Bend Studio Promises Continued Innovation Post-Sony Live Service Cancelation

Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects, despite Sony's cancellation of their unannounced live-service game. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service titles, one reportedly a God of War game from Bluepoint Games, and another from Bend Studio, whose specifics remain undisclosed.

While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and future projects would be explored, their foray into live-service gaming has been markedly uneven. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks, other ventures like Concord proved disastrous, shutting down after a brief period due to extremely 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 live-service strategy.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their continued dedication to developing "cool s*t." Their last release was Days Gone* in 2019 (PlayStation 4) and 2021 (PC).

Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both the triumph of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, highlighted the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address potential issues before launch. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, potentially leading to market cannibalization, as contributing factors. Sadahiko Hayakawa, senior vice president of finance and IR, further emphasized the importance of sharing lessons learned from both successes and failures across all 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.