New PlayStation Live-Service Game is Reportedly Struggling to "Find the Fun"

Upcoming PlayStation extraction shooter Fairgames is reportedly struggling to “find the fun” during its development. An ongoing playtest has indicated that the PlayStation live-service title could still be in trouble, after similar reports emerged over the last year.

Haven Studios announced Fairgames in 2023 for PlayStation 5 and PC. It is the first title from the Montreal-based studio, touted as a heist extraction shooter in which players must work as a team to collect more loot than their enemies. Since its announcement, Fairgames‘ development has been anything but smooth. In September 2025, Fairgames lost its Creative Director, Daniel Drapeau, who moved on to Warner Bros Games Montreal. Given how key a Creative Director is to shaping a project’s direction, it’s safe to say that this was a massive hit to Fairgames‘ development.

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Fairgames Testing is Still Struggling to Find the Fun Factor

A recent report by Insider Gaming claims that the latest round of playtesting for Fairgames is not going well, and the game is allegedly struggling to “find the fun.” The report says that an extraction-based gamemode named Cargo Heist is being tested, with comparisons made to both The Division and Call of Duty in its movement and graphics. It also reveals that the game’s playtest Discord server is filled with tons of negative feedback from players, who are criticizing “game-defining features like movement, NPCs, the class system, and more.”

It’s claimed that gamers are trying out Fairgames, but only manage to play a few games before stopping, with bored teammates quitting becoming an increasing problem. Reports of similarly poorly received Fairgames playtests began to emerge almost a year ago, and it seems the game still has a very long way to go before it’s ready to compete in the increasingly crowded live-service and extraction shooter spaces.

With its Creative Director leaving in late 2025 and playtests still going poorly, it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel for Fairgames. The project has been enveloped in bad news of late. Back in February, it was revealed that Haven Studios wasn’t renewing contracts for some contractors working on Fairgames, despite the game still being nowhere near completion. There is still no official release window for the extraction shooter, but all indications point to it being a long way off.

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Sony’s massive live-service push over the last few years hasn’t fully gone to plan. The high-profile failure of Concord was a game-changer for the company, and PlayStation claimed it had begun rethinking risk in its wake. This makes its approach to Fairgames particularly interesting to watch. It knows that releasing a subpar product will likely result in another significant flop, but Sony will also not want to burn through massive amounts of funds in pursuit of making Fairgames playable.