Bend Studio Pledges 'Cool' Game Development Post-Sony Cancellation

Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new games despite Sony's cancellation of their unannounced live-service title. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games (reportedly a God of War live-service game, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and future projects would be explored, the move highlights the challenges Sony has faced in the live-service market.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. The success of Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, a record-breaking PlayStation Studios title, stands in stark contrast to the failures of other ventures. The abrupt shutdown of Concord, a significant setback for Sony, underscores the risks inherent in this model. This follows the earlier cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida even commented that he would have resisted Sony's live-service push if he were in the current CEO's position.

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

Sony's financial call revealed a post-mortem analysis of both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, attributed Concord's downfall to several factors, including delayed user testing and internal evaluations, a siloed organizational structure hindering collaboration, and an unfortunate release window coinciding with Black Myth: Wukong's launch. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, emphasized the lessons learned from both successes and failures, promising to share these insights across studios to improve future development and management of live-service titles.

Despite these setbacks, Sony continues to invest in live-service games, with titles like Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$ still in development.