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.

  • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    this is so insane on its face that the first place my mind goes is, were they about to unionize?

    • 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… 🤔

      • neuroneiro@lemmy.world
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        41 minutes ago

        Oh, to be in your shoes again. You have hours & hours of one of the best media pieces of any form ever ahead of you. I found out how incredible it is in every aspect late. Story, gameplay, visuals, sound, feel, emotions…

        Prepare for some of the best gaming of your life so far.

      • octobob@lemmy.ml
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        1 hour ago

        It took me a couple years to install GoW Ragnarok, was also included with my purchase. I really preferred the first one over it tbh. I only got like halfway through because Atreus got to be insufferable with the marvel-esque “I fight for my friends” type dialogue. Like the first one feels raw, and the story is tight, combat and gameplay is basically the same. But Ragnarok tries to do too much in its story at once it feels like and just has this cringe-y air to it, idk.

      • HeiligerBimBam@lemmy.wtf
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        3 hours ago

        Exactly, after I finished DS I bought Bloodborne, when I finished this too I’ll sell the PS5. And it’s probably a good time for this. 🤓

    • schema@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Well, this seems to be the first console generation that is going up in price over time.

    • Hazmatastic@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      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.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    10 hours ago

    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.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      My main issue with live service games is that I just don’t have the fucking time to invest in them.

      I’ve yet to see a game move to live service that didn’t just pad out all the busy work and fuck with the pacing of any story element.

      Give me a single player experience that I can push up 6 months later and not have to grind to get back to where ever I was.

    • Mortoc@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

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

    • omarfw@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

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

  • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.world
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    12 hours ago

    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.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 hours ago

      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

      • The Picard Maneuver@piefed.world
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        11 hours ago

        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.

    • cuzit@lemmy.ml
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      12 hours ago

      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.

  • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

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

    • Goodeye8@piefed.social
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      9 hours ago

      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.

      • slimerancher@lemmy.world
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        21 minutes ago

        Let’s assume it was the studio’s idea. They wanted to make a game that wasn’t their specialty and Sony let them do it because they didn’t want to stifle creativity. Now it failed miserably.

        Sony isn’t going to get the money they lost, so why not course correct and put the studio on what they specialise in?

      • Voytrekk@sopuli.xyz
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        3 hours ago

        A few years back when Sony purchased Bungie, they stated they wanted to focus more on live service games. I think they wanted to release 10 live service games over 10 years. That means they need a variety of their studios working on them, even if it isn’t their specialization. This is definitely a Sony decision and a stupid one at that.

      • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

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

  • popcar2@piefed.ca
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    13 hours ago

    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?

    • leavemealone@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      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.

    • Ashtear@piefed.social
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      9 hours ago

      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.

  • arcine@jlai.lu
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    10 hours ago

    The only actually worthwhile studio they owned…

  • the_korben@feddit.org
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    12 hours ago

    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.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      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.

      • Mantzy81@aussie.zone
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        10 hours ago

        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.

  • commander@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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

    • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      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.

    • Screen_Shatter@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      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.

  • iamthetot@piefed.ca
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    13 hours ago

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

    • nfreak@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      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.

  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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.

  • BurgerBaron@piefed.social
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    10 hours ago

    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.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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    12 hours ago

    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?