Sony's Live Service Heist Simulator Fairgames Has Been Canceled
No layoffs are planned.
Sony has canceled its online extraction shooter Fairgames, which was in development at Haven Studios, the company's Montreal subsidiary; no layoffs will follow.
According to Jason Schreier's Bloomberg report, the company said in a statement: "The studio will shift its focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative opportunities."
In an email to employees on Tuesday, the company also said that the recent playtest with thousands of players didn't meet its expectations:
"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," wrote executives Sean Decker and John Doyle. "Combined with challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game."
This likely refers to testing a mysterious game known as Project Espresso, as IGN noted. The game, strongly reminiscent of Fairgames, had private playtests in September. There's not much detail about the sessions, though they don't seem to have produced strong results for the developers.
Fairgames was a live-service game announced in 2023. In 2025, Sony delayed Haven Studios' shooter to 2026. In April, sources familiar with the latest playtest of its pre-alpha version said it still couldn't "find the fun."
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