There are flops, and then there was Concord. A first-party PlayStation hero shooter from ex-Bungie devs, Concord had been in production for around six years and the development costs were reported by Kotaku as an eye-watering $200 million (a figure that some industry figures did dispute). It launched in August last year and lasted 11 days before Sony pulled the plug, and shut down the game's developer Firewalk Studios.
In the graveyard of live service games Concord may just be the biggest headstone, and that seems to have focused some minds over at PlayStation. Previously the noises coming from Sony were all about the importance of live service games to its future strategy, and it had announced plans to launch more than 10 live service games by the 2025 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026.
Now? Not so much. A new Bloomberg report reveals that "following a recent review" PlayStation has canceled two unannounced live service games in development at subsidiaries Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. Bend is best-known for Days Gone and, back in the day, Syphon Filter, while Bluepoint mainly handles high-profile remakes like Demon's Souls.
It's reported that the Bluepoint game was a live service God of War game, which really does drive home how absurd things got there for a moment. I can't think of a worse fit for a live service title than a singleplayer hack-and-slash action game that is laser-focused on its central character (and latterly his son), and you do wonder why anyone ever thought it would be a good idea. Maybe I'm wrong and it would've been amazing, we'll never know, but I somehow doubt it.
"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," a Sony spokesperson told Bloomberg. Neither studio is at risk as a result of the cancellations, though the company did not comment on whether there would be lay offs.
Live service as a genre is irresistible to major publishers because there's just so much money to be had, and success can lead to a golden goose like Fortnite. Sony has had some success with 2024's Helldivers 2, and obviously now owns live service specialist Bungie, but it's also previously cancelled other projects (such as Spider-Man and Twisted Metal live service titles) and the experience of something like Concord must be the corporate equivalent of a slap in the face with a wet fish. Perhaps the live service gold rush is finally slowing down, even if it will never stop.
