Sony and PlayStation have ended production on two live-service titles that were in the pipeline, including a multiplayer God of War game from Bluepoint Games, and another unknown title from Days Gone developer Bend Studio.
This comes via a report by Bloomberg, confirming that the cancellations arrived “following a recent review”, and that despite this, the two studios will remain in operation to develop new projects spanning both single-player and online titles. “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,” a company spokesperson said.
BREAKING: PlayStation has canceled two more live-service games, from subsidiaries Bend and Bluepoint, Bloomberg has learned. Fans have long wondered what Bluepoint has been working on for the last couple of years. I can report it was a live-service God of War game. www.bloomberg.com/news/article…
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) January 17, 2025 at 7:09 AM
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Video games journalist Jason Schreier also took to BlueSky, providing an update on the cancellations and revealing that the Bluepoint Games title was a live-service God of War game. “Fans have long wondered what Bluepoint has been working on for the last couple of years. I can report it was a live-service God of War game.” he wrote.
The shuttered projects further add to Sony’s recent string of failed live-service blunders, following the recent disaster that was Firewalk Studios’ multiplayer shooter Concord, which infamously lasted less than two weeks before going offline and leading to the studio’s closure. Other cancellations include Naughty Dogs’ The Last of Us online PvP game, Bungie’s Destiny spinoff Payback, an unannounced Twisted Metal live-service title, and Spider-Man: The Great Web, a multiplayer title that was in the works at Insomniac Games.
This certainly spells good news for the video games industry, as live-service titles have long been a source of controversy owing to their reliance on egregious microtransactions to get as much money out of players long after a game’s launch. Despite this, Sony has not abandoned its multiplayer projects completely, with Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon and Haven Studio’s competitive heist game Fairgame$ still in the works, though only time will tell how much these experiences will rely on microtransactions.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
