Bend Studio may have been a big casualty of Sony's short-lived live-services era

PlayStation Traditionally known for its high-quality AAA single player games, but in recent years, the company has made a concerted effort to expand into the direct services sector. Back in 2022, Sony executive Hiroki Totoki told investors that PlayStation planned to release 10 live service games by March 2026. This was, of course, an incredibly difficult goal to achieve, especially since there were actually no studios. The PlayStation umbrella was experienced with live service titles at the time. The decision to launch so many GAAS games in such a short time frame also caused some controversy, as many worried that it would lead to oversaturation in the gaming market. However, Sony stepped up its efforts.

So far, the results of PlayStation's Direct Services initiative have not been great, to say the least. However Sony released a hugely successful multiplayer shooter Hell Diver 2 As of early last year, every other attempt in this area has ended badly. A few months ago, PlayStation launched Guardians of the Galaxy– Style hero shooter consentwhich sold so horribly that it was discontinued just weeks after its debut. Many other GAAS titles, meanwhile, were canceled entirely. Sony axed a handful of Live Service games from Naughty Dog, Firesprite, and Insomniac, then recently, it also shut down projects from Bend Studios and Bluepoint Games.

Due to consensus, the war game was cancelled

related to

Concord may be the reason to cancel a new game of war

It appears that Concorde's failure may have led to the cancellation of the new God of War game in development.

Bend Studios may suffer the most from Sony's live-services pivot

Sony canceled two Live Services projects from Bend Studios and Bluepoint Games

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Sony had canceled two unannounced Live Services games that were being developed at its first-party studios. One of them was an army shooter days passed The producer was Bend Studios, and another was GAAS god of war game from Demon spirits (2020) Developer Bluepoint Games. Sony told Bloomberg that the two games were scrapped “after a recent review,” according to the report. The company said it is working with Bend and Bluepoint to determine what their next projects will be, and noted that, despite these cancellations, the studios will not be closing.

While it's great that Bend Studios and Bluepoint are still going to remain open, the damage done to them isn't going to be easily fixed, especially in Bend's case. Back in the day, Bend Studios released games at a fairly constant pace from new Siphon filter to play games unknown Spin-offs. However, recently the company has practically not launched anything. The most recent game to hit the market was the Bend Studio zombie action-adventure title days passedIt came out on PS4 in 2019. Yes, 2019 may not seem that far away at first, but it was almost six years ago.

Several projects from Bend Studios have been reported over the past few years

It's no secret that game development takes a lot longer than we're used to these days, but Bend Studios' case is exceptionally unusual. Most game developers can usually release a big budget AAA game in 4 to 5 years, but Bend Studios has not only launched 0 games in 6 years, it has announced nothing. Of course, one would think, if Bend Studios had been developing a Live Services game for half a decade, it would have shown something by now. Well, according to earlier reports, Bend Studios actually had other projects in the works, but they were shelved as well.

In 2021, some insiders alleged an unannounced cancellation by Sony unknown Games and A days passed The sequel, both of which were in development at Bend Studios. It was said that these titles were shelved in favor of making new IP. However, as it is now known, this new IP has also been cancelled. If all of this is true, then Bend Studios has really been going through a tough time lately. It must be heartbreaking for the employees of the company that none of the projects they have worked on for 5+ years will see the light of day. At the rate things are going, Bend Studios may not release a game for the entire duration of the PlayStation 5 generation.