The development teams working on Sony’s two most recently cancelled live service games weren’t aware of the news in advance, it’s claimed.
Latest update20th Jan 2025 / 7:35 pm
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier has now questioned the below story, stating onBlueSkythat the account is “not true” and that “people across the org were informed before my article went out last week”.
Last week it was reported byBloomberg’sJason Schreier, and subsequently confirmed by a spokesperson, thatSony had cancelled live service gamesin development atBend StudioandBluepoint Games.
While Schreier’s article didn’t describe the games in detail, he then took to BlueSky to confirm that the game Bluepoint was working on was a live serviceGod of Wartitle.
Now, according to journalist Jeff Grubb in his latestGame Mess Mornings video show, it appears that staff working on the games found out about their cancellation when the report was published.
“I looked into this a little bit,” Grubb explained. “Yeah, all this is true. The two studios found out at the same time as everyone else, so people will be going into work today wondering ‘hey, okay, what are we doing next?’
“And what they’re going to have to do next, very likely, is pitch something toSony, and the landscape of that has changed pretty drastically.”
Grubb suggested that both studios will have a harder time proposing a new idea to Sony because its closure of numerous live service games means it’s not currently clear what types of new games it’s looking to greenlight.
He explained: “A couple of years ago you’d bring toPlayStationyour pitch, that is: ‘It’s a live service game, we know you want to hear that. And can we use the God of War IP? We know you want to hear that.’ And then they get the green light, and they get budget, they get funding, they can grow their studio, hire more people, the people working there are safe.
“And now they have to go back to the drawing board, and come up with a pitch that PlayStation wants to hear, when no one really knows what they want to hear, and so it’s a rough situation.”
Further reading
Sony’s spokesperson confirmed that both games had been cancelled “following a recent review”, but stressed that neither studio would be closed down as a result of the cancellations.
“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,” they told Bloomberg last week.
