It’s been confirmed that Fairgames (stylized as Fairgame$) is being shut down by PlayStation. With the PS5 generation, PlayStation has invested heavily in the live-service space, to significantly mixed results. PlayStation’s live-service ambitions have seen more misses than hits, with Helldivers 2 proving to be a runaway success, but Concord shut down within weeks after its launch and The Last of Us online multiplayer game ultimately scrapped.
Even though PlayStation’s live-service efforts have not been all that successful, it has forged ahead with efforts to enter the space with games like Bungie’s Marathon and the long-in-development Fairgames. Fairgames, for the uninitiated, started development in 2021 at Haven Studios, a company founded by Jade Raymond, best known for her work with Ubisoft. Raymond left the company in 2025, and behind-the-scenes reports about Fairgames have been consistently unfavorable.
Fairgame$ Has Been Canceled
Now it seems that Sony has decided to pull the plug on Fairgames after five years in development. This was confirmed by Bloomberg in a new report that claimed Fairgames had been “reworked several times” and that there were plans to re-reveal it with a brand-new title. Apparently, the final nail in the coffin for Fairgames was a playtest that did not meet the company’s expectations. Instead of potentially dealing with another Concord situation where a live-service game is released and then promptly shut down, PlayStation made the call to cancel the game before it could finish development. Despite the cancellation, there will be no layoffs at Haven Studios, and instead the studio will support others under the PlayStation umbrella.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Fairgames was a heist shooter with a sci-fi aesthetic. Over the years, reports about the game’s development have surfaced, painting a bleak picture about Fairgames‘ quality. Assuming those reports were accurate, it’s not terribly surprising that PlayStation has decided to cancel the project.
Despite PlayStation’s live-service failures, the company still plans on releasing new live-service games. How this strategy might change with Sony canceling Fairgames and The Last of Us online multiplayer game remains to be seen. It should be noted that another of Sony’s live-service games, Horizon Hunters Gathering, has had its live-service elements axed, and so it’s possible that the company might try to salvage some of its live-service projects by converting them into more traditional game releases.
Sony may also double-down on its existing live-service efforts. Marathon has a major update coming in December, for example, and as an attempt to revitalize the underperforming extraction shooter. Helldivers 2 may not nearly be as popular as it once was, but the game still has its fans, and so perhaps there is room to grow there. Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t seem like PlayStation is going to give up making live-service games, but hopefully future titles will actually see the light of day.
- Developer(s)
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Haven Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
