Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects despite Sony's cancellation of their 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, whose specifics remain undisclosed. While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and future projects would be determined collaboratively, the cancellations highlight the challenges faced by Sony in the live-service market.
Sony's foray into live-service gaming has been a mixed bag. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures like Concord ended in failure, lasting mere weeks before being shut down 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 commented that he would have resisted Sony's aggressive push into live-service games.
Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their continued commitment to developing "cool shit." Their last release was Days Gone in 2019 (with a PC port in 2021).
Sony's financial call revealed that lessons were learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, pointed to the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations in the development process, suggesting that Concord's issues should have been identified and addressed much sooner. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, potentially leading to market cannibalization with Black Myth: Wukong, as contributing factors. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the importance of sharing lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content updates.
Looking forward, Sony continues to invest in live-service games, with projects like Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$ still in development. The future of Sony's live-service strategy remains to be seen, but the company's acknowledgement of past mistakes and commitment to learning from them suggests a potential course correction.
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