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PlayStation has canceled two more live-service games, from subsidiaries Bend and Bluepoint, Bloomberg has learned

Topher

Identifies as young
Singleplayer games don't sell anymore.
9gyj5j.jpg
 

yogaflame

Member
All I'll say is, the talk SIE have had towards doing more AA games like Astro Bot, and bringing back some legacy IP, better not just be hot air. Frankly, they need those games now more than ever.

And hopefully the older rumor of them working with 3P like SEGA and Bandai-Namco to bring back games like Wipeout turn out to be true, too.

...also drop SBI from consultancy work on any of your Western games, and stop opening so many studios in California.
That is what I'm hoping and praying to be next, for Sony to abandon the twisted woke agenda infested DEI initiative. Big companies like Boeing, Meta, Toyota, etc. already done that.
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
Two great studios have wasted almost an entire generation on this GAAS shit. Embarrassing. Jim Ryan is a retard and so is Hermen Hulst.
I told you guys... But you didn't believe me.

And I tell you that Intergalatic is a threat... Out of dignity, if not we can destroy that filth...


Let's at least make it a Druckman and Naughty dog flop.
 
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viveks86

Member
What I take from the image is that they worked on Shadow, Demon's and GoW: Ragnarok (specifically because of Kratos' axe). The other box was their next project, and that was GoW GaaS. We really shouldn't get our hopes up.

Schreier posted implying this was >the< thing they were working on.
I guess time will tell
 

Yoboman

Member
The question is,

I think people are missing the silver lining. GoW wasn’t the only blue point project. They still have something else up their sleeve. It has been rumored for a while that they have more than one game in the works. The other is likely a single player game. The image is proof that it’s not GoW related.

Same with Bend. I don’t think the GaaS game was their only project (just a gut feeling).

I’m seeing this as good news for gamers, even though I’m sorry for the affected devs. This means focus is being redirected to what playstation studios are actually good at
The other Bluepoint project was helping on Ragnarok
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
What I take from the image is that they worked on Shadow, Demon's and GoW: Ragnarok (specifically because of Kratos' axe). The other box was their next project, and that was GoW GaaS. We really shouldn't get our hopes up.

Schreier posted implying this was >the< thing they were working on.

Doesn’t make sense in the context of the leaked new IP artwork that was leaked and had nothing to do with GoW
 

Lokaum D+

Member
Bend fans : pls make days gone 2, we want that and we ll buy It.

Bend Studios: for the love of God, let we make Days gone 2 our fans are asking for it and we would love to make It.

Sony: NO, we are gonna waste a ton of money in this project that no one wants and we ll cancel later when we realize that no one wanted this.
 
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This is by far the most terrible management team I have ever seen from a console maker like Sony. Heck, to think Microsoft is incompetent with their studios.

I don't know who's calling the shots - Sony Japan or Sony America - but heads need to roll to explain what happens for the first-half of the PS5's lifespan. To think such incredible hardware that is a massive improvement over the PS4 is now being wasted thanks to Jim Ryan and the idiots at Sony putting all their hands on GAAS.

Second-party and third-party games saved Sony for the PS5 Generation. God knows what would happen if they didn't have excellent games like Stellar Blade, FF7 Rebirth, and others covering their lack of first-party games pitfall.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I think a GoW GaaS is a pretty dumb idea. I always thought if they wanted to make a multiplayer game like they tried with Ascension that it would have to be a fighting game. Who knows what this live service game would actually be though. We don't know any details about either of these games, but people will fill in the blanks themselves.

How long were they in development? How many people worked on them? Was it the entire studio? What were the concepts of the game?

Sony bought Bluepoint who up til now has only made remasters and remakes, something people largely complain about anyways, but now they want to pretend like something massive has been lost. A lot of people complain about Bluepoint's remake of Demon's Souls but somehow suggest they should be working on Bloodborne, but people would just complain about that too.

As for Bend, before Day's Gone, they'd never made a single modern AAA game before... They've been on handheld duty for for like 15+ years. Personally I was a huge fan of the Syphon Filter PSP games and thought that they had huge potential with a AAA budget, but that's just on paper.

Pretending like either of these studios and their payload are absolutely crucial to SIE is pretty laughable. I do think it reflects poor judgement, leadership, and direction though and is pretty revealing.

The way to make these GaaS games work was pretty obvious.

