Bluepoint and Bend staff learned their live service PS5 games were cancelled ‘at the same time as everyone else’
Development teams weren’t told ahead of news reports, it’s claimed
The development teams working on Sony’s two most recently cancelled live service games weren’t aware of the news in advance, it’s claimed.
Last week it was reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, and subsequently confirmed by a spokesperson, that Sony had cancelled live service games in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games.
While Schreier’s article didn’t describe the games in detail, he then took to BlueSky to confirm that the game Bluepoint was working on was a live service God of War title.
Now, according to journalist Jeff Grubb in his latest Game Mess Mornings video show, it emerges that staff working on the games found out about their cancellation when the report was published.
“I looked into this a little bit,” Grubb explained. “Yeah, all this is true. The two studios found out at the same time as everyone else, so people will be going into work today wondering ‘hey, okay, what are we doing next?’
“And what they’re going to have to do next, very likely, is pitch something to Sony, and the landscape of that has changed pretty drastically.”
Grubb suggested that both studios will have a harder time proposing a new idea to Sony because its closure of numerous live service games means it’s not currently clear what types of new games it’s looking to greenlight.
He explained: “A couple of years ago you’d bring to PlayStation your pitch, that is: ‘It’s a live service game, we know you want to hear that. And can we use the God of War IP? We know you want to hear that.’ And then they get the green light, and they get budget, they get funding, they can grow their studio, hire more people, the people working there are safe.
“And now they have to go back to the drawing board, and come up with a pitch that PlayStation wants to hear, when no one really knows what they want to hear, and so it’s a rough situation.”
Further reading
Sony’s spokesperson confirmed that both games had been cancelled “following a recent review”, but stressed that neither studio would be closed down as a result of the cancellations.
“Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine what are the next projects,” they told Bloomberg last week.
