When Sony acquired Bluepoint Games back in 2021, I assumed it would be the precursor to a more ambitious future for the studio, as did everyone else. Whether this came in the form of more remakes and remasters or something entirely original, the acquisition of a team that had already become synonymous with PlayStation appeared like a no-brainer. Except now, five years later and without releasing a single thing in that time, it has been announced that Bluepoint Games will be closing up shop. What happened?
The news broke earlier this week in Bloomberg, confirming that the studio closure is set to affect roughly 70 employees, as all in-progress projects are cancelled. Bluepoint was apparently working on a live-service God of War title, which was cancelled alongside similar productions at the time. With nothing else to show for itself aside from the scant beginnings of original ideas in the works prior to its acquisition, chances are Sony viewed Bluepoint as sunk costs it could do without.
But why on earth was Bluepoint assigned to such a project in the first place when the studio was seemingly acquired for its expertise in bringing existing IP back to life in renewed form? Its last game before its closure was the critically acclaimed Demon’s Souls remake. Yes, it might have taken liberties with the original aesthetic that some fans weren’t thrilled about, but there’s no denying it was a visually stunning revival of a PS3 cult classic.
Bluepoint Games Should Have Been An Easy Win For PlayStation
Unfortunately, we live in a world where Sony shareholders are likely demanding that the console giant keep on taking chances on live-service trends with the slim chance that it will suddenly create the next Fortnite or Roblox. The endless stream of profits this might offer will always be more important than creative freedom or common sense in a world fueled by capitalism.
So, instead of acquiring Bluepoint and putting it to work on something which makes sense — like an original IP or a remake of Bloodborne — it was asked to begin work on a live-service God of War experience. A multiplayer take on a single-player franchise made to steal away every single penny and piece of free time we have. In an already saturated landscape, this pitch makes very little sense, and like so many other live-service attempts, it’s unfortunately no surprise to see it fail.
But nothing in the triple-A landscape makes sense, and large corporations are going to keep on taking nonsensical risks, even if the end result is studio closures and cancellations. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I have the magical answer to all of these problems when teams big and small are staring down the barrel of a shortage crisis that is going to influence things for years to come, but Bluepoint’s fate is cruel and unjust even under the very worst industry circumstances. Here is a list of titles it worked on prior to being acquired by Sony:
- God of War Collection
- ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
- Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
- Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
- Gravity Rush Remastered
- Shadow of the Colossus Remake
- Demon’s Souls Remake
It also acted as a support studio for PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale, and did the same post-acquisition for God of War Ragnarok, but mostly its time post-acquisition was spent on a game that will never see the light of day. Five years of work amounting to nothing, and it’s unclear whether we’ll ever be able to see even scant remnants of it for ourselves.
This is a heartbreaking way to end things, especially following the success of the Shadow and Demon’s Souls remakes. It felt like Sony had a specialised developer on its hands willing to not only keep its legacy library relevant, but remaster/remake masterpieces for the modern era.
In a landscape where live-service games and major instalments in select series are the only things younger audiences are engaging with, owning a studio with this sort of nuanced attachment to the past is more important than ever. Bluepoint wasn’t just capitalising easily on the nostalgia we have for existing properties, it was redefining and expanding on them.
But now all of that expertise is being torn asunder because of avoidable mistakes. This hasn’t been a good console generation of PlayStation, thanks to rising console prices and PSVR 2 being dead on arrival, but its biggest sin is failing to deliver the compelling exclusives that have come to define its platform over the past decade.
Those games now cost too much and take too long to make, while many of the resources that would have presumably been used to bring them to life were pivoted to several triple-A live-service projects that have either been cancelled or crashed and burned. Players like me and you, alongside hundreds of employees now out of work, are paying the price because of a busted developmental ecosystem they have no control over.
I conjured up a naive hope over the past several years that Bluepoint was perhaps working on a long-rumoured Bloodborne remake or maybe putting its own spin on the original Metal Gear Solid, but it turned out it was being ground into nothingness, working away on a cancelled live-service project that nobody would have bothered playing whether it was any good or not. Heck, I would have loved to see some of its original IP ideas see the light of day, but Sony’s leadership had other ideas.
Herman Hulst has provided some light platitudes regarding Bluepoint’s demise, but the sad reality is that Sony acquired one of the most critically beloved remake/remaster developers in the world, put it to work on a live service game for half a decade, then closed it. Nothing about that is okay.
