On Bluepoint

Another tragedy for the industry, another failure for Sony

The video game industry has fallen victim to an absurd level of layoffs and studio shutdowns over the years. This is not new. We’ve been here for years and years, and even those uninvolved in the job sector are constantly inundated with the depressing and anger inducing headlines that seem to pop up every other day. The conversation has already progressed past the “why?” of it all — corporate greed and mismanagement has gotten worse, not better. Those in enthusiast spaces are constantly surrounded by social media posts from the people affected in very direct ways, with posts from those in game dev or games media calling for others to consider hiring their friends and/or colleagues becoming exceedingly common. It seems like there’s always a new report or mini documentary popping up that sheds light on the internal issues at hand, and they almost always stem from the top brass. Decisions that never seem to be made by the artists who put pen to paper or punch in the code or record the voice lines, decisions stemming from the guys in suits who are paid more money than I will ever see in my life because they are, as our system has determined, the ones who are supposed to be good at making those decisions. And when those decisions lead to failure there is no tangible or meaningful accountability, the consequences instead falling onto those who put in the blood, sweat and tears because they love video games and want to be involved in the process of making them. It is literal clockwork at this point. The trends are being chased with maximal profit and growth being the goal, and when the ball gets dropped the shot callers are never held responsible.

The days of studios chasing the MMO pot of gold that World of Warcraft had are over; only a handful of victors outlived that era and the rest are history. Lessons were not learned, and live service games ala Fortnite, Destiny, and PUBG became the new golden goose. Sony was notorious for deciding to go in big on the games as a service bet, and it has thus far bore nothing but devastation for the studios and people who makes games. Greedy business decisions that result in worse conditions for the brand, the creatives and the people who enjoy the products and work that (are supposed to) result from them. An all around shitty shitshow.

But today, Sony closed down Bluepoint Games, with roughly 70 people affected as per Jason Schreier’s reporting. While I hate to see this news cycle repeat itself in general, and I always try to keep in mind the actual people being most affected by this — the folks who make the stuff I love — I cannot help but feel like today is an exceptionally awful one. Bluepoint is a beloved studio, one who has gained respect across the entire spectrum of video games: industry workers and games media journalists, casuals and enthusiasts, and tougher to please critics and essayists. They’ve garnered an incredibly favorable consensus for high quality remasters and remakes that handle the original source material’s identity and spirit well, with their Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls remakes being most lauded. These original PS2 and PS3 era games are have very devout, very particular fans, and Bluepoint won as many of those folks over as one could ever reasonably expect.

Bluepoint’s greater catalogue of remasters and remakes were made with and for Sony until the eventual acquisition that took place in 2021. Sometime after Sony acquired them, Bluepoint began work on a live service God of War game. Things didn’t pan out well, and eventually the project was scrapped, with the devs spending around a year or so trying to figure out their next move. And as of today, Sony shut them down. While this hurts to see personally, as I’m a big fan of their work, this is a scenario that nobody really saw coming. We know the reason why, we know it’s painful, but the most shocking thing about the news is just how plain stupid this is. How could you drop Bluepoint of all studios? What are you doing?

Bluepoint have been one of Sony’s aces, one of the most respected and cherished studios at their command. While console exclusives continue to become less exclusive, with high profile titles like God of War, The Last of Us and Spider-Man heading to PC while Microsoft’s own exclusives land on Sony shores, Bluepoint had produced one of the Playstation 5’s last remaining, must have exclusives: Demon’s Souls. The only other truly high demand PS5 exclusives I can think of are Gran Turismo 7 and Astro Bot. That’s it. While the process of games becoming less exclusive is generally a win for people who, well, enjoy playing them, they have always played a vital role in driving consumer interest for console platforms and hardware. Nintendo just had the fastest selling console sales of all time with it’s Switch 2 — a traditionally exclusive focused platform — and shows no sign of changing its strategy of keeping its heaviest hitters locked down on its own platform. Xbox has been a mess, to be frank, with its own bounty of lay offs and studio shutdowns while it tries to solidify the subscription model of gaming as the future with Game Pass. But Sony has thrived off of its own exclusives for a very long time now. Playstation consoles had an expected level of consistency and a high degree of exclusives, most notably targeted at older audiences than Nintendo’s, and this brought them to the success that they’ve enjoyed for many years. And yet, here we are: 3 notable console exclusives remain for the Playstation 5.

That’s not a big number, but one of those games did act as a system seller for the PS5: Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls. The game was well received, of course, but it was a more niche sort of system seller compared to the bigger or more obvious killer apps — your Marios or your Halos. This was a game that Fromsoft fans, who have only multiplied over time, had to have. It was a remake from the people that made the acclaimed Shadow of the Colossus remake on PS4, so it was in good hands. It was an incredibly gorgeous reimagining of the grandfather of Soulslikes and Souls games proper, one that people were intensely interested in playing by its own right but also because it acted as an excellent showcase for Sony’s new hardware.

There weren’t many true PS5 launch exclusives, and gamers had largely caught on to the reality that cross platform was going to be a thing now more than ever, but Demon’s Souls helped push back against the arguments of “no PS5 games lol” by the real ones who recognized the talent of Bluepoint and the importance of a big, juicy next gen remake of a beloved but crusty Fromsoft classic. It played a huge role in my feverish habit of checking online stores and tweets from Wario64, desperate to secure the console. It was the thing that made me say “I have to get that”, in a way that I had never felt for the PS4’s launch. And while this is, of course, anecdotal, I know many people did the same, with some folks likely to joke about the PS5 as their “Demon’s Souls machine”. To this day, it acts as one of the best showcases for the platform, and studio did an incredible job of updating and altering the original game by Fromsoft, something that would be considered sacrilege in concept. But Bluepoint did that, and they did it well because they were damn good. Now, after a failed attempt at the lottery ticket gamble that is the live service model, the trend that Sony has lusted after to its own detriment, Bluepoint is no more.

Again, I’m (sadly) not surprised by another studio closure, but this is happening to Bluepoint. My expectations for Sony have been low for a while now, but today I’m further impressed by just how stupid of a choice this is. Demon’s Souls helped push me to buy their console, and with Bluepoint’s absence I can’t think of a single other big name title from one of their in house studios that would woo me to opt in for their potential next gen console. I can wait for the inevitable God of War game to get ported from the PS6 to the PC. I’m in no rush to sell all of my personal belongings to afford whatever overpriced hardware comes next so that I can play another Sony AAA game that will likely leave me saying “yup, that was good like the others” and moving on with my life. But Bluepoint could have done something that would have caught my attention, genuinely, and I know I’m not alone in that because I know I wasn’t alone in that with Demon’s Souls and the PS5.

Today’s news stings a bit more than usual because, while this type of thing always sucks, today was perhaps the best display of how these decisions don’t even need to make sense. They don’t need to be cold, rational choices made in the name of optimal and efficient business. They can simply be stupid and self defeating to a degree that is almost frightening.

I’m going to end this here, but I know the second I return to social media I will see more of the same thing I’ve seen all day:

“Bluepoint!?”

I’m going to end this here, but I know the second I return to social media I will see more of the same thing I’ve seen all day:

“Bluepoint!?”