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[James Sawyer Ford]

Wouldn't it be smarter for Sony to cancel Fairgames altogether if they think it will lose them money? They're looking at another year of development costs and to what end?

Smaller studio formed specifically for this game, and GaaS success is a bit....random.

If they believe in the concept, adding an extra year doesn't really hurt other than money. There's no "opportunity cost" like there is with Bend/Bluepoint, simply because this studio is not set up to be a Single Player studio at all. It only exists for GaaS. Might as well try it out and see if it can land if they feel it's at least decent quality.

 

[DonF]

Most of Sony's "risks" have not paid off this gen. Very bad management

 

[MayauMiao]

Nah, something tells me this one is far enough along that they'll want to push it out.

Concord was already far enough, yet Sony stop it dead after a week with full refund.

So its not far fetched to see them cancel what seems to be a game that already have negative sentiment among majority of gamers.

 

[Perrott]

That's actually great news.

You have to stop and consider how many moving parts go on here.

I firmly believe that most live service games should have a beta 6 or so months before release. I saw them put out a survey about this game and they're probably retooling a lot of things. Doesn't make sense to show this game too early before it gets a full makeover and should probably consider a rebranding.

The game hasn't been in development that long. The studio was founded in 2001 and Sony bought them in 2023. The game has been in development at most 4 years, a 2026 release isn't a bad thing.

I see think there is potential here if you make it kind of like a AAA PayDay meets Watch Dogs. Maybe throw in some Deus Ex in there too.

You can see that the staff at Haven Studios has really ramped up. Their linkedin employee count is up to 248 people. At least 43 worked at Eidos presumably Eidos-Montreal, and 147 came from ubisoft (again presumably Montreal). They've more than doubled in size in the last two years.

I can totally see what JR and Sony are trying to accomplish with this studio. You look at the games that have been produced by Eidos Montreal and Ubisoft Montreal and there's a lot of pedigree there.

When Ubisoft goes under, there could be a huge opportunity for Haven to become a premier studio by picking up some of the employees.

Haven has also been gathering glowing anonymous reviews from employees over on Glassdoor - while on the other hand Firesprite was doing very poorly in this regard, and in the end we saw the consequences of it in the cancellation of Twisted Metal, among other projects - and all of them have been talking wonders about the high productivity in day-to-day operations, the extensive knowledge of senior employees and the great work Jade has been doing in bringing talent from all the places she's been over the years (Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Google) together into a dream team of developers.

Also, another reason why FAIRGAME$ has been pushed into next year might be that Marathon - another Sony game in the same genre, extraction shooters - has been given a spot in the 2025 schedule instead, following its delay from last year into the current one. So it would make sense for Sony to spread the field and not have two similar games from their premiere live-service teams canibalize each other.

 

[Kotaro]

cut your losses Sony, the chance of this being a success is slim to none

 

[Yoboman]

Most of Sony's "risks" have not paid off this gen. Very bad management

"Have not paid off this gen"

The pay off this gen:

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

MP needs to go back to just being a secondary mode to SP games. A lot of these games would go over much better if they had SP campaigns. Might have even saved Concord.

 

[CLW]

How many more of these shit shows from Sony are left before they are forced to go back to what they actually are good at

 

[Boss Mog]

Should just cancel it now and close the studio. Why bother paying people for another year when the result is guaranteed failure.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Source

Kek concord got them scared.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Sega canceled their game that looked like Fairgames. I forget the name…

Hyenas.

 

[SNPlayen]

Let them (be) cook(ed ).

 

[Aenima]

Starting a studio from scratch to releasing a game doesn't happen in less than 5 years. This one was always 2026 or later.

Lol at the people who think this is cancelled.

Kojima released Death Stranding in 3 years while building his studio.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Kojima released Death Stranding in 3 years while building his studio.

The exception that proves the rule.

 

[Embearded]

Kojima released Death Stranding in 3 years while building his studio.

Kojima had strong support from Guerilla, with over 50 developers i think , working for the game.
Also Sony and Cerny provided support for PS4 topics in general.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Haven has also been gathering glowing anonymous reviews from employees over on Glassdoor - while on the other hand Firesprite was doing very poorly in this regard, and in the end we saw the consequences of it in the cancellation of Twisted Metal, among other projects - and all of them have been talking wonders about the high productivity in day-to-day operations, the extensive knowledge of senior employees and the great work Jade has been doing in bringing talent from all the places she's been over the years (Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Google) together into a dream team of developers.

Also, another reason why FAIRGAME$ has been pushed into next year might be that Marathon - another Sony game in the same genre, extraction shooters - has been given a spot in the 2025 schedule instead, following its delay from last year into the current one. So it would make sense for Sony to spread the field and not have two similar games from their premiere live-service teams canibalize each other.

Greenhouse reviews are always interesting. I try to look for general themes rather than the specific reviews. Positive reviews can be as much a red flag as negative ones. They can be fake and they can also show that the inmates are running the asylum. Not saying that's the case here, but given the positive reviews aren't materializing into something that can be shown when Sony desperately needs to show content, suggests to me that there MIGHT be somewhat of a disconnect from reality at the studio. It was similar with Firewalk, where everyone was praising the studio on Greenhouse before they went under.

People underestimate what good recruiting can achieve though. And anyone who thinks sony should "cut their losses" on a game they know nothing about just because it is life service is entirely unserious.

I agree with your assessment that it's probably better for them not to launch big live service games at the same time, though I don't think they'll ultimately be similar games.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Kojima had strong support from Guerilla, with over 50 developers i think , working for the game.
Also Sony and Cerny provided support for PS4 topics in general.

Not only did Kojima have a lot of help from sony, but Kojima Productions wasn't a start up. Kojima Productions has existed since the early 2000s...And the vast majority hard worked on Metal Gear Solid V

Many of the people at Kojima Productions have been working with Kojima for over 20 years... and Sony brought in a tremendous amount of support studios...

