PlayStation has been heavily criticized for its penchant for remakes and remasters, as it has re-released many of its recent hits like The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part 2, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Marvel’s Spider-Man, to name a few, over the last handful years. Despite that business model, PlayStation is closing down one of the studios best known for its high-quality remakes and remasters, Bluepoint Games.
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According to Bloomberg, the console maker is shutting down the Texas-based team, meaning around 70 or so people will lose their jobs when the developer officially closes its doors in March. This is reportedly “following a recent business review,” according to a spokesperson.
“Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community,” said the spokesperson. “We thank them for their passion, creativity, and craftmanship.”
Bluepoint Games’ Next Game Was a Mystery
Bluepoint was lauded for its ability to remake and remaster titles. Aside from its debut title — 2006’s twin-stick shooter Blast Factor, which was one of the PS3’s earliest digital games — and the various support work it has done, Bluepoint’s games have all been remasters or remakes. This drive kicked off with the 2009 God of War Collection for the PS3 and continued with Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the PS3 trilogy of Uncharted games, and Gravity Rush.
While there were some mechanical changes here and there, those titles were mostly straight remasters that were often seen as excellent ways to experience older titles. However, Bluepoint’s 2018 Shadow of the Colossus remake and 2020 Demon’s Souls remake were more ambitious projects, stretching the definition of “remaster” and venturing more into “remake” territory.
Despite a long-standing relationship with PlayStation starting with its first game, PlayStation only purchased the studio in September 2021. Technically, the team never got to release a full game after that acquisition since Demon’s Souls came out the year prior.
Bluepoint was reportedly making a live-service God of War game following Demon’s Souls. Screenshots of the ill-fated project reportedly leaked out, too, showing various Greek architecture. It stands to reason that a studio that specializes in remakes would be remaking God of War, especially after remastering a few of them decades ago, but instead the team was creating a live-service God of War game that never saw the light of day. As such, this marks yet another tombstone in PlayStation’s shaky live-service venture, an initiative that has led to multiple game cancelations, studio closures, and layoffs.
What Bluepoint was working on following that cancelation remains a mystery. Many hoped it was working on a Bloodborne remake or sequel after the God of War game gutted with the proverbial Blades of Chaos because the team tackled a FromSoftware game once before. Nothing substantial pointed to that being the case, though, and it was recently said by an industry insider that nothing was happening on that front now, anyway.
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