PlayStation is 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 live services space. Back in 2022, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki told investors that PlayStation had plans to release more than 10 live service games by March 2026. This was undoubtedly an incredibly difficult goal to achieve, especially considering that there were no real studios under PlayStation -umbrella which had experience 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 of the gaming market. Despite that, Sony continued its efforts.
So far, the results of PlayStation's live service initiative haven't been stellar, to say the least. Although Sony released the wildly successful multiplayer shooter Helldivers 2 at the beginning of last year, almost every other attempt made in this area has ended badly. A few months ago, PlayStation launched Guardians of the Galaxy-style hero shooter Harmonywhich sold so terribly that it was canceled just weeks after its debut. Several other GAAS titles were meanwhile immediately cancelled. Sony removed a handful of live service games from Naughty Dog, Firesprite and Insomniac, and most recently it also ended projects from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games.

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Concord may have caused a new God of War game to be canceled
It appears that Concord's failure may have led to the cancellation of a new God of War game that was in development.
Bend Studio may have suffered the most from Sony's Live-Service Pivot
Sony canceled two live service projects from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Sony had canceled two unannounced live service games that were in development at their first-party studios. One of them was a military shooter from Days away creator Bend Studio, and the other was a GAAS God of war game from Demon's Souls (2020) developer Bluepoint Games. Sony told Bloomberg, according to the report, that these two games were scrapped “after a recent review.” The company stated that it was working with Bend and Bluepoint to determine what their next projects would be, and noted that despite these cancellations, the studios would not be shutting down.
While it's great that Bend Studio and Bluepoint will still remain open, the damage done to them won't be easily repaired, especially in Bend's case. Back in the day, Bend Studio released games at a fairly steady pace, from new to new Siphon filter game to Uncharted spin-offs. Recently, however, the company has launched practically nothing. The last game Bend Studio released was the zombie action adventure game Days awaywhich came out on PS4 in 2019. Yes, 2019 might not sound that far away at first, but that was almost six years ago.
Many of Bend Studios' projects have reportedly been shelved in recent years
It's no secret that game development takes a lot longer than it used to these days, but Bend Studios' case is exceptionally rare. Most game developers can normally release a big budget AAA game in 4 to 5 years, but Bend Studio has not only released 0 games in 6 years, it has also announced nothing. Sure, some might think, if Bend Studio had been developing a live service game for half a decade, it would have shown something by now. Well, according to previous reports, Bend Studio actually had other projects in the works, but they were also scrapped.
In 2021, some insiders claimed that Sony had canceled an unannounced Uncharted game and one Days away sequels, both of which were in development at Bend Studio. It was said that these titles were shelved in favor of making a new IP. But as is now known, this new IP has also been deleted. If all of this is true, then Bend Studio has really been going through a tough time lately. It must be heartbreaking for employees of the company that none of the projects they have been working on for 5+ years will see the light of day. At the rate things are going, Bend Studio might not release a single game for the entire PlayStation 5 generation.

Bend Studio
- Date founded
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1993-00-00
- Head office
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Bend, OR 97702, USA
- Parent company
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Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Studios
- Known for
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Busy 3D