Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, remains committed to creating exciting new games despite Sony's cancellation of their unannounced live-service title. This follows Sony's recent decision to scrap two unannounced live-service projects, one from Bend Studio and another from Bluepoint Games (reportedly a God of War live-service game). While Sony confirmed the cancellations, assuring that neither studio would be closed and future projects would be explored, the move highlights the challenges Sony has faced in the live-service market.

Sony's foray into live-service gaming has yielded mixed results. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures like Concord proved disastrous, shutting down after a short period due to low player numbers. This failure, coupled with the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game, prompted former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida to express his reservations about Sony's live-service strategy.

Bend Studio's community manager, Kevin McAllister, reassured fans via Twitter, stating their continued commitment to developing "cool stuff." Their last release was Days Gone in 2019 (PC release in 2021).

Sony's financial call revealed insights into their learnings from both Helldivers 2's triumph and Concord's failure. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, emphasized the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address potential issues before launch. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors to its downfall.

Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further underscored the lessons learned from both the successes and failures of their live-service titles, emphasizing the importance of improved development management and post-launch content support. Sony's future live-service strategy will involve a balanced approach, combining their established strengths in single-player titles with carefully managed live-service projects.

Several PlayStation live-service games are still in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.