On January 17, 2025, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the cancellation of two upcoming games, a revelation that has sparked significant discussion. Journalist Jason Schreier, known for his well-informed reports, disclosed that projects by Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games will not be proceeding. These titles were planned as “live-service” offerings aimed at generating continuous revenue from players and were part of the 19 live-service games launched by Sony in 2022. Although Schreier’s investigation does not specify further details, he revealed on Bluesky that Bluepoint Games was developing a multiplayer-focused God of War game, while Bend Studio’s project remained undisclosed. This decision marks another setback for Bend Studio following the underwhelming reception of Days Gone and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s subsequent refusal to produce Days Gone 2.
Since this weekend, Jeff Grub, another journalist with reliable industry sources, reported that employees at Bluepoint Games and Bend Studio learned about their game cancellations through Bloomberg’s news report, just like everyone else. This is an unfortunate situation likely causing considerable frustration. However, there is no concern for the future of these two studios, as a spokesperson for Sony stated in a press release that neither studio will be shut down. “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 their next projects,” the spokesperson said, adding that “both games were canceled ‘following a recent review’ and that PlayStation will continue creating online and single-player games.”
Over the past few years, PlayStation has significantly invested in live-service games, which typically include multiplayer titles featuring microtransactions and other methods to generate revenue from players over months and years following launch. These ventures are risky but can yield substantial profits if successful. Sony boasts one of the genre’s most notable successes with Helldivers 2; however, it also faced a significant commercial failure with Concord, estimated to have cost the Japanese company nearly 400 million euros. The company has canceled several other live-service games in recent years, including one based on Spider-Man, according to Bloomberg. Sony did not specify whether these cancellations would result in job losses but stated that it will continue to “work closely with Bend and Bluepoint to determine upcoming projects and intends to do everything possible to minimize commercial impact.” Additionally, Jeff Grubs reported that the Concord failure prompted Sony Interactive Entertainment to terminate two live-service projects. As they say, action and reaction…
