New details have come to light regarding Sony’s upcoming multiplayer live-service game, Fairgame$, including information about one of its game modes and its reported business model.
When Fairgame$ was announced in 2023, Sony called it a “competitive heist experience,” and now Insider Gaming has reported details on one of its game modes, Cargo Heist. This will reportedly play out in three phases, including Break In, which has players looking for a vault code and collecting cash to upgrade their skillset. In the next phase, Drill, players will get inside the vault and fight to collect the cargo. The third phase is Extract, which has players carrying the cargo to an extraction site.
Fairgame$ could have other modes, but only Cargo Heist was detailed in the report. Some are saying this description gives off Marathon vibes, which itself is an extraction-based game.
Also in the report, it’s mentioned that Fairgame$ will be a free-to-play title that uses microtransactions to make money. It was also reported that the game’s next playtest is coming up this weekend, but it is not open to the public.
A number of key developers at Fairgame$ studio Haven have left the company since the game was announced, including Haven founder Jade Raymond and the game’s director, Daniel Drapeau. It was reported in May 2025 that Fairgame$ was delayed to 2026 after a playtest proved unfavorable.
GameSpot has contacted Sony seeking comment regarding the details from this new report.
What is Fairgame$?
Fairgame$ has players going after billionaires who have “too much money and too much power.” In the trailer, we see a squad of players infiltrating some kind of compound, working together to take down security guards with the apparent aim of sticking it to the man.
“Fairgame$ will give you an opportunity to break the rules as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or just someone who wants to collect cool loot,” creative director Mathieu Leduc said. “Trespass inside forbidden locations around the world, fill your pockets like a kid in a candy store and unravel the nefarious plans of untouchable billionaires.”
Sony’s track record for live-service games so far
When Fairgame$ was announced in 2023, Sony was pushing ahead with major investments into the live-service space. However, the company later scaled back its live-service plans drastically with management stressing it wanted to focus on quality over quantity. After this announcement, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game was canceled in December 2023. It also came to light that a live-service God of War game was canceled at developer Bluepoint, and Sony later closed the studio entirely.
One of Sony’s biggest success stories in the live-service category was February 2024’s Helldivers 2, which smashed sales records and became the No. 3 overall best-selling game of 2024 in the US. Later that year, Sony shipped Concord, but it was a major failure, and Sony quickly took the game offline and refunded all players. Its developer, Firewalk, was later closed.
Following the failure of Concord, top boss Hermen Hulst said Sony put new structures in place to help ensure its live-service games come to market in better shape.
It was reported in 2023 that PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who left Sony in 2024, had a mandate that Sony’s teams should make more games-as-a-service titles. A number of PlayStation developers were reportedly upset with this, and the blame was said to have fallen not on Ryan but Connie Booth, one of the most important and veteran PlayStation developers, leading to her eventual departure.
Another former PlayStation boss, Shuhei Yoshida, said the chance of finding success in the competitive live-service market was “small,” but his replacement, Hermen Hulst, was given the resources to fund both single-player games and live-service titles at the same time. However, had Yoshida stayed in that role, he said he would have “tried to resist” the push into the live-service market. He joked, “That’s one of the reasons they removed me.”
Sony’s latest live-service release was Bungie’s Marathon, which launched in March. People are debating whether it’s been a success or not, and neither Bungie nor Sony have provided any sales numbers. Sony will release its next earnings report on May 8, at which time we may learn more.
