Notice the difference between "We also work with Bungie on" (which is what I said) and "Bungie works on" (fake news).
They cut the number of live service games to be released by the end of FY25 from 12 to 6, with the other 6 being delayed or worse canceled.
Fake news.
What Totoki said was that they were in the process of reviewing their GaaS, which still wasn't completed for some of them, and from what they had 6 of them had the release locked for before their previous deadline (March 2026) but others may not make it for that deadline, so they decided to remove that deadline. That doesn't mean at all that they cancelled 6 GaaS titles.
They already have MLB, Gran Turismo, Destiny, Firewall, and Helldivers, plus Concord coming later this year. Make sure Marathon, Fairgame$, Horizon Online will be ready for 2026 or so.
Then you have maybe Convallaria or Lost Soul Aside (in case they are GaaS), Firesprite's MP game in the works since years ago (apparently not the same that the non-greenlighted Twisted Metal that was in very early stages), Deviation's game (if being rebooted in the new secret SIE studio of ex-Deviations instead of being cancelled), the other IP Bungie was considering to release maybe "before 2025" (some time ago), and I assume later than 2026/27 Bend's new IP in case it is a live service as a job offer hinted.
Then there's a possible Sucker Punch MP game (maybe a standalone GoT Legends) if a MP related job offer refers to a separate game and not just a GoT2 Legends game mode. And the Insomniac publicly mentioned MP game (in case it wasn't cancelled/moved to SP only as seems to be the case).
They may end with the dozen estimated GaaS IPs, or even more, but maybe instead of by March 2026 maybe a year later or so.
1. Don't quote people just to repeat what they've said. There's no value in that.
2. Don't conflate PR answers with the truth. The stated reason for TLOU Online getting cancelled makes zero sense and is pure PR fluff.
3. At least 4 of the 6 games that were delayed have been canceled.
There's a more important one:
4. Your personal theories without any fact to back them don't counter any factual oficial data
As an example, you consider that the reason for ND wanting to cancel TLOU Online is PR fluff and that it doesn't make sense. That's your personal opinion, which is ok.
My personal opinion is that it makes total sense that when doing the first tests and reviewing what they had to improve they saw that it took a ton of job/budget more than they were waiting to spend. Because it's something very common and often results on games being released without all the changes, fixes and improvements that the devs wanted to make due to lack of time/resources/budget.
On top of that, I think it also makes sense that ND would prefer to focus on SP narrative games, which already are very hard to make and produce a ton of headaches, than to having to handle on top of that all the extra headaches that GaaS throw to the mix due to a gazillion other things that have to be implemented and considered.
I also know the Sony studios have creative freedom (even 2nd party studios, I know people who worked on a couple of them) so I think it's very likely ND was able to cancel it themselves (obviously with the PS Studios head approval), specially if they offered a better plan B as could be to kill TLOU Online to start TLOU3 right after (as their 3rd SP game under development at the same time), because was more likely to be extra successful, and reusing TLOU Online job done would be released closer to the end of a potential 3rd season of the tv show, taking more advatange of the tv show + TLOU3 momentum.
Even more if they didn't have anymore the pressure of the dozen GaaS IPs for March 2026, or they thought that thanks to the Bungie acquisition, China Hero Project etc they'd end having more than a dozen so they could kill a couple of them with no issues.
And well, what they said about the closure is the only factual data we have about the reason, we don't have any other one that counters it. And well, I can't think of another theory that could make more sense or sounds more realistic to me.
TLOU Online, London Studios Live Service game, Devation Game Live Service game, Spider-Man Live Service game.
TLOU Online and the London Studios are the two games that for a fact we know have been cancelled.
The Deviation game may be cancelled but also may be being continued or rebooted in the new Los Angeles SIE team ran by Deviation members that we know for a fact exists.
We didn't see any Spider-Man Live Service game in any Insomniac roadmap leaked document of the many ones we saw, meaning they never greenlighted any Spider-Man Live Service game, unless it's the non-cancelled Spider-Man 3, never planned to be released before March 2026.
