PlayStation is kicking the year off on the backfoot, with SIE Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games’ respective live service titles having been cancelled. But while several similar past cancellations by the company have been tied to those games’ developers closing their doors, Sony says that won’t be the case with these two in particular.
Reported by Bloomberg, a Sony spokesperson has stated that closures aren’t on the docket for Bend and Bluepoint, and that PlayStation is currently working with both studios to figure out what’s next with them.
“Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine what are the next projects,” Sony said.
That said, whether or not the project cancellations will bring layoffs remains to be seen. Generally, that does tend to be the case, but all Sony has said in an internal memo is that it is “working closely with Bend and Bluepoint to determine what are the next projects and plan to do everything we can to ensure there is minimal business impact.”
Of course, there’s no guarantees that Sony sticks to its current plans (companies don’t always do that after major failures), but one would hope that it does, at least. Of course, with both studios now gearing up to start entirely new projects from scratch, it doesn’t look like we’re going to see anything from either of them for several years at least.
