Sucks that people lose their jobs but I'm not surprised.

Something that was always really odd to me was the complete lack of social media presence from Blue Point, XDEV has more presence than them and they are a support studio. The fact that Sony never took the time to make whatever documentation you have to do so an X account appears associated to another brand at the right side of the user name told me how important they were.

The moment they failed to make the only game they were making their fate was very much sealed, 10+ years without a release wasn't going to happen and that takes me to Media Molecule and how they really need to finish soon.

I'm excited to see what he's cooking. If it's SGF, Sept SOP or TGA - I'm there 100% for Cory! 

But I'll be honest, I do wish it was a new IP, but whatever I suppose: a GoW expanded universe is good too. 

I've posted this on another thread, but Bluepoint is not entirely blameless in this whole disaster. It looks like they wanted to branch out from being the remake studio but couldn't find their footing. 

They literally had nothing going on after finishing Demon's Souls in 2020. They had no projects in pre production when Sony bought them mid 2021. They finally got something greenlit in 2023 which ended up being cancelled in 2025. Compare that to a studio like Ember Labs or Housemarque who have games coming out this year. So what the hell was going on at Bluepoint from 2020 - 2023 where they were nothing but a support studio? 

That said, Sony should've given them more grace, rather than prioritize short term profits. There are so many dormant IP's that Bluepoint could've worked on and brought to a modern audience. Even if Sony wanted another live service game from them, remaking PSABR, Twisted Metal, or Socom would've been extremely lucrative, but they literally go with the worst choice with GoW lol.

Likely pitching/protoyping games that were getting rejected + acting as a support studio.

One thing about about good management is that it would prevent this sort of situations from happening through smaller projects to balance books (i.e like a  remaster/maybe bloodborne)

An issue I had with Sony and their management of Japan studios is that they never really led the studios towards an intended goal or outcome of game. I think Japan studios was super talented but they needed a more hands on approach the same way Nintendo does for many of its internal teams.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how insane it is to go from never having made an original game, to working on a AAA live service gamble.

I don't necessarily know the workflow of their remakes in past (how much of the gameplay systems they rebuilt from scratch etc) but I think their first original project should have been smaller and had more of a predictable an outcome (single player)

Sony needs people to actually manage their studios.

Let them pitch their dream games, weight in the cost, time, return and impact is something they are very likely doing already.

If it this process keeps resulting in the studio failing to get over the concept or is always deemed to fail mid production, someone needs to step in and give them direction, and they need to agree to follow it until they can prove they can deliver a good project.

When you own these studios you need to have a decent view of what kinds of games could come from them, and if nothing good is happening, you take the command and direct them yourself, they are your asset afterall.

Studios should not fear pitching new ideas, they should be comfortable with it, as it seems it is the case, but also known that if nothing they are doing is working, they need to accept being directed in a way for at least some time, and during this time you can grant a small team the time to keep trying to come up with good ideas for the next game, after the one Sony had planned for them.

That way they keep the studio working well, making possibly good content, and ideas are always still welcome, so even if your dream game is not what you are working now, it can be the next one.

This is definitely a HUGE management problem that Sony needs to be blamed on, even if the studios are part of problem, even the biggest part in some cases, it's up to Sony to prevent this to happen.

Where talent exists there needs to be plans to keep it always active.

Bluepoint had no other project lined up after Demon's Souls though. Sony didn't acquire them until mid 2021. They literally could've done a new IP without it having to be approved by Sony when they were independent. They didn't have anything in the works until they pitched live service GOW in 2023. I literally don't know any other studio that would have a development gap like that, independent or not. They would've shut down much quicker without Sony in this scenario. 

Although I would argue this is where Sony should've stepped in earlier and force them to work on select IP. But that again could've demoralized the team if they were adamant about expanding away from doing remakes. And perhaps that's why Bluepoint was ultimately shut down. 

Is there a source for this?

Considering they worked back to back with Sony prior to 2021 they were probably in collaboration/talks with Sony before the acquisition. 

Unless it's been stated in a specific report, I'd assume the nature of a team like BP is that they naturally spend the following year navigating what their next project is going to be and seeking investment from a publisher. As a remake/remaster studio they are mostly dependent on the need of others and can't self fund an original IP

Jason Schreier mentioned this when he wrote the Bloomberg article about Bend and Bluepoint a year ago. 

Bluepoint was helping Santa Monica with GoWR from 2020 to 2022. They began work on the God of War live service game after that. 

Okay, so it seems there's not really a mystery over their time between Demon Souls and the Acquisition if they were already helping on GOW from 2020.