Earlier this week, PlayStation announced the absolutely sickening news that it will be shutting down Bluepoint Games, the studio responsible for many of the remakes of classic PlayStation games, such as Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. In a statement released after the closure announcement, it was claimed that the reasons behind Bluepoint’s shuttering were “rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behavior, and broader economic headwinds.”
Translated from corpo talk, that essentially means Bluepoint wasn’t making enough money for PlayStation to justify keeping it around. It was a huge blow to the gaming industry overall, but God of War creator David Jaffe believes that there could be a way to see Bluepoint stick around, and that involves Xbox picking up the pieces.
God Of War’s Creator Believes Xbox Could Save Bluepoint
In one of Jaffe’s most recent tweets (thanks Pure Xbox), he essentially implies that Xbox head Phil Spencer should get on the phone and give funding to the whole Bluepoint team that’s been let go. He says that Bluepoint could create a new Xbox-backed studio, and that the company should “not let this amazing team splinter.”
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We could be waiting a while longer before we return to Kratos and Atreus’ saga.
It’s an interesting idea, and it would definitely be a massive PR win for Xbox, but as many have pointed out in the replies to Jaffe’s tweet, Xbox and Microsoft aren’t really the studio saviors that we’d all like them to be. In fact, Xbox has a far more notorious reputation for shutting down studios (even successful ones) that don’t make a lot of money.
Back in 2024, Xbox shut down both Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, the latter of which had pretty much just released Xbox’s most critically acclaimed game in a while in Hi-Fi Rush. Last year, Xbox canceled a bunch of games and shut down Perfect Dark developer The Initiative. Point being, Xbox is definitely not the safe pair of hands that Jaffe thinks it is.
Sure, it would be nicer for Bluepoint to still be alive and well, but Microsoft almost definitely won’t be the company to do it. I’ll hold my hands up and admit I am wrong if it does happen, as stranger things have happened in the games industry in the past, but I think we’ll just have to accept that Bluepoint is gone this time, and hope those affected find other jobs in the industry soon.
- Released
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March 22, 2005
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Computer Entertainment
