Fans shocked as Sony shuts down Demon’s Souls remake developer Bluepoint Games

The developer responsible for remakes of Shadow Of The Colossus and Demon’s Souls has suddenly been closed, with the loss of over 70 jobs.

You’d never know at a glance, but the video games industry is in dire trouble at the moment. Just this week we’ve had suggestions that the memory crisis, which could make it impossible to manufacture gaming hardware in bulk, could last up to a decade, while at the same time gaming is increasingly losing out to things like gambling and porn in terms of how people spend their time and money.

As if to underline the issue, it’s been revealed that Sony is to shut down Bluepoint Games, the studio they bought five years ago and which specialises in remasters and remakes.

Bluepoint has been around for 20 years but after the remake of Demon’s Souls, for the launch of the PlayStation 5, they’ve haven’t announced any new games.

Behind the scenes, it’s been rumoured that they, like most of Sony’s other first party studios, were put to work on a live service game – thought to be part of the God Of War franchise – but it was later believed to be one of two projects cancelled by Sony last year.

Whether they were about to realise their dream of working on a big budget new IP, as they originally intended to do after Demon’s Souls, is unknown, but in recent months they were hiring for people to work on some sort of third person action game.

Sony has made no public annoucement about the closure, but it was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, with the text of an email from PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst later appearing on ResetEra.

‘We’re operating in an increasingly challenging industry environment. Rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behaviour, and broader economic headwinds are making it harder to build games sustainably,’ wrote Hulst.

‘To navigate this reality, we need to continue adapting and evolving. We’ve taken a close look at our business to ensure we’re delivering today while still well-positioned for the future. As a result, we will be closing Bluepoint Games in March.

‘This decision was not made lightly. Bluepoint is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community. I want to thank everyone at Bluepoint for their creativity, craftsmanship, and commitment to quality. Where possible, we will work to find opportunities for some impacted employees within our global network of studios.’

In addition to various remasters, remakes, and ports Bluepoint also worked as a support studio for God of War Ragnarök, which is presumably why their live service game was based on the franchise.

As awful as the news is, it may only be the tip of the iceberg as far as Sony closures go, with many already worrying about the future of Destiny maker Bungie and Days Gone developer Bend Studio, who haven’t released a single new game this generation.

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