2 minBusiness
Sony cancels Fairgames, its live-service heist shooter from Haven Studios
Sony has cancelled Fairgames, a multiplayer heist shooter in development at Haven Studios for about three and a half years, after a playtest produced mixed player feedback and weak retention. Haven will not close and no layoffs have been reported.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has cancelled Fairgames, a live-service heist shooter that had been in development at its Haven Studios team in Montreal, according to a report from Bloomberg. The decision ends a project that was announced in 2023 and had been delayed to 2026 before being halted.
The game was pitched as a competitive player-versus-player title in which players rob ultra-rich billionaires. Executives Sean Decker and John Doyle cited mixed results from a playtest, including feedback and retention figures that did not meet expectations, along with the difficult conditions of the player-versus-player genre. Creative director Mathieu Leduc had described the game as a competitive heist experience. Reports indicate the project was reworked several times over its roughly three and a half years of development.
Haven Studios was founded by Jade Raymond, who left the studio in 2023. According to the reporting, the studio will not close and no layoffs have been reported. Haven staff are expected to support other PlayStation first-party projects. It remains unconfirmed whether the concept could return under a new name. Playtests had been advertised under the codename Project Espresso.
The cancellation fits a broader retreat by Sony from live-service games. In May 2023, the company halved its planned output of such titles. Concord, a hero shooter, was shut down shortly after its August 2024 launch, and its developer, Firewalk, was closed. Live-service multiplayer projects based on God of War and The Last of Us have also been cancelled. Sony has pointed to Helldivers 2 as a live-service success, but the company's wider strategy in this area now appears uncertain.
The decision also comes amid turbulence elsewhere in the sector. In July 2024, Bungie, the studio behind Destiny, announced layoffs and a restructuring. Taken together, the cancellations show how costly and risky large live-service bets have become for major publishers, even when games have spent years in development.
Source: ign.com
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