A once-beloved PlayStation studio is not any extra.
On Thursday, we discovered that Sony Interactive Leisure is shutting down Bluepoint Video games, which had not launched a sport in over 5 years. Bluepoint made a reputation for itself with remakes of PlayStation classics like Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, however as Bloomberg reports, the studio labored on a live-service God of Battle sport after being acquired in 2021. That was canceled by Sony in early 2025, and with no new initiatives greenlit a couple of 12 months later, the studio will shut down.
Whereas Bluepoint could seem like one more sufferer of the online game business’s latest flurry of layoffs, studio closures, and live-service sport failures, the closure can also be emblematic of the largest issues PlayStation has confronted all through the PS5 technology. It is a technology the place Sony hasn’t carried out job of managing and shepherding its most beloved franchises, has launched fewer video games resulting from bloated improvement timelines, and has been usually inconsistent with its live-service efforts.
Bluepoint in the end fell sufferer to a number of the greatest errors that PlayStation has made all through the PS5 period. Whereas PlayStation seems to course appropriate and proceed on, a studio filled with proficient builders who made nice video games now not exists as a result of they spent years chasing a white whale of a live-service sport that the studio was not geared up to make.
Demon’s Souls (2020)
From Ghost of Yotei to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, first-party PlayStation builders have launched loads of unbelievable video games for PS5. Regardless of that, sport launches have felt rare, and a few franchises lie oddly dormant. It is a results of the elongated improvement occasions that the whole online game business presently faces. Celebrated studios like Naughty Canine, Media Molecule, and Sony Bend didn’t launch a completely unique PS5 sport within the system’s first 5 years in the marketplace.
Bluepoint was there on the PS5’s launch with the spectacular Demon’s Souls remake, however had been dormant in subsequent years because it labored on the live-service God of Battle sport. That made its cancellation all of the extra brutal, because the Bluepoint staff had invested years in a venture that may now by no means see the sunshine of day.
In the meantime, franchises like Notorious, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Days Gone, and Killzone have fully fallen to the wayside with no studios to help them. One would assume a remake-focused studio could be an effective way to maintain older franchises heat as their creators prepare dinner up one thing new. On the time of its acquisition, I assumed Bluepoint was primed to do exactly that for Sony; as an alternative, the builders had been put to work on a live-service spin-off of God of Battle–a single-player collection already set to be serviced fairly comprehensively on PS5.
We all know from an IGN interview across the time of the acquisition that Bluepoint was interested by making video games with extra “unique content material.” Bluepoint President Marco Thrush declared on the time, “We now have that unique sport improvement mindset in our hearts, and that is what we’re now prepared, lastly prepared with the help of Sony to push ahead and present what we will do, and present what PlayStation can do.”
Shadow of the Colossus (2018)
Perhaps that live-service God of Battle online game is what Bluepoint wished to make. Even when that had been the case, it was a miscalculation by Sony to take such a giant likelihood on a studio very expert at making one sort of sport (remakes), solely to process it with creating one thing completely completely different and with an excessive degree of problem (reside service). Maybe Bluepoint may’ve transitioned into remakes that really feel like unique artwork of their very own, like Closing Fantasy VII Remake.
Ultimately, Sony’s optimism a couple of future full of well-liked live-service video games it owned overrode these considerations. PlayStation ambitiously greenlit 12 live-service video games at the beginning of the console technology, however introduced plans to halve that quantity by late 2023. Helldivers 2 did turn into a shock success, however Harmony completely flopped when it launched in August 2024, whereas Marathon and Fairgame$ have confronted pre-release backlash and skepticism from gamers.
We have definitely seen Sony pay the value for its overeagerness to get a live-service hit of its personal, and for primarily investing within the greatest, most costly AAA video games from its first-party studios. By making the soar from a dependable remake studio to an experimental live-service staff, Bluepoint was sadly positioned to be a sufferer when sport business tides modified and Sony wanted to downsize to pay the value for errors made years earlier.
Demon’s Souls (2020)
When Sony acquired Bluepoint in 2021, then-PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst was optimistic in regards to the merger being good for each Bluepoint and PlayStation. “It is good for them as a result of they get to do what they love most, and it is nice for us as a result of there’s much more focus by Bluepoint on what we would like, and that’s wonderful content material, wonderful video games to come back out of Bluepoint,” he told IGN.
As he introduced Bluepoint’s closure in 2026 because the Studio Enterprise Group CEO at Sony Interactive Leisure, Hulst referred to as Bluepoint a “proficient staff” that “delivered distinctive experiences” in an inside electronic mail leaked on ResetEra. That stated, he additionally appears to assume PlayStation will do exactly advantageous with out them:
“Whereas I do know that is exhausting information to listen to, I am assured within the route we’re headed. Creativity, innovation, and constructing unforgettable experiences for gamers stay on the coronary heart of PlayStation Studios. We now have a sturdy roadmap for FY26, with a lot to stay up for within the months forward.”
Hulst is concentrated on steering the ship again in the precise route earlier than the PS6 (ultimately) arrives. The “roughly 70” affected builders from Bluepoint will not be a part of that imaginative and prescient, as they’re paying the value for errors that PlayStation made.
Bluepoint was a studio that might’ve leaned into its strengths to help older franchises and longer improvement occasions make supporting so many much less tenable for PlayStation. As an alternative, PlayStation mismanaged the promising firm, letting it spend almost half a decade making a live-service God of Battle sport that was exterior its wheelhouse and canned earlier than it may see the sunshine of day.
Now, Sony has ensured that Bluepoint won’t ever make one other remake once more.