Sony Cancels Two More PlayStation Projects in Broader Retreat by Jason Schreier for Bloomberg (paywalled)

"Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation has canceled previously unannounced games at two of its top subsidiaries, the company said Thursday.

The games, at Oregon-based Bend Studio and Texas-based Bluepoint Games, were both “live service” projects designed to draw recurring revenue from players.

A company spokesperson confirmed the cancellations..."

And then on Bluesky, Jason said that Bluepoint's game specifically was a live-service God of War game.1 He did not say what Bend has been working on.

So much for 12 live service titles by March 2026, huh?

That number was cut in half in November 2023. I know the window isn't set to close for another year, but let's go ahead and check in. Here are the live service titles that have been released so far...

  • Gran Turismo 7 (?)
  • Helldivers II
  • Concord 🪦
  • MLB The Show(s)
  • Destiny 2 Expansions

Here are the known, outright cancelled projects...

And here are what I remember/know/guess are still in development under the "live-service," online multiplayer umbrella

  • Fairgame$
  • Horizon Online, co-op. MMO project
  • Ghost of Yōtei Legends2

Circling back to the top, I hesitate to call GT7 live service because I don't really know how Sony classifies it. I assume live service given all the regular updates and the microtransactions that are throughout the game. Helldivers II popped last year. We all know what happened with Concord and Firewalk Studio. Both MLB The Show and Destiny 2 were guarantees, although in the case of Destiny 2, the quality was not so much.

The graveyard of live service titles is prolific. Games from Sony's top studios litter the landscape with years of development and untold millions buried beneath the all too fresh soil. Two entire studios have been shuttered in Sony's chase of the live service goldmine. Teams of people have been laid off as studios hired for these projects and then had no need for online expertise, per se.

On the horizon, these feel like more "slam dunks" solely in regards to release. Fairgame$ is the only one I could see getting a preemptive axe, but I sort of feel like that would have already happened? Hermen Hulst will make any new Horizon game come out. Ghost of Tsushima Legends was a surprise hit and I assume Yōtei will also receive a multiplayer mode.

When you look back over the last five years of the PS5, it's like that meme of Death walking down the hall and behind each door is a live service ambition. In the wake of all this "death," what I think about is the squandered potential. How many single player games are years behind because of this pursuit? How many jobs were created and lost? What does it mean for the upcoming generation? How does the reaction now shift plans made months and years ago?

We will feel the ripple of this live service tangent for years to come.

Footnotes

  1. God of War: Ascension lives! ↩

  2. Pure speculation on my part, but having an anime made from the first game's multiplayer is a pretty good indicator for a sequel, I think. ↩