Two games in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint have apparently been canned.
In the graveyard of live service games Concord may just be the biggest headstone, and that seems to have focused some minds over at PlayStation. Previously the noises coming from Sony were all about the importance of live service games to its future strategy, and it had announced plans to launch more than 10 live service games by the 2025 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026.
Now? Not so much. A new Bloomberg report reveals that “following a recent review” PlayStation has canceled two unannounced live service games in development at subsidiaries Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. Bend is best-known for Days Gone and, back in the day, Syphon Filter, while Bluepoint mainly handles high-profile remakes like Demon’s Souls.
While playing the single player masterpiece which was God of War, I absolutely thought: “The only way to make this game better is if I had the luxury of buying a battle pass to grind for seasonal cosmetics along with a dozen other people.” 🤤🤤🤤🤑
Well, no.
Deep Rock Galactic has fully optional skin packs to make money and they’re doing great.
Warframe has been chugging along for over a decade now and they’re doing great. Beating the pants off of Destiny 2 for average player count.
The live service trick is that live service only works if the company actually cares about the product. Those two companies stand out because they legitimately care and have great communication with their communities.
So far Warframe has been the ONLY example of a good live service game. It’s the OG when it comes to the model, but it’s also the exception, and not the rule.
Destiny historically vasscilated between “fucking amazing” and “dumpster fire”. The problem has always been that it is near impossible to maintain that level of quality and entertainment consistently while also innovating on a regular basis. It is very difficult and very expensive.
They moved into “dumpster fire” territory significantly more than “fucking amazing”, sadly. Like one good expansion, three bad updates and two bad expansions, one good update.
“Live service” is a game that has an always online requirement. Just getting updates on the regular doesn’t make it a live service if the game works just fine without an Internet connection.
Single player Ubisoft games are all “live services”, due to some of them needing a constant connection to Ubisoft’s servers, and them having in-game shops that only work while online.
They’re the same thing. “Live service” is how Activision-Blizzard rebranded games that required to be always online. They also solidified the outline of things publishers at the time were already doing with their always online games, such as endless content players will have to buy.
Those documents leaked many years ago, and soon after that the moniker was changed from “always online” to “Live Service”.
Warframe’s MTX is so fair too. All of it can be earned in game, get items sell items for Platinum (paid currency) get the item from the shop.
The exception is the Fan made skins that are a few bucks. But those directly support the fan created skins.
Warframe is mostly pay-2-convenience.
The latest story expansion Warframe 1999 was phenomenal. If you havent played it yet, definitely follow through the main story it’s all tied together. One of the best stories that continue to deliver.
DRG and Warframe also hit the critical requirement of actually being games that are fun to play!
I haven’t played a lot of WF, but I’ve got hundreds of hours on DRG. There is no grind. Getting holiday loot takes 5 to 8 matched total, and the Seasons are long and very relaxed. I maxed out XP for this season already and the next probably won’t start until at least this summer.
The community is going strong, the game is fun, Ghost Ship seems stable and like a nice place to work. It’s so stupid that more companies don’t see that they could run like this instead of chasing “get rich quick” corporate schemes that always alienate the fans.
This was inevitable as soon as games started getting the budgets of blockbuster movies. No one wants to invest that much money into a project without getting some oversight and control in return.
Of course, very, very few people who have access to that kind of cash have any design sense whatsoever, and even fewer understand the creative process, or what makes games “good”… so they ask for shit that they think will be “safe” money-makers, and we get what we get: endless, samey, soulless shlock.
Or at least release the server code when you shut the game down, so anyone can spin up a server of their own. Community servers are fine, but you should always be able to host your own for friends to play on.
GoW as a live game isn’t the most out there thing. Tens of people liked the multiplayer mode in Ascension (?) and the reception to the roguelite mode was generally very favorable. And the core game already had gear based progression that could map to something like what Ghost of Tsushima has (that has hundreds of people who like it…).
But having frigging Bluepoint spend cycles on this? I am sure that the studio asked for something more than just remakes but… what?
I don’t think it at all matches “Never ask me about my past” Dad Kratos and nobody likes Atreus enough, but one could easily imagine an “open world” live service game where new gods and factions are added every few months and you do quests for or against them.
I can’t imagine how it sucks to being these devs. They obviuosly earned more and lived better than me, but I’d have a hard time parting with some project even if they are all mismanaged unborn messes.
I was a professional developer in a wide range of gaming areas for about 20 years… Looking back, I can honestly say that 95% of the work I did ended up as a vapor… The 5% that made it to market were so fleeting…
I derived my satisfaction not from completing projects, but solving the underlying problems. That kept me very engaged.
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While playing the single player masterpiece which was God of War, I absolutely thought: “The only way to make this game better is if I had the luxury of buying a battle pass to grind for seasonal cosmetics along with a dozen other people.” 🤤🤤🤤🤑
I’ve played each game and they are all awesome.
Would be better if you can earn skibidi toilet emoji dances for Kratos
Would love to see a kratos twerking emote
Play Fortnite
Good riddance. Seems like Sony got the message; we’re sick of everything being a “live service”.
Well, no.
Deep Rock Galactic has fully optional skin packs to make money and they’re doing great.
