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PlayStation has canceled two more live-service games, from subsidiaries Bend and Bluepoint, Bloomberg has learned

yogaflame

Member
At least it's now canceled. Let's hope they can focus on what they are good at: beautiful single player games with strong stories.

I'm always baffled by some of the decisions these people make, whether it's Microsoft or Sony. Bluepoint on a GaaS, WTF where they thinking.
We might see Sony rebound and new project around 2 to 3 years from now since they will start from scratch, maybe ps6 era. But it is still a silver lining and good news. Good thing we have the Asian developers to the rescue from South Korea, China, Japan of course, etc. developing very good games for Sony 1st and 2nd party. For me, I'm very thankful for Stellar Blade last year.
 

Astray

Member
It's not surprising that they're canceling games, Totoki clearly talked about putting stronger checks in place after the Concord debacle, and we're kinda seeing them in action. They're clearly having a root and branch review of basically every project in the pipeline.

I think the real surprise is in how shitty the reality of the cancelled projects are. A fucking GOW GAAS game? How the fuck would that even play? Why the fuck would you even put Bluepoint on that, a studio with zero experience in multiplayer games?

Also that Days Gone remaster is absolutely happening huh? Like I see no other way forward for Bend studio to land a project with a relatively short turnaround time.

I think we are finally understanding the state Jim Ryan left the PS development slate.
 
Sony is starting to heal. I hope that twisted DEI initiative is next to be remove from Sony. To be honest, despite of success of some titles and still good sale of ps5 and ps5 pro, Sony took allot of L's especially with concord and to much focus on gaas and remasters. Good thing Sony PS fans are very patient, loyal and still trusting the Sony brand.
Well, Sony just accomplished the impossible last year:

To make a more relevant multiplayer game than Xbox (since Halo)
and capture the Nintendo magic with Astro Bot.
 

yogaflame

Member
The thing is, even when they fail, they have great success elsewhere. 2024 was a big year for their output, they won GOTY, so it's not like it's nothing but gloom. They still have an excellent core and cadence to all their efforts.

They just need to learn that chasing $$$$ that risks losing $$$$$$$$$ is not worth it. There's nothing to be ashamed about by making SP games with less revenue potential but also less risk. Let these studios thrive with what they do best and what your audience expects.
I'm very thankful for Asian developers like Shift up and Team Asobi ( Technically they are Asians most of them and base from Japan correct me if i'm wrong) Lesson learn, and just like political climate change and common sense is back in USA, it is a good start for Sony for this 4 more years before Ps6.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Notice how Herman’s neposeries, Aloy’s GaaSS isn’t cancelled.

SMH.

reaction-playstation-needs-to-take-a-long-hard-look-at-itself-1.900x.jpg
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Maybe, but realistically if a DG project is greenlit Q1 2025, realistically we won't be seeing it before 2028~9, at the rate big budget AAA games are developed these days.

Encouraging Everything Will Be Ok GIF by LookHUMAN


They have Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, Wolverine, and Intergalactic for the next 2-3 years.

Not to mention more projects from Guerrilla and Housemarque.

And of course GTA6 which is practically a PS5 exclusive at this point in time.

So it's not like there's any lack of games. Their next few years are stacked with AAA titles.
 
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Wasted generation.

Hard to believe that Sony's golden age of 1st party development was less than a decade ago. They had a streak from 2015-2022 that was pretty untouchable and now they're just completely cooked thanks to Ryan/Hulst. Hard to know who to blame exactly.

Even the beginning of this generation was legendary IMO. It's the last two years that have really started to go sour.
 

Yoboman

Member
That's hyperbole though. These GaaS title failures definitely hurt their FP output, but the whole generation is not a flop just because Bend and Bluepoint wasted time on a GaaS, and a new studio for Concord flopped.