  • They should have focused on monitizing Dreams on PS5, PSVR2, and PC
  • They should have brought back popular multiplayer games that failed to thrive due to the low multiplayer audience on PS3
    • Killzone, Resistance, Warhawk/Starhawk, Motorstorm (but open world), Twisted Metal, PlayStation Home (+VR), and SOCOM
    • Obviously it's hard to find teams to work on these specific IP, but it makes way more sense than taking existing single player titles and making GaaS games out of them like God of War
  • Remaking Killzone and turning it's multiplayer modes into live service is pretty straightforward. The same with Resistance.
  • They should have reacquired property rights to Everquest and modernized it, the same could be said for PlanetSide.
  • The same could have been true with Star Wars Galaxies, just look at Marvel Rivals

I do think one thing that we have to come to terms with is that Sony doesn't really dictate what these games are completely, but there is so much evidence of successfully bringing back games to new audiences that I'm stunned they didn't take this approach.
 

nial

Gold Member
Take it up with the director

oTYOKWK.jpeg


'Facilitated' (a contract) is the key word here.
Once again, this is not up to discussion, Stellar Blade became a PlayStation Studios production once SIE became involded in 2021, all while Shuhei Yoshida was heading the indie division which, you know, required him to meet a ton of developers around the world.
This is the only reasonable take:
Stellar Blade was all Kazuma Kizuka, Edward Saito and JunHo Lee if we're being more serious (producers deserve way more respect than what they usually get). Now, when Sony started to work with Shift Up, Shu was NOT in a position to get a PS Studios production deal, and the most he could do was recommending the studio to the likes of Hermen Hulst and Arnaud Saint-Martin (XDEV Japan head).
 
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ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
This is the new policy if PS wants to survive:

  • Fire Hermen Hulst
  • Focus entirely on the console; no more VR, PC ports or handheld bullshit distractions
  • Multiplayer slop banned outright
  • Next gen only, high quality SP games on the cutting edge of graphics and gameplay
  • Fire dumbass writers and ideologues who have no sense of taste
 
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simpatico

Member
Bend fans : pls make days gone 2, we want that and we ll buy It.

Bend Studios: for the love of God, let we make Days gone 2 our fans are asking for it and we would love to make It.

Sony: NO, we are gonna waste a ton of money in this project that no one wants and we ll cancel later when we realize that no one wanted this.
I replayed it last year and I liked it even more the second time. That hidden ending after the ending would make me unreasonably hyped for a sequel. One of my favorite open world games ever.
 

Kabelly

Member
I honestly would have been interested in Bend's game. The gunplay in Days Gone is very good but damn we could have gotten a Days Gone 2 instead.
 
That is something I'm worried about; that with these GAAS titles cancelled, it'll make SIE expediate a push for Day 1 PC (Steam) for all of their games.

If that happens, I still fully believe it will have some negative impact to console prospects. The markets are just too similar these days; bleed is inevitable. Just go ask Xbox; not a coincidence their console collapse came about at a growing pace in the same gen they stipulated Day 1 Steam support for all of their games. Well, MS had other issues too (declining quality with several IP, namely) which also contributed to that, and the money spent on Zenimax & especially ABK can arguably be pointed at as accelerating their shift from Xbox consoles to multiplatform publisher status.

Xbox's floor is very low since the brand's normalized peak was softened due to weak XBO performance vs. 360. PlayStation's floor is much higher than Xbox's, but I don't want SIE to put themselves in a position where they have to start looking towards that floor.
I think their current strategy is already going to affect console sales in the last quarter of its lifecycle, when the console should be at its lower price. By then, their catalog will already be available on PC too.

MS's issues ran since the second half of the 360 (Sony has never shown that level of incompetence). But while Sony can defiantly muster losing money like in the PS3 era, if necessary, they are clearly less willing to do so now. This is why I usually refer to Concord's failure as a $5 billion disaster, which, by orders of magnitude, could very well be compared to MS acquiring ABK.

You talked about Xbox games declining in quality. I would add losing relevance too.

But there is definitely something happening with Sony's AAA games... they feel too homogenized, too samey, too damn "focus-tested"... very Ubisoft-like, of course they still have a "Director driven feel overall" but in terms of game desing i think they getting.... boring.

Intergalactic's reception (overwhelming rejection) should also make PS very nervous. Outside of the woke controversy, it just felt flat, uninspired, devoid of... "gaming magic" and instead, Hollywood-esque in the worst way possible. (Something that Kojima is able to pull off.)

Forbidden West, Ragnarok, and Spider-Man 2, while successful, I think the "buzz" afterwards has felt tepid or less exciting

And Sony is able to endure this because of the 30% cut they get with every transaction. Going day and date will definitely negatively impact PS's virtuous cycle.

So yeah, it will be a risky move. But I mean, Sony has the data; they have a case study with Xbox. Maybe they can succeed where MS failed... supposedly, Hermen is trying to figure out a new way to run the PlayStation business... 😬 Let's see what conclusion he comes up with
 
Sony can go fuck themselves. I've never seen a company that was doing so great make such a terrible pivot away from what made them great, towards pure untethered greed. If this hasn't been "arrogant Sony" again I don't know what is.

Putting so many single player studios onto GaaS garbage products ....fucking pathetic.
 
