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 engaging 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). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed, the future direction of their projects remains uncertain.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. The resounding success of Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks, stands in stark contrast to the failures of other ventures. The premature shutdown of Concord, a significant PlayStation setback, highlights the challenges faced. 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 live-service push.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their continued commitment to developing exciting new projects. Their last release, Days Gone, launched in 2019 for PlayStation 4 and later on PC in 2021.

Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's triumph and Concord's failure. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, emphasized the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address potential issues before launch. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors to its failure. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further underscored the importance of learning from both successes and failures to refine their development process.

Despite these setbacks, several PlayStation live-service games are still under development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$. The future of Sony's live-service strategy remains to be seen, but the company's commitment to learning from past mistakes is evident.