(Credit: Sony via Steam)
Sony has cancelled two unannounced live-service games under its PlayStation banner, according to a new report.
A Sony spokesperson confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg, saying that the games were cancelled after a "recent review." The new titles were being made at US-based Sony subsidiaries Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games respectively before they were cancelled, but neither studio is being shut down. Other PlayStation games will continue to be developed in the future, but it's unclear whether any employees at either studio might be laid off.
Bend Studio, based in Oregon, still has more than half a dozen job listings on its website. The studio was acquired by Sony in 2000 and has released over a dozen games including the open-world adventure game Days Gone. Bluepoint Games, based in Texas, was acquired by Sony in 2021 and has done some work on Titanfall and God of War: Ragnarok, to name a few.
"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," the Sony rep said.
While one of the games was believed to be a live-service multiplayer God of War title, Bend Studio's cancelled game may have been a third-person military shooter.
In 2023, Sony said it would only release six games by the 2025 fiscal year—but said the fate of the other previously planned six titles was uncertain. Now, we know that at least two of the 12 games have been cancelled, and it cancelled the hero shooter game Concord just two weeks after its launch. It also previously cancelled a Last of Us Game. Helldivers 2, however, was released last year and saw substantial success.
Early last year, Sony laid off 900 PlayStation employees and shuttered its London studio.
High-budget "AAA" games have faced big obstacles in the past few years. The gaming industry on the whole has endured widespread mass layoffs, and a number of studios have been shut down. Netflix shut down its AAA game studio to focus on AI-generated gaming instead, and Microsoft shut down two of its smaller game studios last year.
This week, Microsoft confirmed to PCMag that it's laying off more staff in its gaming division, but says the number impacted is "very small" and is also laying off staff across other teams, as well.