Questions about Sony's live service plans continue to mount. The company confirmed that two games were canceled at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, responding report by Bloomberg that the PlayStation 5 maker had submitted two projects that were part of the company's ongoing multiplayer campaign. No studios will be closed, but layoffs could still be on the way. One of the matches was reportedly due to a live serve of the hit God of War licensing.
The games were killed after a recent internal investigation, a Sony spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg. “Bend and Bluepoint are extremely talented teams who are valuable members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine their next projects,” the person said. .They also said that Sony would continue to make both single-player and multiplayer games. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier confirmed on social media that the canceled Bluepoint project was a live service God of War espionage
Bend Studio is known for the open world zombie shooter Days awaywhile Bluepoint, acquired by Sony as late as 2021depends on the recently received PS5 remake Demon's Souls. Although none of the projects have been officially announced, a previous leak suggested that Bend was working on a multiplayer game with a military shooter aesthetic. Alleged photos appeared from the game online last month before it was taken down by Sony via a DMCA notice. Before Days awayBend was best known for the espionage shooter series Siphon Filter.
Bluepoint's cancellation God of War another spinoff, meanwhile, would make it the second high-profile live-service project based on a major PlayStation franchise to be killed off in recent years. Back in 2023, Sony too a much anticipated closure Finally Us A so-called multiplayer game Last online for us. Naughty Dog said at the time that the decision not to move forward with the project was because the studio didn't want to be content with just maintaining a live-action game, as it could be said by Bungie a few years ago.
Back in 2023, then-PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan commit to 12 live service games by 2025. It has been reported that more than half of these have now been canceled or, in relation to Concordanceunpublished. The flop over $200 million has apparently been part of a major internal reassessment of Sony's multiplayer development strategy. While Helldivers 2 download turned out to be one of last year's biggest surprise hits, the live service venture has so far yielded many more failures than success stories.
For now, multiplayer results of the sci-fi open world action series Horizon zero dawn reveal some of the few remaining within Sony's first-party portfolio, which is currently led by the former head of the studio that produced the series, Hermen Hulst. A Monster Hunter –multiplayer style Horizon a spin-off and a possible MMO are both believed to be in production, and possibly close to release in the next year or so.
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