PlayStation has announced that it has cancelled the live-service shooter Fairgames, which was in development at Montreal-based studio Haven Games. The title was originally announced back in 2023 during a PlayStation Showcase, and the game has had a troubled development since then, with very little of the game being shown. This cancelation follows mixed player feedback following several closed and limited playtests for the game.
In a statement made to Bloomberg, PlayStation will shift Haven Studio, having them now “focus on collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative opportunities.” In a rare bit of good news, no jobs have been cut from the studio because of this cancelation. According to an interview reviewed by Bloomberg, executives Sean Decker and John Doyle informed employees that the latest playtests did not meet expectations.
It read:
While the test demonstrated strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement, player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set.
Combined with challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game.
Fairgames was meant to be the debut game of Haven Studios when it was announced back in 2023, with the title aiming at a 2025 release date before being delayed further. Jade Raymond, who founded the studio in 2021, departed from the studio in 2025, an indicator to many that development was not going well. Before this, the title underwent an identity crisis, having initially been introduced to audiences as an “eat-the-rich” heist shooter before being reworked a multitude of times internally. It was rumored to have been an extraction shooter, prior to cancelation.
Despite this, Fairgames remained in active development despite PlayStation’s shift away from Live-Service games, something they planned to invest heavily in around 2022 when the publisher acquired Haven Studios. Recently, the mobile live service title Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble was also canceled. Before this, Sony also canceled two announced live service titles, one of which was rumored to be a God of War game being developed by Bluepoint at the behest of PlayStation prior to the studio’s closure.
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