We saw a pitch and prototype for an Spider-Man MP game, which in case of not being Spider-Man 3 it wouldn't have been ever been greenlighted so never was in production.
Games do get canceled after being greenlit because they have similarities to other games in portfolios, you can see interviews about this happening. Also, your game could get canceled simply because of market conditions i.e. releases from other studios.
Yes, during gaming history games get cancelled for a ton of different reasons.
As an example, way over 40 years ago there was an arcade game whose development was complete and was going to be the first original game completely designed and developed in Spain, but it was in black and white and while they were developing it the arcade market made a big shit to the new games in color, so they cancelled it. Since then yes, many other games got cancelled due to big market changes.
But AAA publishers work with long term roadmaps or 10 years or more, plus have a dedicated editorial/portfolio team to make sure it's large and diverse enough with games that follow the company's vision, that they don't overlap against each other, the imporatant releases from other publishers or the direct competition.
So when they go to greenlight a game they know what their other teams and the other publishers and competition (even more in case of a plaform holder like Sony) is doing, so they care it's differentiated enough at least between the games they are making, if it's being released in a good calendar slot considering nearby releases, etc.
During development the game concept always evolves and changes, rarely a final game keeps being exactly as it was originally pitched. So even if originally was pitched as something differentiated, during development can differentiate it more if they want if consider that it's needed.
But I don't know of any AAA game that was cancelled for being too similar to other game being made in the company. If you think you know one and have any proper source, feel free to share it.
I literally said it wasn't about quality. Please stop quoting people only to write exactly what they wrote in response.
I didn't write the same, read again what I quoted and what I posted. In addition to this, to quote something sometimes is to comment or expand on it, doesn't imply to disagree.
With what I disagree is with people telling about what I should or can talk about.
It's speculation on my part, but I think Sony gave up on Dreams on PC because they were bringing Roblox to PlayStation. Media Molecule's layoffs were timed very close to the Roblox announcement and rumors state that Dreams on PC was basically finished.
My personal theory is that like in any live service game, the budget for post launch stuff got periodically reviewed depending on the game performance. So I assume they saw the game didn't perform well enough to continue supporting it beyond where they supported it, so they ended the support there.
Once the development/support of a game ends, if the studio can't put these workers in other project just after it, they get fired. I asume it could be the case for people related to post launch support. Their next game pretty likely is years away from being released, and probably may not even be a live service game, something with a smaller scope as was Tearaway. So maybe won't also need people related to GaaS. So that could explain firings at MM after the end of Dreams support, specially considering we saw MM financials and they have been profitable every year.
I assume that if the game would have performed way better they'd continue supporting it and would have considered a PC port as part of its postlaunch suppport, in the same way they added VR support after launch.
Regarding Roblox, I think it didn't affect on Dream's post launch support plans. I think Dreams didn't have good enough sales to end porting it to PC since the launch window so since then they did know that due to the server costs and so on wasn't worth it.
I'm also pretty sure that Sony knew Roblox had a timed console exclusivity of X period of time with MS, because being a super popular game pretty likely Sony was in talks with them for a PS port many years ago, but MS pretty likely paid more to get it first in console.
I’m sure Sony is contributing heavily with funds and resources for post launch content support. They might even need support studios on deck.
In the same way that a publisher funds the development of a game, in case of GaaS they also fund a first period of post launch content, which normally is even budgeted as part of the initial game development (as like when in the past some games also included in their initial development and budget a couple of DLCs).
After this, the post launch development normally gets self funded by the game's revenue and it's flexible: they increase or decrease the money spent in post launch support and the time supporting it depending on what the game generates.
Depending on the case, the amount of money invested on post launch content varies: it isn't the same to release a huge update like The Final Shape or big GT7 updates, or the VR version of Dreams than to keep alive a game whose post launch development ended and basically they are only paying server costs and server maintenance.
. She was involved whether you want to admit it or not.
