UPDATE 21/1/25: On the matter of whether staff were told of Sony’s project cancellation before the news was reported publicly, journalist Jeff Grubb has now posted a correction to state that they in fact were.
Last night, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier weighed in via a post on BlueSky in which he stated: “People across the org were informed [of the cancellations] before my article went out last week.” Sony is yet to respond to Eurogamer’s request for comment, but we’ll update the story if it provides clarity on the situation.
ORIGINAL STORY 20/1/25: Days Gone developer Bend Studio says it “still plans on creating cool shit”, following Sony’s decision to cancel its unannounced live-service game – amid claims Bend and the similarly affected Bluepoint only found out about the cancellations “at the same time as everyone else”.
Word that Sony had cancelled two more first-party live service games – this time in development at its Bend and Bluepoint studios – emerged via by Bloomberg last week. Sony, of course, announced plans to invest heavily in live service titles back in 2022, under the watch of then-PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, but the company has cancelled numerous live service games – including a co-op Spider-man from developer Insomniac, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game, and a Twisted Metal project at Firesprite – since Ryan’s departure last year.