Link: https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3mfaauf5pek2b

BREAKING: PlayStation is shutting down Bluepoint Games, the studio responsible for modern remakes of classic games such as Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, Bloomberg News has learned.

A shocking end for a well-respected studio.

Bluepoint was working on a God of War live-service game until it was canceled early last year. The studio then spent the last year pitching and trying to determine what it would do next.

What a needlessly stupid thing it was to put them on a live service project, and what a waste to close it down.

Is it viable for a studio like this to just reform under a new name and continue doing what they love?

It happens all the time, but you need startup capital. And a lot of what they did is remaking games (at high quality) that they don't own the rights to.

Man, I really loved the Demon Souls Remaster. It was absolutely gorgeous.

NO...

I was hoping for the Demon's Souls remake to get ported to PC as I would love to play the game again. A PC version of the game was included in the same Nvidia leak that showed Helldivers 2 before it was announced. Every showcase, I was wondering where Bluepoint were... And now they went under.

Complete insanity that Sony forced them to do a live service game for the past few years. Bluepoint was practically an art studio, they could've spent the next 20 years just remaking old games and make bank. What were they thinking?

Sony was thinking “money me, money now, money money money, big money, money now”

It was kind of weird to me how a lot of folks didn't seem happy with that one. I played the hell out of the original and the remake was almost 1:1 aside from the graphical updates and a small handful of QoL. They did a phenomenal job with it and really nailed the combat and vibes of the original in the best ways.

Dropping the entire studio like this is so fucked.

A studio is only ever as good as its people. Those people will move to other things, sometimes they will group together under a new name. So yes, totally possible, you just might not recognize them if it happens.

BREAKING

Idk if related but why is Sony is not very confident they are gonna make good stuff istg.
And also I hope they make it a independent company or Smth ig.

That makes no sense

If only there were some other incredibly highly desired From Software game that people have been shouting at Sony to assign to the Bluepoint team specifically to remake.

You know, an obvious choice with an existing fanbase that would literally open their wallets and tell Sony to take whatever they want in order to play it.

Wow. The whole console space is really going down the drain, isn't it? Disappointing generations, hardware shortages, price increases, stupid live-service initiatives nobody wants, ever more subscriptions, and closing of studios that would usually turn out hits as long as you let them work in peace... Thank god for indie studios, retro consoles, PC gaming and a backlog that will last me three lifetimes.

Crazy. They could have at least put them on a new remake project. I don't understand closing studios that are provenly productive. Replace leadership. Replace directors/leads if they're not proving to lead well or their ideas aren't panning out commercially but don't shutter the whole studio. Like 343 Halo games aren't critical success but they deliver products. Obsidian games aren't selling great currently but they ship products on the regular. Bluepoint could be making smaller games like Twisted Metal. More remakes. Jak and Daxter remakes or sequels. Square Enix get's a lot of flak like every mega publisher but I think they're great for making a bunch of smaller AA games along with big games like Final Fantasy

I want a modern Tenchu game too, but I don't think it's going to happen.

This is even more stupid than Microsoft shutting down studios. It makes literally no sense.

Yeah. I wouldn't mind a Jak and Daxter trilogy remake either.

They're too busy making more money-sink Spider-man movies without Spider-man.

It's Morbin' Time!

I guess the problem is that it would cost a lot to keep paying everyone for however many years it takes until they have a product.

Yeah, I've been waiting for a remaster of The Adventures of Cookie & Cream this whole time...

Probably because not enough people are buying PS5s. You all didn't rent a PS5, so now small indie company Sony has to dissolve a studio. It's not the executive's fault, it's the consumer's fault, obviously.

I was 100% certain that Sonys plan, and general silence around Bloodborne, was to have bluepoint due a remake as an eventual PS6 exclusive to drive some sales when that comes out. Guess I was wrong.

Charlie was quite the writer

Yeah well if Sony would have just let em cook and provided me with PC ports of Bloodborne and Demon's Souls then they would have happily received my money. Instead they get to recieve an extended middle finger.

I step out of the executive office

This is a great lesson that business people are like, super smart, ok guys, so don't try to tell THEM how to make Video Games while not failing catastrophically OK? Those artists set themselves up to fail by not taking business seriously before business people took their art seriously.

Also go back to work! You are artists, your time is worth NOTHING!!! Do you want to get fired like those Playstation employees?

A re-release of the Otogi games would be great!

I actually had that game, but I don't remember anything about it.

Yeah, as someone who's mostly been a console peasant my whole life I've found myself gravitating heavily towards the Steam Deck, both for native games and emulators. I have a mid-range PC, but I'm much more likely to sit down and play a game on the TV rather than at a desk. The Steam Machine would have been perfect for me, but I know it's going to cost way more than I'm willing to spend, so I'll be sticking to my Deck, PS5, and PC for the foreseeable future. It seems unlikely I'll ever get a new Nintendo or Sony console at this point and any future hardware upgrades will be PC related.

WIND

Don't even need to remake or remaster. Just make it 60fps, and so many people would buy it again.

I'll never understand why Sony leaves so much money on the table re Bloodborne

I'll take Sekiro 2

Their service game strategy has been a total disaster from start to finish. Good thing the ps6 is delayed so that playstation gamers can hopefully see some exclusivities before the next gen.

No Games Station becomes more and more true over time. Trend chasing failures is the new Sony trend.

PS4 was so disappointing to me after 1/2/3 and it's sad to see continued decline.

It makes me think there must be something more to the story. Bad blood? FromSoft not wanting to make it an exclusive?

Otherwise, I just don't get it either. I'm not a businessman, but that seems as close to risk-free money as you can get.

I think the reason Sekiro 1 happened was that they started making a Tenchu game and then changed their minds.

Add in daxter and X and I'll throw them my wallet.

Bluepoint was working on a God of War live-service game until it was canceled early last year.

Maybe this was for the best, if that was their best idea to move forward with. I feel like people are getting tired of cookie-cutter live service games coming out every year.

You could just build your own Steam Machine - it's just a mid-range PC with SteamOS. Stick it all in an ITX or a HTPC case and get a controller.

Or cheaper yet, upgrade your desktop PC, buy a NVIDIA shield and run Moonlight/Sunshine - it's simple and cheap to play games from the couch these days.

I've been tired of live service games since before fortnite had battle royale.

I don't even know how you'd do that with God of war.

Average early FromSoft game experience:

Though not gonna lie, Metal Wolf Chaos 2 would go very hard.

At least we have fan made PC ports

You can just smell the shitty decision making that some executive went thru. Prolly the same exec that pulled the trigger on the layoffs.

This is such a horrific mismanagement of a studio it makes me question if the studio itself wanted to make a live service game and bit off more than they could chew. Because if this is on Sony, and it does have Sony written all over it, then they're legitimately worse than EA. It's like a low I didn't even know existed because it would be an astonishing level of incompetence.

Yup. OpenGOAL is pretty good, but Jak 2 & Jak 3 are still incomplete and have issues.

Word is this live service push was Jim Ryan's initiative, and he left the company right before it all fell apart.

I'd forgotten that was on the Nvidia list. Wasn't many misses on there. Final Fantasy IX remake was another big one that never surfaced.

Ha.. I bought a PS5 just to finally play the Deamons Souls remake.

If it's any consolation, it has a pretty excellent catalog and has been my favorite PS since 2. I'm just a sucker for immersion, though, and the controller has that in spades.

That and Bloodborne for me. But Returnal had just come out at the time, and that is also good (tho no longer exclusive). I also keep forgrtting the system I got was bundled with God of War: Ragnarok and I have never even installed it... 🤔