Bend Studio to Continue Innovation Despite Project Cancelation

Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects despite Sony's cancellation of its unannounced live-service game. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service titles, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games (reportedly a God of War live-service title). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that both studios would remain open and work on new projects, the move highlights the company's struggles in the live-service market.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has been a mixed bag. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures, like Concord, have been disastrous, shutting down after a short period due to low player numbers. This follows 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 offers a glimpse of the studio's future aspirations.

Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. CFO Hiroki Totoki attributed Concord's failure to delayed user testing and internal evaluations, emphasizing the need for earlier checkpoints in the development process. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, close to the launch of Black Myth: Wukong, as contributing factors.

Senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa further highlighted the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across Sony's studios to improve development management and post-launch content updates. He also stressed Sony's intention to balance its portfolio with established single-player titles alongside riskier live-service ventures.

Despite these setbacks, several PlayStation live-service games are still under development, including Marathon (Bungie), Horizon Online (Guerrilla), and Fairgame$ (Haven Studio). The future of PlayStation's live-service strategy remains uncertain, but Sony's commitment to learning from its mistakes suggests a potential course correction.