Bend Studio: Committed to Crafting Stellar Games Despite Live Service Shift

Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new projects despite Sony's cancellation of its unannounced live-service game. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service titles, one reportedly a God of War game from Bluepoint Games, and another from Bend Studio. While Sony confirmed the cancellations and assured that neither studio would close, the move highlights the challenges the company has faced in the live-service market.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks, other ventures, notably Concord, proved disastrous, shutting down after a brief period due to low player numbers. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida even voiced his reservations about Sony's aggressive push into the live-service sector.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their intention to continue developing compelling games. Their last major release was Days Gone in 2019 (with a PC port in 2021).

Sony's financial call shed light on the lessons learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, emphasized the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address issues before launch. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, potentially leading to market cannibalization, as contributing factors to its failure. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further highlighted the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the importance of sharing lessons learned across studios to improve future live-service game development.

Despite these setbacks, Sony continues to invest in live-service games, with titles like Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$ still under development. The future of Sony's live-service strategy remains to be seen, but the company's commitment to learning from past mistakes is evident.