 

[Pedro Motta]

No One Care$.

 

[Xtib81]

It give me that 'the finals' vibe so I'm interested but I need to see some gameplay before being hyped.

 

[SJRB]

Catastrophic waste of resources.

Jade Raymond strikes again. But yeah sure, delay it to 2026, maybe by then people won’t be dead tired of team based shooter live service games.

Who knows?

 

[winjer]

They should just cancel it now, and save some money.
Doing the same strategy as with Concord, will just serve to waste time, money and resources, on a worthless game.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I keep forgetting fairgames and marathon are 2 different games.

Great strategy Sony!

 

[SJRB]

Also willing to bet that the Fairgame$ thing will be renamed and its style completely revamped.

There's no way the final product will be called that if they want people to actually take it somewhat serious.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Another 5 years of AAA development wasted on GAAS shit. They could have made 3 single player AA games during the same time.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

The name alone is fucking retarded

Fairgame$

The premise is also anti-corp bullshit yet the same corporations want to rinse us for their live service bullshit.

 

[Darchaos]

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Kojima had strong support from Guerilla, with over 50 developers i think , working for the game.
Also Sony and Cerny provided support for PS4 topics in general.

Haven is a first party Sony studio with over 100 devs.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Haven is a first party Sony studio with over 100 devs.

Next to be 100 unemployed devs. I don't rejoice at people losing their jobs but the stupidity at Sony is something to behold.

They continue to crank out subpar DEI multiplayer experiences that no one wants to play but ignore pleas for Bloodborne.

 

[Hookshot]

It’s still coming out, they just need time to make the monkey masks look even better.

 

[Fabieter]

Most of Sony's "risks" have not paid off this gen. Very bad management

Its what happens when you promote the wrong guys at a company.

 

[Roberts]

I don't mind anti-capitalist slant as long as they have anything interesting to say. Fuck, some of my favourite films have been satirically or critically anti-capitalist. But from what I have seen so far, it doesn't look like it.

I would imagine they delayed it to reshape the game into something that doesn't really offend anyone (but also doesn't speak to anyone neither) but will probably end being a flop anyway.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

I don't mind anti-capitalist slant as long as they have anything interesting to say. Fuck, some of my favourite films have been satirically or critically anti-capitalist. But from what I have seen so far, it doesn't look like it.

I would imagine they delayed it to reshape the game into something that doesn't really offend anyone (but also doesn't speak to anyone neither) but will probably end being a flop anyway.

"Eat the rich." said the giant corporation, "Also please buy our overpriced battlepass and microtransactions."

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I don't mind anti-capitalist slant as long as they have anything interesting to say. Fuck, some of my favourite films have been satirically or critically anti-capitalist. But from what I have seen so far, it doesn't look like it.

I would imagine they delayed it to reshape the game into something that doesn't really offend anyone (but also doesn't speak to anyone neither) but will probably end being a flop anyway.

It takes talent to write something like The Fight Club. These hacks could never.

 

[Roberts]

"Eat the rich." said the giant corporation, "Also please buy our overpriced battlepass and microtransactions."

It's a paradox, isn't it? It's cynical of course, but I believe individuals (game directors, screenwriters) should be able to express their dissatisfaction with the system and then be supported by that very system.

 

[Hookshot]

"Eat the rich." said the giant corporation, "Also please buy our overpriced battlepass and microtransactions."

“That are made by AI meaning we don’t have pay artists and make even more profit off of you”

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

They should get with the times and rework it into a tower defense game where you defend your hard earned personal property from a bunch of Marxist antifa zoomers.

 

[Radical_3d]

 

[Roufianos]

Ah man, is life even worth living anymore

 

[PeteBull]

Concord and Fairgame$ racing for the most clusterfuck bomb of a game:

 

[thismeinteil]

Hopefully, they take that time to retool the characters appearance and change the story to citizens taking on corrupt politicians trying to hide how they're taking the people's money and pocketing most of it. You know, the actual Robin Hood story.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Most of Sony's "risks" have not paid off this gen. Very bad management

They’ll likely become more risk averse now, a benefit could be that they look back to past IP to resurrect though instead of purple shit.

 

[DonF]

"Have not paid off this gen"

The pay off this gen:

Oh you are right. Theyve Made lots of cash. But due to new ways of monetization and third party. I would like to see that chart with first party efforts. The new thing in that space is PC ports and not every port has been a wild success. They kinda made a successful gaas with Helldivers 2 but kinda blew it right away...
What I'm saying is that the output of PlayStation studios has not been good, at least to me.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

"Have not paid off this gen"

The pay off this gen:

I didn't look at these charts but does this also include the price of games went up, the console itself not having a price reduction, PSNs price increase and people just buying games in general including 3rd party games?

Trust me I am deep into the PS ecosystem and helped contribute to these numbers I am just looking for context on this graph

 

[PatientGamer]

This game will be cancelled. Another concord L in the making.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Jade Raymond, The Professor, Grummz, and David Jaffe should start a dream team studio

 

[Chuck Berry]

Hard Pas$

 

[Holammer]

Said it in another thread, the game is salvageable.
Change the achingly diverse hip zoomers to seasoned goons and career criminals. Old dirty bastards with scars and broken noses, it'll turn into palatable product for the Payday audience with small tweaks.

 

[ReBurn]

Or Jim was and Hermen is now undoing them.

Or Japan is undoing them both.

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

please cancel this purple-ass game.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I really hope they release it so we get a Concord 2.

Hermen, if you’re reading this, please don’t give up on the GAAS dream. I probably won’t play the game, but I will definitely sign the petition to bring it back after it gets taken offline.