Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects despite Sony's cancellation of its unannounced live-service game. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service titles, one reportedly a God of War game from Bluepoint Games, and another from Bend Studio. While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed, the move highlights the company's struggles in the live-service market.
Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures like Concord proved disastrous, shutting down after a brief period due to low player numbers. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida even voiced his reservations about Sony's aggressive push into live-service gaming.
Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans with a tweet stating their continued dedication to developing compelling games. Their last release, Days Gone, was launched in 2019 for PlayStation 4 and later ported to PC in 2021.
Sony's financial call revealed insights into the company's learnings from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, attributed Concord's downfall to delayed user testing and internal evaluations, suggesting that earlier intervention could have prevented the game's failure. He also cited Sony's siloed organizational structure and Concord's unfortunate release window, coinciding with Black Myth: Wukong, as contributing factors.
Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, emphasized the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2 and Concord, highlighting the importance of improved development management and post-launch content support. Sony plans to balance its portfolio, focusing on its successful single-player titles while strategically managing the risks associated with live-service games.
Despite these setbacks, several PlayStation live-service games are still under development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$. The future of Sony's live-service strategy remains to be seen.
