The developer behind Days Gone, Bend Studio, remains committed to creating innovative content despite Sony's recent cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. Last week, Sony pulled the plug on two such projects, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games, which was rumored to be a live-service title related to God of War, as reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. The specifics of Bend Studio's game were not disclosed.
Sony has confirmed the cancellations but reassured that neither studio will be shut down. Instead, Sony will collaborate with both to explore future projects. This move comes amid Sony's broader struggle with its live-service game strategy. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game to date, other efforts have faltered.
Sony's Concord, for instance, stands out as one of the most significant flops in PlayStation history, surviving only a few weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player engagement. Subsequently, Sony decided to terminate the game and close its developer. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Reflecting on these setbacks, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida expressed he would have opposed Sony's live-service push if he were still in a leadership role.
In response to the cancellations, Bend Studio's community manager Kevin McAllister took to social media to thank fans for their support and reassured them with a message: “Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.” Bend Studio's most recent release was Days Gone, which debuted on PlayStation 4 in 2019 and later on PC in 2021.
During a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from the contrasting fortunes of Helldivers 2 and Concord. He admitted that Sony should have implemented development checkpoints, such as user testing and internal evaluations, much earlier in Concord's development cycle. Totoki highlighted the need for Sony to address issues proactively to either improve games before launch or cancel them if necessary.
Totoki also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and the timing of Concord's release, which coincided with the launch of the popular Black Myth: Wukong on PS5 and PC, suggesting that this may have contributed to Concord's failure due to market cannibalization. He emphasized the importance of better coordination across Sony's divisions and choosing optimal release windows to avoid such conflicts in the future.
Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa also drew comparisons between the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, noting that the insights gained from both would be disseminated across Sony's studios. He underscored the intent to enhance Sony's development management system and to build a balanced portfolio that includes both single-player games, which have proven track records, and live-service games that, while riskier, offer significant potential upside.
Looking ahead, several PlayStation live-service games are still in development, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$.
