There are flops, after which there was Concord. A primary-party PlayStation hero shooter from ex-Bungie devs, Concord had been in manufacturing for round six years and the event prices have been reported by Kotaku as an eye-watering $200 million (a determine that some business figures did dispute). It launched in August final yr and lasted 11 days earlier than Sony pulled the plug, and shut down the sport’s developer Firewalk Studios.
In the graveyard of dwell service video games Concord could be the largest gravestone, and that appears to have targeted some minds over at PlayStation. Previously the noises coming from Sony have been all concerning the significance of dwell service video games to its future technique, and it had introduced plans to launch greater than 10 dwell service video games by the 2025 fiscal yr, which ends on March 31, 2026.
Now? Not a lot. A brand new Bloomberg report reveals that “following a current evaluate” PlayStation has canceled two unannounced dwell service video games in improvement at subsidiaries Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. Bend is best-known for Days Gone and, again within the day, Syphon Filter, whereas Bluepoint primarily handles high-profile remakes like Demon’s Souls.
It’s reported that the Bluepoint sport was a dwell service God of War sport, which actually does drive residence how absurd issues received there for a second. I can not consider a worse match for a dwell service title than a singleplayer hack-and-slash motion sport that’s laser-focused on its central character (and latterly his son), and also you do surprise why anybody ever thought it might be a good suggestion. Maybe I’m mistaken and it might’ve been wonderful, we’ll by no means know, however I by some means doubt it.
“Bend and Bluepoint are extremely completed groups who’re valued members of the PlayStation Studios household, and we’re working intently with every studio to find out what are the following initiatives,” a Sony spokesperson instructed Bloomberg. Neither studio is in danger because of the cancellations, although the corporate didn’t touch upon whether or not there can be lay offs.
Live service as a style is irresistible to main publishers as a result of there’s simply a lot cash available, and success can result in a golden goose like Fortnite. Sony has had some success with 2024’s Helldivers 2, and clearly now owns dwell service specialist Bungie, nevertheless it’s additionally beforehand cancelled different initiatives (reminiscent of Spider-Man and Twisted Metal dwell service titles) and the expertise of one thing like Concord have to be the company equal of a slap within the face with a moist fish. Perhaps the dwell service gold rush is lastly slowing down, even when it would by no means cease.
