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 games despite Sony's cancellation of its 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). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and promising to collaborate on future projects, the move highlights the challenges Sony has faced in the live-service market.

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 like Concord ended disastrously, shutting down after a short period due to low player numbers. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida even voiced his reservations about Sony's aggressive push into live-service games.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter: "Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit." This statement underscores the studio's continued dedication to game development.

Sony's financial call shed light on the company's reflections on both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, attributed Concord's failure to several factors, including insufficient early user testing and internal evaluation, a siloed organizational structure hindering collaboration, and an unfortunate release window that may have led to market cannibalization with Black Myth: Wukong. Sadahiko Hayakawa, senior vice president for finance and IR, emphasized the lessons learned from both projects and the intention to share this knowledge across Sony's studios.

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 under development. The future of PlayStation's live-service strategy remains to be seen, but the company's commitment to learning from past mistakes suggests a more cautious and strategic approach moving forward.