Report: PlayStation Live Service Game “Fairgame$” Cancelled
Remember Fairgame$? Revealed over three years ago at a PlayStation Showcase and was in development at Haven Studios? If not, I don’t blame you.
Since its announcement, not much has been heard about the live-service shooter, but that kind of changed two months ago when a secret closed playtest for it was allegedly underway under the name “Project Espresso.”
If that was indeed a playtest for the game, apparently it didn’t go over that well, as the title is now reportedly canceled.
Fairgame$ Fizzles Out as Another Botched PlayStation Live Service Game
In a new report by Bloomberg, it is mentioned that Sony has canceled Fairgame$. Thankfully, this won’t translate to job cuts as a result of the canned project, as Haven Studios employees will move to support other studios within the organization.
It’s said that Fairgame$ has been reworked several times over the last three years and Sony was initially aiming to re-reveal it under a new title.
The report added that a recent test of the game with “thousands of players did not deliver on the results PlayStation expected,” the company admitted in an email sent to employees on Tuesday.
Per executives Sean Decker and John Doyle,“While the test demonstrated strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement, player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set. Combined with challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game.”
While Sony hasn’t officially announced the title’s cancelation, it isn’t surprising to hear this report surface, given we haven’t even seen a trailer since it was revealed. Fairgame$ joins Bluepoint’s canceled God of War multiplayer game we blew wide open last year, alongside Bend Studio’s canned live service project codenamed Mirror Pond as some of the high-budget casualties to come from Sony’s live service push.
There is Horizon: Hunter’s Gathering left, with the title reportedly getting rebooted, though we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s canned too.
Speaking of Bend Studio, the development outfit’s next project is a third-person game and will be revealed in 2027 per our sources.
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