Update 1/20/2025: The fact the staff found out the day the rest of the public found out about the cancelling of games has since been debunked. Jason Schreier posted on BlueSky detailing that, “I’ve seen this story getting a lot of traction on Reddit today, but it’s not true. People across the org were informed before my article went out last week.” The original article can be found below.
Reports confirmed two Sony live service games being made at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games were scrapped, and the staff found out the same day.
It is tough to know that many people have been working hard to create something over months or years, only to learn one day it was all for nought. This is what happened to Sony dev teams Bend Studio and Bluepoints Games, which apparently learned their live service games were cancelled on the same day. They were also not informed ahead of the public release about the scrapped projects, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and journalist Jeff Grubb. Bluepoint has yet to comment, but Bend has since posted on social media that they will continue working on something new.
Schreier’s article did not detail the games specifically, but was posted on BlueSky after that Bluepoint was working on a live service God of War title. The studio has done support work on God of War Ragnarök along with other major titles like Demon’s Souls and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. So, the studio has been well-established.
As for Bend, their last release was Days Gone, which was met with mixed reviews when it released on the PS4 in 2019. Then, in 2021, Sony confirmed that Bend was working on a new IP that was “building on the deep open-world systems that they developed with Days Gone.” In March 2024, the studio posted a project management role job, confirming they were working on a AAA live service game. However, the game title was never confirmed.
The Oregon-based studio, Bend, had their community manager Kevin McAllister comment on X to the sudden news. He wrote: “I’ll keep this short. Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.”
Grubb shared his thoughts in his latest Game Mess Mornings video show, commenting on the whole situation with the two Sony studios. “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.”
I’ll keep this short.
— Kevin McAllister (@vikingdad278) January 17, 2025
Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out.
P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit.
Sony’s spokesperson did explain that both games from both studios were 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. Ultimately, it sucks that the projects were scrapped but hopefully they can bring out two new, exciting games in the years to come. Also, hopefully they were still getting a paycheck for their work!