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 and assured 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 ended disastrously, lasting only 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 stuff." Their last major release was Days Gone in 2019 (with a PC port in 2021).
Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, attributed Concord's failure to delayed user testing and internal evaluations, emphasizing the need for earlier checkpoints in the development process. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, close to the highly successful Black Myth: Wukong, as contributing factors.
Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further highlighted the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, stressing the importance of sharing lessons learned across studios. He emphasized the company's future strategy, balancing the proven success of single-player titles with calculated risks in the live-service sector.
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 ambitions remains to be seen, but the company's commitment to learning from past mistakes is evident.
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