Summary
It’s been a rough couple of years forPlayStation, as its grand live-service plans seem to have exploded in its face rather dramatically.Concord was an absolute disaster,Marathon looks like it’s heading down the same path, andThe Last of Us Factions 2 never even saw the light of day. Apart from Helldivers 2, PlayStation’s live-service projects have been failures.
That’s most likely why we’ve seen a slight pivot recently, with reports of live-service projects at multiple PlayStation first-party studios being cancelled. Days Gone developer Bend Studio was one such developer,which had an unannounced live-service game cancelled at the start of the year, and it has now recently had tostart pitching new ideas to Sony.
It always sucks to see a project cancelled, mostly because of the human cost. Every time a high-profile title is cancelled, you can almost guarantee layoffs aren’t far behind, and while it took almost five months, Bend Studio is reportedly another classic example.
Days Gone Developer Is Laying Off 30 Percent Of Staff, Moving Onto New Project
According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, a new project is in the works at Bend Studio, though at the cost of 30 percent of its entire workforce. Schreier reports that around 40 people have lost their job, though it’s unclear whether they will be helped into similar positions across PlayStation’s studios, as is the case sometimes, or whether they’re just gone for good.
Bend Studio is now the latest PlayStation developer to be hit with layoffs, as Sony has been on a rampage over the past couple of years.Concord developer Firewalk Studios was completely shut down, just likeLondon Studio in February last year.Bungie has been hit with several waves of layoffs- and that was before this Marathon debacle - whileBallistic Moon was “effectively closed” after its Until Dawn remake. Not a good look for Sony, and now we can throw Bend Studio on the pile too.
