- Two unannounced live service games have been canceled by Sony
- A spokesperson for the company confirmed this
- They were under development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games
Sony has canceled two unannounced live service games.
According to Bloomberga Sony spokesperson confirmed they were canceled “following a recent review”. They were under development by two PlayStation studios, Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games.
Bend Studio is known for developing exclusive PlayStation products, most recently Days gone by. Bluepoint Games usually specializes in extensive remasters or remakes, such as the PlayStation 5 release of Demon’s souls as well as the PlayStation 4 version of Shadow of the Colossus.
Although the games have been canceled, none of the studios will be shut down. “Bend and Bluepoint are very talented teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family,” the spokesperson continued. “We work closely with each studio to determine what the next projects are.”
Sony also specified that it intends to “do everything we can to ensure there is minimal business impact”, although it is not clear if this will involve any job cuts. Bluepoint Games was reportedly working on a live service The God of War title, probably similar in scope to The last of us online game developer Naughty Dog, which was canceled in December 2023.
These two unannounced games were part of a wider push by Sony to invest in live service tiles, which can be very successful. They like Fortnite or Fate 2 provides a constant revenue stream and can keep players engaged for years via frequent content updates. That said, an extremely crowded market makes releasing a new live service a very risky endeavor.
Last year, Sony launched Helldivers 2which sold well and is the perfect example of a live service hit. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we also saw the high-budget Concord struggle to make much of an impact, with disastrous sales leading to its closure just two weeks after its launch. It seems safe to assume that these cancellations are measures to try to avoid a similar disaster.
