Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new games despite Sony's cancellation of its unannounced live-service title. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games (reportedly a God of War live-service game). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and future projects would be explored, the move highlights the company's struggles in the live-service market.
Sony's foray into live-service gaming has been a mixed bag. The phenomenal success of Helldivers 2, a PlayStation Studios record-breaker with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, contrasts sharply with the failures of other ventures. The disastrous launch and subsequent shutdown of Concord stands as a significant setback, prompting Sony to conduct a post-mortem analysis. This follows the earlier 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 games.
Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their continued commitment to developing "cool stuff." Their last release was Days Gone in 2019 (with a PC port in 2021).
Sony executives, including Hiroki Totoki (President, COO, and CFO), acknowledged the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure. Totoki specifically cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations in the development process. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors to its poor performance. Sadahiko Hayakawa (Senior Vice President for Finance and IR) echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the importance of sharing lessons learned across studios to improve future live-service game development and management.
Despite these setbacks, Sony continues to invest in live-service games, with projects from Bungie (Marathon), Guerrilla (Horizon Online), and Haven Studio (Fairgame$) currently underway.
