Bend Studio Dev Says 'We Still Plan on Creating Cool S**t' After Sony Live Service Cancelation
The developer of Days Gone has said it still plans to create “cool s**t” after parent company Sony canceled its unannounced live-service game.
Last week, Sony canceled two unannounced live-service games that were in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. The Bluepoint game was reportedly a live-service God of War game, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. Bend Studio’s live-service game remains unknown.
A Sony spokesperson confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg, adding that neither studio will be closed and that it will work with each to determine next projects.
Sony's live-service push has struggled significantly. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 was a breakout hit, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, Sony’s other live-service games were either canceled or suffered disastrous launches.
Indeed, Sony’s Concord is one of the biggest video game disasters in PlayStation history, lasting just a couple of weeks before it was brought offline amid drastically low player numbers. Sony later decided to kill the game entirely and shut its developer. The Concord flop came after Sony had already canceled Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game. Last week, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said he would have tried to resist Sony’s controversial live-service video game push, were he in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst.
In a tweet, Bend Studio community manager Kevin McAllister issued a short message to the developer's fans: “Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.”
As it stands, Bend Studio's last release was 2019’s Days Gone on PlayStation 4. It launched on PC in 2021.
In a recent financial call, Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki said the company had learned lessons from both the record-breaking launch of Helldivers 2 earlier this
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