The developer behind Days Gone, Bend Studio, remains committed to creating innovative content despite the recent cancellation of its unannounced live-service game by parent company Sony. Last week, Sony canceled two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and the other from Bluepoint Games, which was reportedly a live-service God of War game, as per Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. A Sony spokesperson confirmed the cancellations but reassured that neither studio would be closed, and that Sony would collaborate with them to determine their next projects.

Sony's venture into live-service games has faced significant challenges. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other attempts have faltered. Concord, for instance, turned out to be a major disappointment, lasting only a few weeks before being taken offline due to low player engagement. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and shut down its developer. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida expressed that he would have opposed Sony's push into live-service games if he were in the current CEO Hermen Hulst's position.

In response to the situation, Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, tweeted, "Thanks for the love and support everyone, especially to those that have reached out. P.S. We still plan on creating cool shit." This message underscores the studio's determination to continue developing engaging content, following their last release, Days Gone, which launched on PlayStation 4 in 2019 and on PC in 2021.

Sony's president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki, during a recent financial call, reflected on the lessons learned from the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord. Totoki admitted that Sony should have implemented development gates, such as user testing and internal evaluations, much earlier in the process of Concord. He suggested that earlier intervention could have either improved the game before its launch or led to its cancellation.

Totoki also pointed out Sony's "siloed organization" and the timing of Concord's release, which coincided closely with the successful launch of Black Myth: Wukong on PS5 and PC, potentially causing market cannibalization. He emphasized the need for better inter-organizational collaboration and more strategic release timing to maximize performance.

Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, also spoke during the financial call, comparing the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord. He noted that the lessons from both successes and failures would be shared across Sony's studios to enhance development management and post-launch content scaling.

Looking ahead, Sony plans to continue developing a balanced portfolio that includes both single-player games, leveraging their established IPs, and live-service games that carry higher risk but also potential for significant upside. Upcoming PlayStation live-service titles include Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.