SONY Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan left last year, and the company is still walking back many of his decisions.
Before his departure, Ryan planned to increase PlayStation’s online offerings, investing huge amounts of money in live-service games.
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Ryan claimed that the company needed to create a viral hit game similar to Fortnite, but it has been cancelling live-service projects left and right.
Flagship PlayStation series like The Last of Us, Horizon and Spider-Man were all slated to receive a live-service entry.
In March 2024, a trailer emerged for the live-service Spider-Man game subtitled The Great Web, which had reportedly been cancelled.
The Last of Us Online was officially cancelled in December 2023, but Horizon Online is reportedly still in development as of September 2024.
A God of War’s live-service game was believed to still be in development until recently when Sony announced that it and another project had been cancelled.
Sony claims that the two studios working on the live-service games, Bend Studios and Bluepoint Games, are not under threat of closure.
Bluepoint was reportedly working on the God of War online game, but the live-service game Bend was working on is still unknown.
A spokesperson said: “Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family.
“We are working closely with each studio to determine what are the next projects.”
PlayStation has apparently firmly shifted its focus away from live-service games, particularly since the short-lived game Concord.
The live-service PlayStation console exclusive Concord was shut down just two weeks after it was released.
Originally, PlayStation said that Concord would return, but shortly afterwards confirmed that it had been cancelled before shutting down Firewalk Studios.
However, the spokesperson said that the company isn’t completely pivoting away from the live-service model.
Although a “recent review” had apparently led the company to shutter these projects, the spokesperson claims that Sony will continue to work on both single-player and live-service games.
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