Sony has cancelled two more unannounced games that were part of its broad push toward live services, potentially putting jobs at risk at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, it’s reported.A company spokesperson confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg, who broke the story overnight, saying that the two games were cancelled “following a recent review”, but also stating that neither studio will be shut down as a consequence of this.“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 are the next projects,” the spokesperson said.As unannounced projects, we don’t know for sure what either team was working on, though Bluepoint teased something God of War related in Christmas well-wishes from 2022.
Bend StudioThere’s obviously the potential for job losses as a consequence of this, and it’s not clear if these were the only projects that either studio was working on, but in an internal memo that Bloomberg has seen, Sony said that it’s “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.”It’s the latest embarrassing fumble from Sony in what will go down as one of the worst games industry pivots in recent memory.
Announced in 2022 to investors, Sony had plans to launch 12 live service games by 2026, and while there have been some success stories, like last year’s breakout hit Helldivers 2 or the bankable popularity of Gran Turismo 7 (which can be considered a live service game here), there’s been far more ignominious failures.The biggest flop by far was obviously Concord last year, which made it to release but was almost immediately pulled and shut down, with Firewalk Studios shut down a couple months later.
That followed the closure of London Studios, reportedly working on a fantasy online co-op game, Naughty Dog canning their The Last of Us multiplayer game,