When PlayStation made its plans to pursue live-service games clear, I admittedly wasn’t as down on the idea as everyone else. Firstly, I understood it — the top five most profitable games have been the same live-service titles two years in a row, so for a company looking to maximize profits, more live-service content makes sense. Secondly, I genuinely saw potential in something like The Last of Us Online or a co-op focused Marvel’s Spider-Man GaaS. Obviously, though, this faith was misplaced. Everybody dooming over Sony’s live-service movement was proven right when cancellation after cancellation happened. Deviation Games died before ever releasing its first game, both the Spider-Man and Last of Us live-service games died before players even got an official look at gameplay, and the phenomenal remake experts at Bluepoint Games wasted time on a God of War multiplayer project that also fell apart behind the scenes.
It remains to be seen how Marathon will fare, but obviously, the chase to create another viral hit like Helldivers 2 has yet to pan out for Sony. It would have been one thing if the live-service failures had just resulted in wasted time and large gaps between releases from beloved PlayStation studios. However, it’s another thing entirely when Sony’s failed movement results in talented developers losing their jobs because of poor decisions made by higher-ups. Losing Deviation Games before it could even prove itself was bad enough, but the news that Bluepoint Games was being shut down has hit even harder given their incredible track record. Gamers around the world love Bluepoint’s work, whether it be solid remasters like Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection or the full-blown remakes of Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls. With a 91 on Metacritic for the first remake (with 17 perfect scores) and a 92 on Metacritic for the latter (alongside 20 perfect scores), Bluepoint knocked it out of the park twice in a row with its most recent projects.
With this in mind, like many others, I was completely caught off guard when the news broke of Bluepoint’s shutdown. Sure, I’d heard the reported struggles of its original game and the God of War live-service project, but I assumed Sony would shift Bluepoint to what it should have been doing all along: remakes. It’s downright heartbreaking that we’ll never get to see another glorious Bluepoint remake like Demon’s Souls, and it makes Sony’s live-service push more frustrating than ever. Seeing Bluepoint punished for its publisher’s mistakes has understandably had the internet outraged with PlayStation, and I’ve been right there with them. But a few days removed from the news, that anger has become sorrow, as I’m stuck thinking about what could have been.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Sony acquired Bluepoint back on September 30, 2021. Since then, not a single Bluepoint game has released, leaving players completely unable to support a studio that many once celebrated as a key part of PlayStation’s future.
Bluepoint Had No Shortage of Remake Options Within Its Existing Wheelhouse
- Bloodborne
- Infamous
- Jak and Daxter
The most obvious remake opportunity for Bluepoint was Bloodborne, something many had expected to see remade as a launch title for the PS6 based on how Demon’s Souls was handled. Perhaps Sony has a plan in place with FromSoftware that will see it remake the PS4 classic itself; Santa Monica handling the upcoming God of War Trilogy Remake suggests a new focus on studios that made the original games handling their remakes. That’s hard to imagine, though, as FromSoftware seems more likely to spend its time on new projects than remake old ones. Whatever ends up happening, given Bluepoint’s phenomenal work polishing up Demon’s Souls, there’s no denying that the studio would have had tons of experience to lean on for a Bloodborne remake. Sadly, this will never come to pass, and it’s hardly the only option that was available to Bluepoint.
Sucker Punch has clearly moved on from inFamous given the success of its Ghost franchise, but leaving these phenomenal superhero games behind feels like a massive mistake. If the studio that made them doesn’t have the time and resources to spend on restoring Cole MacGrath’s journey, then Bluepoint would have been the perfect choice to modernize inFamous 1 and 2 while remaining faithful to Sucker Punch’s vision. Imagine wielding Cole’s lightning powers with adaptive triggers, cutting-edge graphics, and 3D audio. The same logic applies to Naughty Dog’s Jak and Daxter as well. The Last of Us studio has clearly moved on to cinematic, story-driven projects, but this classic 3D platformer shouldn’t be left on the shelf to gather dust because of that. Bluepoint could and should have revived it, but alas, that option is also off the table now.
