charming and painterly and relaxed. If you can feel your soul fragmenting at the idea of feeding "countless hours" to another sci-fantasy Skinner box, maybe play the demo for Kamaeru instead.