I believe Sony sees the future of the console landscape and is incredibly concerned. Who knows in 10 years whether consoles will even be a thing? They are just throwing darts at a wall trying to find long term revenue

Xbox becoming multi platform is hilarious given how much Sony has mostly shit the bed this gen. That is at least one solace that Playstation gamers can take
Sony and MS are the only ones actively ruining console gaming though lol. All the focus on the PC, multiplats, gass trash
...look at the ps5 pro ...$300 more than base ps5 with terrible support for even their own first parties...there are 8 Sony exclusives without announced Pro patches! Some of those games even have much superior PC versions...what a slap in the face this gen has been towards the most hardcore Playstation fanbase that is.
 
As a loyal Sony fan, the disastrous GAAS push by Jim Ryan and the idiots at upper management make me worry about the brand's future. I cannot believe these idiots thought putting nearly ALL their eggs in this poorly thought-out, short-sighted basket would turn out well.

Thank god second-party and third-party games like Stellar Blade, FF7 Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin and many others are saving the PS5 from disaster. Such excellent hardware - the ever-improving PSSR will be a game-changer for the console - is being wasted thanks to short-sighted executives fawning over potential unlimited $ thanks to fucking Fortnight usurping their minds. I want this company to have a clean house by the time the PS6 comes into mind with single-player games being the definitive thing going forward. Any executive who dares bring up GAAS will be shown out the door and blacklisted.

Whoever decided the Hero Projects for China and many others deserves not only a giant raise but a promotion to take over the out-of-touch executive positions because many impending excellent games like Lost Soul Aside will fill in the much-need empty gap that used to be filled by first-party games.
 
These fuckers really tried to make great single player studios make live service games. This is unforgiveable! Whoever made these decisions needs to be booted out immediately!
 

GloveSlap

Member
It's all just so silly. Sony was already making a fat percentage on the successful GAAS games on it's platform without even lifting a finger.

But hell.....if you are going to risk so much chasing that, at least do it on something that has some chance of being a hit. A GAAS God of War game (conceptually) isn't just a bad bet, it has virtually no chance of being a success. The developer would have to pull off a miracle.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Strong chance Bend get shuttered, rightly so as well. One mediocre game in twelve years aint gonna cut it.By the time the next project is ready its going to be 2030 at least.

At least Bluepoint have released something half decent this gen and seem to work fast. I'd be pitching a remake pronto if I was them.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Valhalla was good, but a GaaS God of War? I’d rather buy lightning in a bottle from a traveling salesman. That sounds awful and short lived. What happens if FairGame$ is a big financial flop? Companies dreaming of taking over the GaaS space are starting to see major flops. Question is, how much are they willing to lose? I completely agree with their decision to cancel these two games because they were wasting a lot of talent. They’ll end up where Bungie is, where half the talent left ages ago.

I recently learned that the developer who made Hearthstone is the same developer who made Marvel Snap. These companies will lose their key talent and all they’ll be left with is the brand name. That’s what you get with these CEO’s who make giant financial decisions late in the game. GaaS isn’t dead, but it’s sucking the money out of Sony.
 

yogaflame

Member
Shun ( sadly retired ), Cerny, Shift up, Team Asobi, other Asian development team are the heroes of Sony PS division. Sony should be grateful for there help. There is still time to use the talents of Bluepoint and Bend on good sp games.
 
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Good God, Sony first party is going to release less games than any other console generation, and somehow they are still destroying Microsoft. Their pipeline is fucking dry after all of these cancellations......
 

hussar16

Member
Anyways, as for what's next for Bluepoint?

How about a sequel to the fucking' Order 1886? But do it justice like it deserved.

So much potential in that IP
No wonder ps5 had such a lackluster debut with no next gen games. Now they wasted 3 years of development so we won't see games from them for another 3 years. At least sony learned their lesson from concord and we shouldn't see games made like this
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Bend fans : pls make days gone 2, we want that and we ll buy It.

Bend Studios: for the love of God, let we make Days gone 2 our fans are asking for it and we would love to make It.

Sony: NO, we are gonna waste a ton of money in this project that no one wants and we ll cancel later when we realize that no one wanted this.
The ex studio head said Sony was letting Bend pick Days Gone 2 or something else, that the studio voted on that something else. And it would have been oh so “inclusive,” going by Bend’s cringe tweets after he left.
 
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Wow, so since shipping demon souls have Bluepoint been working on this life service game since then? Only for it to get cancelled and now back to 0? And this seems to be the case for Bend as well since shipping days gone? This generation is truly fucked.
 
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Sony can go fuck themselves. I've never seen a company that was doing so great make such a terrible pivot away from what made them great, towards pure untethered greed. If this hasn't been "arrogant Sony" again I don't know what is.

Putting so many single player studios onto GaaS garbage products ....fucking pathetic.
This is basically 2009-2010 MS. They were dominating with XBL and games like Gears 1/2, Halo 3, CoD, Mass Effect, Fallout, and they had all the major Japanese 3rd party games. They basically had the core market sewn up.... and they piss it all way by going hard on Kinect because they got greedy and wanted that Nintendo Wii money. They never recovered from that.
 
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