It’s hard to imagine Jak and Daxter or inFamous getting the God of War Trilogy treatment. God of War is a unique case since its TV series is imminent, whereas the superhero genre is covered by Insomniac’s Marvel work and Astro Bot (as well as the occasional Ratchet and Clank game) fill the niche for 3D mascots.
Bluepoint Could Have Made Live-Service Work By Reviving The Shooters Players Have Been Missing
- SOCOM
- Killzone
- Resistance
While the above options would have been perfect given Bluepoint’s existing remakes, it’s possible to entertain Sony’s idea of a live-service push while still putting Bluepoint on something that’s actually likely to succeed. When players think God of War, they don’t think of Ascension’s failed multiplayer or Sons of Sparta’s awkward handling of co-op. There’s no open-world to play in like Marvel’s Spider-Man, or cult classic multiplayer experience like The Last of Us’ Factions to pull from. Turning a linear, story-driven action franchise into a multiplayer game was always a terrible plan, and assigning a studio whose only experience is remakes to such a project ensured it was doomed from the start. Sure, Bluepoint handled the HD versions of God of War 1 and 2 for PS3, but that’s massively different from making a brand-new God of War with an entirely different gameplay loop centered around player retention. And it’s hard to imagine such a shift actually working even if the project was in Santa Monica’s hands since it’s so inherently different from what makes God of War special.
But while God of War made no sense for the live-service push, Sony is sitting on a gold mine of shooters that actually do suit that agenda. Why put Bluepoint on a live-service God of War instead of a live-service SOCOM, a beloved franchise that players have wanted to see revived for well over a decade? Looking at Helldivers 2, Sony’s lone live-service success, and making games comparable to that feels so obvious, yet for whatever reason, Sony chose to abandon Bluepoint instead of shifting it to something better. Killzone and Resistance are two PS3-era shooters that thrived, yet Guerrilla Games and Insomniac have moved beyond them (just like Naughty Dog with Jak and Sucker Punch with inFamous). Bluepoint could have dropped a free-to-play Killzone or Resistance and used its remake expertise to steadily re-introduce the maps from all the sequels over time, creating a constant stream of content and generating revenue via battle passes and skins. Again, Sony has thrown this opportunity away.
Killzone and Resistance remakes could have introduced live-service multiplayer elements alongside overhauled singleplayer campaigns, which would have made them easier pills to swallow than the fully online games many feel go against PlayStation’s identity. There would also be value to the game even if the multiplayer failed, as instead of something like Concord being shut down and lost forever, some part of the game could have lived on.
Bluepoint’s Shutdown Shows Sony is Out of Touch With What Its Fans Want
These are hardly the only dormant PlayStation exclusives Bluepoint could have revived. Sly Cooper could have been let free to steal loot and hearts via some remake of the classics, while I would have personally lost my mind over an out-of-nowhere revival of the groundbreaking FPS MAG — another game that would have fit Sony’s live-service push perfectly. Essentially, no matter how anyone looks at it, Bluepoint’s failures are entirely on Sony going against what most of its players want. The PS4 thrived on brilliant singleplayer exclusives, and said exclusives are why I’ll always be a PlayStation guy. This generation, we’ve been getting about two of those kinds of games a year when we could have had far more, as PlayStation’s studios have been trapped on live-service projects instead of doing what they do best. With 2026 seemingly being the year things get back on track, I could have shrugged that off, but I just can’t get over Bluepoint’s death.
Instead of leaving live-service to Bungie and Arrowhead, studios with proven successes in that realm, Sony tried to force it on all its major studios and failed because of it. And instead of owning up to that poor decision, and shifting Bluepoint to a singleplayer remake or even a live-service project that actually seems viable, Sony has shuttered Bluepoint because of a failure of its own making. It’s a truly baffling decision given how many PlayStation franchises — both singleplayer and multiplayer-focused — are sitting on the shelf and practically begging for a revival. I honestly don’t expect Naughty Dog to ever return to Jak and Daxter, or Insomniac to bring back Resistance, so it’s a bummer that the studio that could have brought these games (and many more) back no longer exists. To me, this is one of PlayStation’s worst decisions in years, and even the biggest fan of the brand should be disappointed about it.
