Sony has cancelled Fairgames, the live-service shooter developed by Haven Studios in Montreal, without laying off any employees. The decision, announced on Monday morning (November 10) by Bloomberg through Jason Schreier, ends a project incubated since before 2023 and marks another step back from PlayStation's strategy of persistent online games.
The announcement came with a rare feature for a major studio cancellation: no employees will be let go. In a statement to the press, Sony said that the Haven Studios team would be redistributed to support other development teams within PlayStation Studios while exploring "new creative opportunities." The internal email from executives Sean Decker and John Doyle, reviewed by Bloomberg, acknowledged that the test with thousands of players demonstrated "operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement," but that retention and player feedback results were "mixed and fell short of the goals we had set."
From Fairgame$ to cancellation
The project was first revealed during the May 2023 PlayStation Showcase, with a CGI trailer showing a team-based heist shooter concept — player crews would infiltrate heavily secured locations to steal valuable cargo, competing against other teams in real time. Originally styled as "Fairgame$", the game was to be Haven Studios' first proprietary project since Sony acquired the studio in 2022. The title was announced for PlayStation 5 and PC.
Over nearly four years of development, the project underwent multiple reworks. According to Bloomberg's report, the team was preparing to reveal the project again under a new name before the cancellation decision was made. This indicates the game had at least one completely redesigned version since its initial announcement.
Haven Studios was founded in 2014 by Jade Raymond, the creator of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and one of the most respected figures in the Canadian games industry. Sony acquired the studio in 2022, leading to expectations that it would become a central piece in PlayStation's live-service strategy — which now appears to have been discarded. In 2025, Jade Raymond left the studio. Shortly afterward, an analyst mentioned on a podcast that Fairgames might be at risk of cancellation, but later recanted saying he had no information about the project.
The Sony live-service graveyard
Fairgames is not the first live-service project to face difficulties at Sony. The timeline of cancellations and retreats has been extensive:
- Concord (2023): A failed launch that was shut down weeks after release. The battle royale MMO-style game was one of the most expensive cancellations in recent industry history. - God of War Legends (2023-2024): A mobile live-service spin-off of the God of War franchise, cancelled before release. - The Last of Us: Legends (2024): Another mobile spin-off based on the The Last of Us franchise, also cancelled. - Ratchet and Clank: Ranger Rumble (2026, last week): A mobile MOBA cancelled just one week before Fairgames.
The strategy to expand into live-services was part of Sony's diversification plan under the direction of Jim Ryan and, later, Hermen Hulst as head of the gaming divisions. But market reception has been brutal — the PVP shooter genre is among the most difficult in the market, dominated by Fortnite, Valorant, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends, all with massive marketing budgets and established player bases since 2017-2019.
What the cancellation reveals about the industry
The cancellation of Fairgames, combined with the consecutive cancellations of mobile projects and the closure of Concord, indicates that Sony is making a deeper strategic realignment than simply adjusting individual projects. The company is making it clear that it prefers to invest in consolidated single-player experiences (such as titles from Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, and the PlayStation's own iconic catalog) rather than competing in a genre where global specialists like Epic, Riot, and Valve dominate.
The decision not to lay off anyone at Haven Studios is interesting — and may signal that Sony wants to preserve the studio's talent for future projects. Haven has already worked on projects for other companies (including Ubisoft's The Division 2) and may be used as an internal support hub, without the pressure of needing to generate recurring revenue.
But the question is whether Sony has truly abandoned its dream of creating an interconnected universe of online games on PlayStation, or is just waiting for the right moment to try again with a different approach. The live-service market remains lucrative for those who master it — but the barrier to entry has never been higher. And meanwhile, Haven Studios remains one of the most talented studios in the industry, waiting to see what its next project will be.
Sources: Bloomberg, The Verge, Insider Gaming
✓ Independent sources cross-checked and verified before publishing
