Sony canceled two live-service games but does not plan to shut down their developers
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier discovered that Sony has decided to cease the development of two unannounced projects. The cutbacks affected live-service games from Bluepoint Games and Bend Studio.
God of War: Ragnarök
According to Schreier's report, Bluepoint Games was working on a game set in the God of War universe. No information about Bend Studio's game is available.
A Sony representative confirmed the cancellation of the games in a comment to Bloomberg and emphasized that the corporation will strive to minimize the impact. The studios will definitely not be closed.
“Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games are highly skilled teams and valuable members of the PlayStation Studios family. We are working closely with each studio to understand what their next projects should be,” Sony stated.
Sony added that the corporation intends to continue creating both live-service games and story-driven experiences.
It is worth noting that Sony began to actively pursue live-service game development in 2021, viewing it as a promising business direction. However, not everything went as planned. In particular, in September 2024, Sony pulled the shooter Concord from sale just two weeks after its release and soon closed its developer, Firewalk Studios. Previously, multiplayer versions of The Last of Us Online and Marvel’s Spider-Man were also canceled. Meanwhile, Helldivers 2 became a hit, selling over 12 million copies in 12 weeks.
