Bend Studio Vows to Create 'Cool Stuff' Despite Sony's Live Service Cancellation

The developer behind *Days Gone*, Bend Studio, remains committed to creating innovative content despite Sony's recent cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. Last week, Sony pulled the plug on two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and the other from Bluepoint Games, the latter rumored to be a live-service *God of War* game according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. The specifics of Bend Studio's project remain undisclosed.

A Sony spokesperson confirmed these cancellations to Bloomberg, emphasizing that neither studio would face closure and that Sony would collaborate with them to explore future projects. Sony's ambitious push into live-service gaming has faced significant challenges. While *Helldivers 2* by Arrowhead achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks to become the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures have not fared as well. Notably, *Concord* turned into one of the most significant flops in PlayStation's history, surviving only a few weeks before being taken offline due to low player engagement. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and close its developer. This failure followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's *The Last of Us* multiplayer project. Shuhei Yoshida, a former PlayStation executive, expressed that he would have resisted Sony's live-service push if he were in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst.

In response to the cancellations, Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, took to Twitter to reassure fans, stating, "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 was *Days Gone* in 2019 for the PlayStation 4, followed by a PC release in 2021.

During a recent financial call, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, discussed the lessons learned from the contrasting fortunes of *Helldivers 2* and *Concord*. Totoki admitted that Sony should have implemented development checkpoints, such as user testing and internal evaluations, much earlier in *Concord*'s development cycle. He suggested that earlier intervention could have either improved the game or led to its timely cancellation. Totoki also criticized Sony's "siloed organization" and noted that *Concord*'s launch timing, closely following the release of *Black Myth: Wukong* on PS5 and PC, may have contributed to its poor performance due to market cannibalization.

Totoki highlighted the need for better cross-organizational collaboration and more strategic release windows to avoid cannibalization and maximize performance. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, compared the launches of *Helldivers 2* and *Concord*, stating that the insights gained would be shared across Sony's studios to enhance development management and post-launch content scaling.

Hayakawa outlined Sony's strategy moving forward, which includes building a balanced portfolio that combines the company's strength in single-player games with the potential of live-service titles, acknowledging the inherent risks and rewards of the latter. Looking ahead, several PlayStation live-service games are still in development, including *Marathon* by Bungie, *Horizon Online* by Guerrilla, and *Fairgame$* by Haven Studio.