Sony Reportedly Cancels Two More Live Service Projects

Summary

Sony shelves live service projects after Concord failure
Bend and Bluepoint Games cancel live service projects
PlayStation Studios prioritize single-player games and reassess projects to avoid business impact.

Following the disastrous launch of Concord, it looks like Sony is shelving some of the live service projects brewing at some of its first-party studios.

The report comes from the ever-reliable Jason Schreier from Bloomberg, who mentiioned that first-party studios’ Bend and Bluepoint Games are both shutting down their live service projects that were designed to draw recurring revenue from players.

10 Live Service Flops That Shutdown Fast

Live Service is dying, and here is the proof.

PlayStation’s Live Service Push Hits A Snag

While the two projects haven’t been announced officially, one of these is a live service game based on the God of War IP, which is what Bluepoint Games was developing.

Sony confirmed the project cancelations, and a spokesperson said the two games were canceled “following a recent review,” and that PlayStation will continue to develop both online and single-player games.

Thankfully, both studios are safe from being closed down with the spokesperon stating, “Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine what the next projects are.” However, there’s no news whether this will lead to job cuts at both stuidios, but a memo to staff sent by Sony said they are “working closely with Bend and Bluepoint to determine what are the next projects and plan to do everything we can to ensure there is minimal business impact.”

Elden Ring: Nightreign Not A Live Service Game Confirms FromSoftware

Elden Ring: Nightreign won’t be a live service game, according to its games director Junya Ishizak.

This puts a big question mark on what Bend Studio is doing at the moment, as the studio’s last released product was the single-player zombie action game Days Gone, released in 2019. It’s been six years and the studio still hasn’t released anything, which is never a good sign.

As for Bluepoint Games, Sony acquired the company in 2021, and the studio’s latest release was the Demon’s Souls remake of FromSoftware’s original title that was released on the PS3 in 2009. Outside of releasing a game, Bluepoint also worked on God of War Ragnarok as one of the support studios assisting Santa Monica Studio.

The live service project cancellations comes hot on the heels of former Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida’s statement that he’d resist the live service push from Sony if he was still in charge.

Every Playstation Studios Game On PS5

Playstation fans have always ate good when it comes to exclusives, and PlayStation Studios are largely responsible.

As far as we’re aware, there are at least two more live service games being developed currently at Sony. There’s Guerrilla Games’ multiplayer game based on the Horizon franchise, and Bungie is hard at work on Marathon, which we should hear more about this year.

Given last year’s statement by Sony president Hiroki Totoki that they need to do more checks in order to avoid another Concord situation, we really shouldn’t be that surprised at these live service projects being canned. It’s clear Sony doesn’t want to encounter a massive financial loss as big as this one and I don’t blame them.