"Fairgames" canceled: Sony sinks the next live-service game
Playstation is ceasing development of 'Fairgames'. It is the eighth live-service game to go down the drain.
Welcome to a new episode of «WTF is actually going on with Playstation?». To the surprise of – quick look around – absolutely no one, the latest news from Sony is depressing: the team shooter «Fairgames» has been cancelled and the studio behind it is being demoted to a support role. According to a Bloomberg report, the test feedback was so sobering that Sony pulled the plug without further ado.
The game was announced in 2023 as part of Sony's live-service offensive and managed the feat of breaking downwards from a field full of mediocrity. The trailer is a cringe-fest like no other, full of clumsy criticism of capitalism, turbo-generic visuals, and the idiotic message that you too can become rich if you just shoot enough other poor suckers.
The fact that this piece of work is now being scrapped is no loss, but the fact that another studio is being crippled for it certainly is. Even if there are (for now?) no layoffs planned.
Who is behind Studio Haven
Haven Studios was founded in 2021 by Jade Raymond. The Canadian worked for Ubisoft for ten years, where she steered the fortunes of the «Assassin’s Creed» series and laid the foundation for one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
After that, Raymond moved to Electronic Arts before Google brought her on board as head of Stadia Games and Entertainment. The streaming service famously flopped spectacularly. Google closed its in-house studios at the beginning of 2021, and the developer decided on the independence of her own shop – Haven Studios. Raymond gathered around 50 people, many of them former companions from Ubisoft. This with a clear goal.
«My biggest driver for this was that we already had so much great talent together. I wanted to take that momentum and create a 'safe haven' where the team can continue to do great work», so Raymond in an interview with gamesindustry.biz.
However, Haven was only independent on paper anyway: Sony financed the studio from day one and bought it outright in 2022. A year later, the announcement of «Fairgames» followed. How much the corporation pushed the team towards live service is unclear. Two things are certain. First, Raymond and her team were allowed to pitch three projects. Second, the then-Playstation boss Jim Ryan wanted to see as many live-service games as possible. Whether another idea would have received funding in this climate is doubtful.
What was behind the other two pitches, we will probably never know. But a new single-player IP from the woman behind «Assassin's Creed» would have been more exciting than anything «Fairgames» ever promised.
Raymond herself, meanwhile, had already had enough a good year ago: in May 2025, the founder left her studio.
Playstation off track
Sony has been unable to escape negative headlines for years. Of the ten studios purchased, only four came out unscathed. Among the victims are also the remake specialists at Bluepoint. Japan Studio was dissolved, a presumably triple-digit million amount lies in the «Concord» crater, and single-player brands like «God of War» or «Horizon» were supposed to get online spin-offs that nobody was waiting for.
On top of that, there is customer hostility by design: from January 2028, new Playstation games will only be released digitally. With this, Sony is single-handedly strangling the second-hand market, alienating long-time fans, and taking the freedom to dictate all prices on its own system in the future.
The fact that the corporation recently unexpectedly ended its collaboration with «Metal Gear» and «Death Stranding» daddy Hideo Kojima is almost becoming a triviality.
Why are there no consequences?
Now one could theoretically expect this shitshow to have personnel consequences. Above all for studio head Hermen Hulst, who, while not solely responsible, has held the most important reins since 2019.
In reality, however, no one cares if a few gamers get their knickers in a twist as long as the cash register is ringing. And it is. Sony's gaming division increased its operating profit in the last quarter by 83 percent compared to the previous year, despite a decline in the console business. The release of «GTA 6» should ensure that this trend continues. Probably until the next console. A bit of criticism of capitalism wouldn't actually be out of place there. But preferably a bit less clumsily than in «Fairgames».
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