Most of their SP teams are still doing SP.
It's not though

Naughty Dog wasted years of resources into a cancelled GAAS. Their premier studio hasn't released a game in year 5 of the gen, nor have Sucker Punch

Hundreds of millions blown on Concord

They have shut down Japan Studios, Pixelopus, Neon Koi, London Studios and Manchester Studio, Firewalk since the start of the gen. We know London Studios was another victim of the GAAS initiative

Media Molecule was downsized substantially and narrowly avoided being shut down. Still lost their founders

Haven Studios and Fairgame$ is just the most obvious upcoming failure. Fire sprite is another that will probably be shut down and also had their GAAS canned recently

It can't be understated how much of a mess Hermen has has made in only 5 years. When he took over in 2019 PS Studios was the envy of the industry, couldn't put a foot wrong
 
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God, what an embarrassment. They honestly have no idea what they’re doing anymore, do they? What a joke. What a waste of time and money. What a loss of time you can never get back. Hope they have fewer people leaving if they’re being given chance to make the kind of games they want to make again!
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
It's not though

Naughty Dog wasted years of resources into a cancelled GAAS. Their premier studio hasn't released a game in year 5 of the gen, nor have Sucker Punch

Hundreds of millions blown on Concord

They have shut down Japan Studios, Pixelopus, Neon Koi, London Studios and Manchester Studio, Firewalk since the start of the gen. We know London Studios was another victim of the GAAS initiative

Media Molecule was downsized substantially and narrowly avoided being shut down. Still lost their founders

Haven Studios and Fairgame$ is just the most obvious upcoming failure

It can't be understated how much of a mess Hermen has has made in only 5 years. When he took over in 2019 PS Studios was the envy of the industry, couldn't put a foot wrong

Games are taking 4+ years to make. What do you expect?

They still had the following releases:

Spider-Man Miles Morales
Demons Souls
Returnal
Ratchet and Clank
Horizon Forbidden West
God of War Ragnarok
Gran Tourismo 7
Spider-Man 2
Helldivers 2
Stellar Blade
Astro Bot

You act like their output has been a disaster, but that destroys the first few years of PS4. That's the best first party lineup they've ever had to start a console.
 
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yogaflame

Member
Encouraging Everything Will Be Ok GIF by LookHUMAN


They have Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, Wolverine, and Intergalactic for the next 2-3 years.

Not to mention more projects from Guerrilla and Housemarque.

And of course GTA6 which is practically a PS5 exclusive at this point in time.

So it's not like there's any lack of games. Their next few years are stacked with AAA titles.
Looks like the last life cycle of ps5, possibly 4 years from now, will be impressive possibly seeing those OG PS franchise be revive with there shift away from GAAS. It also means it will be an impressive line up for Ps6 era if all those OG PS franchise especially from Ps1 and ps2 era will be revive.
 

nial

Gold Member
Even the beginning of this generation was legendary IMO.
Arguable...
2021:
Destruction AllStars
MLB The Show 21
Returnal
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
2024:
Helldivers 2
MLB The Show 24
Rise of the Ronin
Stellar Blade
Concord
Astro Bot
Until Dawn
Lego Horizon Adventures
2024 over 2021 every day, and you can't even point out Concord as DAS was a worse game all around.
 

Jinzo Prime

Member
Nintendo doesn't even need to try.
Aaron Paul He Cant Keep Getting Away With This GIF by Breaking Bad


Nishino has a hardware background, I doubt he picked this GAAS route for PlayStation Studios.
Bend probably will be closed. What a waste with Bluepoint making a gaas.
Bend will be a support studio for a long time.
Well, Sony just accomplished the impossible last year:

To make a more relevant multiplayer game than Xbox (since Halo)
and capture the Nintendo magic with Astro Bot.
Completly fair point. Their Non-American developed games saved them from an embarrassing year.
 

Yoboman

Member
Games are taking 4+ years to make. What do you expect?

They still had the following releases:

Spider-Man Miles Morales
Demons Souls
Returnal
Ratchet and Clank
Horizon Forbidden West
God of War Ragnarok
Gran Tourismo 7
Spider-Man 2
Helldivers 2
Stellar Blade
Astro Bot

You act like their output has been a disaster, but that destroys the first few years of PS4. That's the best first party lineup they've ever had to start a console.
Most of these were commenced before Hermen took over in 2019. Really only Astrobot falls outside his remit

Look where we are now that he has been green lighting his own games. It's been a total disaster
 

Generic

Member
At least it's now canceled. Let's hope they can focus on what they are good at: beautiful single player games with strong stories.
Let's not pretend Sony didn't care about multiplayer during the PS1, PS2 and PS3 eras.
 
