The developer behind Days Gone, Bend Studio, remains committed to creating innovative content despite Sony's recent cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. Last week, Sony pulled the plug on two live-service projects, one at Bend Studio and another at Bluepoint Games, the latter reportedly a live-service God of War title according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. Although the details of Bend Studio's canceled game remain undisclosed, Sony has assured that neither studio will close, and they will collaborate on future projects.
Sony's venture into live-service games has faced numerous challenges. While Helldivers 2 by Arrowhead Studios achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game to date, other attempts have faltered. Notably, Concord became one of PlayStation's most significant flops, shutting down shortly after launch due to dismal player engagement. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer project. Reflecting on these setbacks, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida expressed that he would have opposed Sony's live-service push if he were in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst.
In response to the cancellations, Bend Studio's community manager Kevin McAllister took to Twitter to reassure fans, stating, “Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.” This message underscores the studio's determination to move forward creatively, despite the setback. Bend Studio's most recent release was Days Gone in 2019 for PlayStation 4, followed by a PC release in 2021.
During a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from the contrasting fortunes of Helldivers 2 and Concord. Totoki highlighted the need for earlier and more rigorous development checkpoints, such as user testing and internal evaluations, to identify and address issues well before a game's launch. He admitted that Sony is still in the learning phase and emphasized the importance of these development gates for new IPs.
Totoki also pointed to organizational issues within Sony, describing it as a "siloed organization" and suggesting that better coordination across departments could have mitigated some of the problems faced by Concord. He noted that the game's launch timing, close to the release of Black Myth: Wukong, may have led to market cannibalization.
In the same financial call, Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the company's intent to share lessons learned across its studios. Hayakawa stressed the importance of enhancing development management systems and ensuring continuous content updates and service scalability post-launch. He outlined Sony's strategy to balance their portfolio with single-player titles, which have a higher predictability of success due to established IPs, and live-service games that offer potential growth despite inherent risks.
Looking ahead, several PlayStation live-service games are still in development, including Marathon by Bungie, Horizon Online by Guerrilla, and Fairgame$ by Haven Studio, indicating Sony's ongoing commitment to this genre despite recent setbacks.
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