Bend Studio Dev Says 'We Still Plan on Creating Cool S**t' After Sony Live Service Cancelation

Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects, despite Sony's cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service titles, one reportedly a God of War game from Bluepoint Games. While Bend Studio's canceled project remains undisclosed, Sony has assured fans that neither studio will be shuttered and will be assigned new projects.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures, including the ill-fated Concord, have faltered significantly. Concord's swift demise, marked by extremely low player numbers, led to the project's cancellation and the closure of its development team. This follows the earlier cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida even voiced his reservations about Sony's aggressive push into the live-service market.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their intention to continue developing "cool stuff." Their last release was Days Gone in 2019 (with a PC port in 2021).

Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's triumph and Concord's failure. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, highlighted the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address potential issues before launch. He also criticized Sony's "siloed organization" and the unfortunate release window of Concord, which coincided with the release of Black Myth: Wukong, potentially leading to market cannibalization.

Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further emphasized the valuable lessons gleaned from both projects, promising to share these insights across all studios to improve development management and post-launch content support. Sony intends to balance its portfolio with a mix of high-probability single-player titles leveraging established IPs and riskier live-service ventures.

Despite the setbacks, several PlayStation live-service games are still under development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.