Sony’s struggling upcoming live-service shooter, Fairgames (stylised as Fairgame$), has received possibly the final nail in the coffin as its creative director, Daniel Drapeau, has left developer Haven Studios to join Warner Bros. Games Montreal.
This marks the second high-profile departure for the PlayStation-owned studio, following the exit of founder Jade Raymond in May this year. Now, Drapeau is also jumping ship, announcing via a post on LinkedIn that he has joined WB Games Montreal Inc. as a creative director.
Fairgames’ development journey has certainly been a rocky one, with gameplay details being scarce since its initial reveal during the 2023 PlayStation showcase. Described as a live-service shooter with elements of Watch Dogs, Payday, and extraction shooters, the game was reported to have conducted a closed playtest, although feedback was unsurprisingly negative as audiences grow tired of the modern live-service shooter formula, with playtesters reportedly describing the pre-alpha experience as “clunky and lacking polish”, according to Gamerant’s sources.
News of yet another departure amidst the game’s development marks ill tidings for the title, and certainly sounds familiar to Sony’s other ill-fated live-service ambitions, such as Concord’s high-profile failure and the cancellation of two other unannounced live-service titles by the studio, including a multiplayer God of War title at Bluepoint.
In August 2025, PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst outlined a shift in strategy following past live-service flops, touching on how the studio must take measures to spot potential failures and address them before they blow up further, so maybe they should stay true to their word and put down Fairgames before it inevitably grows into an expensive flop.
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.