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Look I know nobody asked but I'm just gonna say it - the only reason Jade Raymond has gotten this far is because she has a GREAT name and is super hot. FairGames$ is certified dead on arrival.
 

nial

Gold Member
Yeah but Rift Apart / Returnal back to back was legendary dude.
Can't argue against that, but Ronin and SB was a great combo as well, IMO.
But 2021 was overall a weak year, especially coming after what was probably SIE's best console launch in terms of first-party along with PS Vita (yes, I'm serious). 2022 came strong but lacked the variety of 2024, and also had less games.
 

yogaflame

Member
Well, Sony just accomplished the impossible last year:

To make a more relevant multiplayer game than Xbox (since Halo)
and capture the Nintendo magic with Astro Bot.
Yes, despite of some bad decisions and allot of L, there sales was still impressive even the expensive ps5 pro. And we still got a few good games from 1st and 2nd party like Astrobot, Rise of ronin, and Stellar blade. For me, Stellar blade was the best game from Sony last year and I had allot of fun with the game. Asian developers helped Sony allot.
 

nial

Gold Member
If there's one of these projects that you can bet some money on, to come out. It'll be that.

Herman will make sure of it.
To be fair that project started development before he got into WWS, so even the previous leadership (Layden/Yoshida) saw potential on an online Horizon co-op title.
 
Disney outsourcing their Live Service game to a Chinese mobile game developer, copying Overwatch and making bank on it while Sony is burning hundreds of millions in this segment is just too funny to watch.
Instead of concentrating on the field they excelled in, that being single player games, they insisted on shifting focus on Live Service where they hoped to replicate just a fraction of Epic's, Activision's, EA's or even Take 2's success.
 

Generic

Member
It's not surprising that they're canceling games, Totoki clearly talked about putting stronger checks in place after the Concord debacle, and we're kinda seeing them in action. They're clearly having a root and branch review of basically every project in the pipeline.

I think the real surprise is in how shitty the reality of the cancelled projects are. A fucking GOW GAAS game? How the fuck would that even play? Why the fuck would you even put Bluepoint on that, a studio with zero experience in multiplayer games?

Also that Days Gone remaster is absolutely happening huh? Like I see no other way forward for Bend studio to land a project with a relatively short turnaround time.

I think we are finally understanding the state Jim Ryan left the PS development slate.
Demon's Souls is essentially an online game 🤷‍♂️
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Someone on Era compiled the list of their '12 Gaas' games and their current statuses.
  1. Arrowhead Game Studios: Helldivers II (Released February 2024)
  2. Bend Studio: Unnanounced GAAS (Canceled 2025)
  3. Bluepoint Games: God of War GAAS (Canceled 2025)
  4. Bungie: Marathon (2025?)
  5. Bungie: Payback (Cancelled 2024)
  6. Firesprite: Twisted Metal GAAS (Canceled 2024)
  7. Firewalk: Concord (Released, and Canceled 2024)
  8. Guerilla Games: Horizon Online Title (TBD)
  9. Haven Studios: Fairgames$ (TBD)
  10. Insomniac: Spider-Man: The Great Web (Canceled Date Unknown)
  11. London Studio: AAA New IP Fantasy Multiplayer Title (Canceled 2024 - Studio shuttered)
  12. Naughty Dog: The Last of Us Factions Online (Canceled 2023)


Interesting. So of the remaining 11 GaaS titles still in the oven, 8 of them have been cancelled and only 3 survive.


I remember several people here justifying the GaaS initiative by saying Sony wasn't cutting back on SP investment, they were just putting more money into Live service. They'd point to charts showing it. However, when I look at the pudding, I don't see the proof. What I see instead is their SP commitment slipping while tons of resources go down the GaaS toilet.

What is that old saying, you can't serve two masters?
 
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