Warframe has been chugging along for over a decade now and they’re doing great. Beating the pants off of Destiny 2 for average player count.
The live service trick is that live service only works if the company actually cares about the product. Those two companies stand out because they legitimately care and have great communication with their communities.
DRG doesn’t make me feel like they are taking advantage of me with their transactions because they aren’t required. It’s nice that way.
So far Warframe has been the ONLY example of a good live service game. It’s the OG when it comes to the model, but it’s also the exception, and not the rule.
Destiny historically vasscilated between “fucking amazing” and “dumpster fire”. The problem has always been that it is near impossible to maintain that level of quality and entertainment consistently while also innovating on a regular basis. It is very difficult and very expensive.
They moved into “dumpster fire” territory significantly more than “fucking amazing”, sadly. Like one good expansion, three bad updates and two bad expansions, one good update.
Don’t forget Path of Exile.
Id argue a bunch of early access games that get constant updates are Live Service games too.
And indie games like Terraria and Minecraft were the best examples of live service.
I’d consider No Man’s Sky a pretty successful live service game, as well.
“Live service” is a game that has an always online requirement. Just getting updates on the regular doesn’t make it a live service if the game works just fine without an Internet connection.
Single player Ubisoft games are all “live services”, due to some of them needing a constant connection to Ubisoft’s servers, and them having in-game shops that only work while online.
I’m not sure you got the right definition of live service game. What you said is the definition of always online games.
They’re the same thing. “Live service” is how Activision-Blizzard rebranded games that required to be always online. They also solidified the outline of things publishers at the time were already doing with their always online games, such as endless content players will have to buy.
Those documents leaked many years ago, and soon after that the moniker was changed from “always online” to “Live Service”.
You got any links to one of those leaks? That sounds kinda interesting.
Warframe’s MTX is so fair too. All of it can be earned in game, get items sell items for Platinum (paid currency) get the item from the shop.
The exception is the Fan made skins that are a few bucks. But those directly support the fan created skins.
Warframe is mostly pay-2-convenience.
The latest story expansion Warframe 1999 was phenomenal. If you havent played it yet, definitely follow through the main story it’s all tied together. One of the best stories that continue to deliver.
DRG and Warframe also hit the critical requirement of actually being games that are fun to play!
I haven’t played a lot of WF, but I’ve got hundreds of hours on DRG. There is no grind. Getting holiday loot takes 5 to 8 matched total, and the Seasons are long and very relaxed. I maxed out XP for this season already and the next probably won’t start until at least this summer.
The community is going strong, the game is fun, Ghost Ship seems stable and like a nice place to work. It’s so stupid that more companies don’t see that they could run like this instead of chasing “get rich quick” corporate schemes that always alienate the fans.
I’d say also it depends on the franchise. Depp rock? Be a funny space dwarf yelling rock and stone? Hell yes imma do that with some friends.
God of war? No. Much more serious tone, I want to do that alone to explore the narrative
So the fuckers can learn!
The more canceled live service games the better.
Make a real game or don’t bother.
Live service deez nuts. Shitty trend that needs to die.
Live service games generate a constant income with minimal effort once it’s live. It will only die if players stop spending money on such games.
Lmao. GoW live service? Fucking hell it’s video games by committee.
This was inevitable as soon as games started getting the budgets of blockbuster movies. No one wants to invest that much money into a project without getting some oversight and control in return.
Of course, very, very few people who have access to that kind of cash have any design sense whatsoever, and even fewer understand the creative process, or what makes games “good”… so they ask for shit that they think will be “safe” money-makers, and we get what we get: endless, samey, soulless shlock.
Yeah, cancelling this seems like a good call.
Good, live service games are cancer.
And then they die when the servers are no longer maintained. Make more standalone games that don’t require servers.
Or at least release the server code when you shut the game down, so anyone can spin up a server of their own. Community servers are fine, but you should always be able to host your own for friends to play on.
I disagree, they have their place. Counterstrike, for example.
Call of Duty and Battlefield would be better if they followed Counterstrike’s release model.
“That’s bad!”
“That’s good!”
GoW as a live game isn’t the most out there thing. Tens of people liked the multiplayer mode in Ascension (?) and the reception to the roguelite mode was generally very favorable. And the core game already had gear based progression that could map to something like what Ghost of Tsushima has (that has hundreds of people who like it…).
But having frigging Bluepoint spend cycles on this? I am sure that the studio asked for something more than just remakes but… what?
I don’t think it at all matches “Never ask me about my past” Dad Kratos and nobody likes Atreus enough, but one could easily imagine an “open world” live service game where new gods and factions are added every few months and you do quests for or against them.
deleted by creator
Oh well thank god then
Thank fuck now more effort can be put elsewhere instead of live service slop.
It’s for the best. The series deserves better than live service.
I can’t imagine how it sucks to being these devs. They obviuosly earned more and lived better than me, but I’d have a hard time parting with some project even if they are all mismanaged unborn messes.
I was a professional developer in a wide range of gaming areas for about 20 years… Looking back, I can honestly say that 95% of the work I did ended up as a vapor… The 5% that made it to market were so fleeting…
I derived my satisfaction not from completing projects, but solving the underlying problems. That kept me very engaged.
But yeah, not everybody sees things this way.