Bend Studio Vows to Create Amazing Content Post-Sony Live Service Cancelation

The developer behind Days Gone, Bend Studio, has reassured fans that they are still committed to creating innovative content despite Sony's recent cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. Last week, Sony announced the cancellation of two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games. While details about Bend Studio's game remain under wraps, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that Bluepoint was working on a live-service version of God of War. A spokesperson from Sony confirmed these cancellations to Bloomberg, emphasizing that both studios will remain open and will collaborate on future projects.

Sony's venture into live-service games has faced significant challenges. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other efforts have not been as fortunate. Concord, for instance, turned out to be a major disappointment, surviving only a few weeks before being taken offline due to low player engagement. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and its developer. This failure followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer project. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida expressed that he would have resisted Sony’s push towards live-service games if he were in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst.

In response to these developments, Bend Studio's community manager Kevin McAllister took to social media to thank fans for their support and hinted at future endeavors with a simple message: “Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.” Bend Studio’s most recent release, Days Gone, was launched on PlayStation 4 in 2019 and later on PC in 2021.

During a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki reflected on the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord. He acknowledged that Sony should have implemented development checkpoints like user testing and internal evaluations much earlier in the process. “Currently we are still in the process of learning,” Totoki admitted. “Basically, with regards to new IP, of course you don’t know the result until you actually try it. So for our reflection, probably we need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates, we need to bring them forward. We should have done those gates much earlier than we did.”

Totoki also pointed out issues with Sony’s “siloed organization” and the timing of Concord's release, which coincided with the successful launch of Black Myth: Wukong on PS5 and PC, potentially leading to market cannibalization. He emphasized the need for better coordination across Sony’s divisions and more strategic release timing to avoid such conflicts.

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa further elaborated on the lessons learned from Helldivers 2 and Concord during the same financial call. He stressed the importance of sharing these insights across Sony’s studios to enhance development management and post-launch content expansion. Hayakawa outlined Sony’s strategy moving forward, which involves balancing their portfolio between proven single-player titles and live-service games that carry higher risk but also potential for significant upside.

Looking ahead, Sony continues to develop several live-service titles, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$.