In a significant strategic shift, Sony has officially scrapped two unannounced live service projects from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games.
This decision follows an internal review of its development pipeline, likely influenced by recent financial blunders, most notably the abrupt shutdown of its live service hero shooter, Concord, and the subsequent closure of its developers, Firewalk Studios.
Despite their established roles within PlayStation Studios, Bend and Bluepoint’s canceled projects highlight Sony’s growing reassessment of its live service ambitions. Both studios had been working on titles centered around continuous updates, microtransactions, and seasonal content, hallmarks of the live service model that Sony has been aggressively pursuing.
However, with Concord’s catastrophic failure, reportedly costing Sony anywhere from $200 million to over $400 million the company has been forced to reconsider its live service strategy.
The game flopped spectacularly, thanks to its absurd $40 price tag, complete lack of a single-player mode, and its blatant attempt to cater to ESG and DEI mandates. Featuring a cast of insufferable, diversity-obsessed caricatures, Concord was dead on arrival, leading to its removal from sale just two weeks post-launch and a complete server shutdown by early September 2024.
It appears Sony has finally learned a hard truth: live service games aren’t a guaranteed success, especially when they’re built to appease social media activists and neo-Marxists instead of actual gamers.
A Sony spokesperson confirmed the cancellations, stating that while both projects have been scrapped, neither Bend Studio nor Bluepoint Games will be shut down. Instead, the teams will pivot to new projects that align with Sony’s evolving strategy for online and single-player games.
Sony reaffirmed its confidence in both studios, highlighting their contributions to the PlayStation ecosystem, Bluepoint being known for remasters like Shadow of the Colossus (2018) and Demon’s Souls (2020), while Bend Studio’s last major release was Days Gone (2019).
With the exception of Days Gone, these titles seemingly fell short of Sony’s sales expectations. Instead of approving a sequel, Sony redirected Bend Studio to work on a live service project in line with its previous vision for PlayStation’s future.
Fortunately, Sony seems to be rethinking its disastrous approach to both live service and bloated single-player “interactive movie” titles. Over the past decade, cinematic-heavy games like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part II, and Marvel’s Spider-Man have cost hundreds of millions to develop, forcing Sony to rely on aggressive console bundles to inflate sales numbers.
With recent PC ports floundering, Ghost of Tsushima being the only exception, Sony may finally be realizing that its high-cost DEI approach is unsustainable.
Sony has recently canceled a proposed live service multiplayer rendition of The Last of Us, which had been in development at Naughty Dog for several years. Additionally, the company tasked Guerrilla Games with producing a multiplayer live service project set in the Horizon universe.
Spurred on by the unexpected success of Helldivers 2, Sony initially remained committed to developing big-budget live service titles. However, the catastrophic failure of Concord due in no small part to its repulsive character design and focus on diversity and inclusivity has led Sony to rethink its strategy and begin axing live service projects.
The abrupt shutdown of Concord just weeks after launch underscored the inherent risks of the live service model, particularly for new IPs that fail to generate organic interest due to physically repulsive character designs that appeal to nobody sane, featuring a Black trans-woman, ultimately sending consumers running for the hills.
Despite this shift, Sony has refrained from canceling two additional live service projects that are already too far along in development to scrap without incurring significant financial losses.
These two games, Marathon, an extraction shooter developed by Bungie, and Fairgame$, a PvP heist game developed by Haven Studios remain on track for release. Fairgame$, in particular, has drawn criticism for its overtly political themes, centering around ugly diverse characters engaging in an anti-capitalist “eat the rich” narrative, a concept that has left many gamers anticipating its commercial failure.
While Sony has scrapped the live service projects in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, both of which had likely been in development for three years or so, the fate of Marathon and Fairgame$ remains uncertain. These projects are too deep in production for Sony to cancel outright without monumental financial hits, however upon release their failures are pretty much a guarantee.
In the wake of Concord‘s failure, the rise of China’s Marvel Rivals has proven that the live service multiplayer model is not neither dead or oversaturated. Instead, the issue lies in how these games are designed, marketed, and received by players.
Sony’s recent decisions suggest a growing awareness that live service games must offer more than just a checklist of DEI mandates to succeed. Whether Marathon and Fairgame$ can defy expectations or meet the same fate as Concord remains to be seen, but Sony’s latest course correction signals that even the biggest gaming giants are not immune to the consequences of poor market alignment and misjudged audience appeal.
