A new rumor alleges that two live-service games including a God of War one were scrapped by Sony due to the failure of Concord.
It was originally reported by Jason Schreier and Christopher Palmeri at Bloomberg that Sony shut down two live service games that were in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games.
The duo wrote, “Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation has canceled previously unannounced games at two of its top subsidiaries, the company said Thursday. The games, at Oregon-based Bend Studio and Texas-based Bluepoint Games, were both ‘live service’ projects designed to have recurring revenue from players.
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In a post to BlueSky, Schreier claimed Bluepoint Games was working on a God of War live service game.
He wrote, “I can report that from 2020-2022 [Bluepoint Games] were helping on God of War Ragnarok. Since then they've been on the live-service project that was canceled today. Now, unclear.”
A Sony spokesman confirmed the cancelations after Sony did a “recent review” of the projects.
The spokesman added, “Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine what are the next projects.”
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Following this report, Jeff Grubb claimed on his Jeff Grubb’s Game Mess show that both games were shut down due to Concord’s failure.
He said, “This happened because of Concord, let’s be clear, that’s what I’ve been told.”
“That is real. It is because of Concord,” he reiterated. “It is Sony is shell-shocked from Concord and now they’re going around to every studio and they are reassessing every single project. And if it’s a live service project it has a lot of friction going against it, preventing it from getting a chance to actually come out.”
He later added that new pitches for live service projects are unlikely to get greenlit.
Concord was shut down less than two weeks after the game released. Game Director Ryan Ellis announced on the PlayStation Blog, “While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
About a month and a half letter, Sony announced it was shutting down Concord developer Firewalk Studios. Sony CEO Herman Hulst said, “As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen SIE’s Studio Business, we have had to make a difficult decision relating to two of our studios – Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios.”
Speaking specifically to Firewalk Studios, he said, “Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September (An Important Update on Concord), certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options. After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
Of note, he said in the post that the company would “continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
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Given Sony’s statement about being committed to live service, it’s also likely there were other factors that went into the canceling of these two games and specifically the God of War game.
The God of War brand might not be as popular as what Sony might have initially thought. God of War Ragnarok released to Steam in September and only hit a peak concurrent of 35,615 players.
The previous game, which released in 2022 on Steam had a peak concurrent of 73,529 players.
What do you make of Sony shutting down these two games?
Isn't Bend the studio that made Days Gone? If Sony really wants Bend to make a live service game, they could do worse than zombie Sons of Anarchy.