According to a report from Bloomberg, development on the ambitious sandbox shooter has officially ceased following mixed results from recent large-scale playtests. Despite the disappointing news for fans who had followed the project since its initial reveal, the cancellation comes with a rare silver lining for the developers involved. A PlayStation representative confirmed that no layoffs will occur as a result of the project’s termination. Instead, Haven Studios will shift its focus to collaborating with other development teams across the broader PlayStation Studios network while simultaneously exploring new creative opportunities for the future.
The journey of Fairgames stretches back even further than its cinematic announcement trailer in 2023. Work on the unannounced new intellectual property originally began in 2021, arriving just a couple of months after industry veteran and Assassin’s Creed co-creator Jade Raymond experienced a high-profile departure from Google Stadia following the sudden closure of its internal development studios. Shortly after leaving Google, Raymond announced the formation of Haven Entertainment Studios, a brand-new independent studio backed heavily by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The studio’s trajectory shifted rapidly in March 2022 when Sony acquired Haven Studios outright. That acquisition aligned neatly with a broader, highly ambitious corporate strategy spearheaded by then-PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who had publicly projected that Sony would launch a staggering 12 live-service games by the year 2025. The vision was clear: PlayStation, historically renowned for prestige, narrative-driven single-player blockbusters like God of War, The Last of Us, and Horizon, wanted a major slice of the lucrative, ongoing revenue generated by multiplayer live-service titles.
However, the reality of the live-service landscape proved far more unforgiving than Sony initially anticipated. While Helldivers 2 emerged as a massive, unexpected cultural phenomenon and a monumental commercial success for the company, the rest of the initiative hit severe turbulence. Behind the scenes, corporate strategy shifted dramatically as market pressures and internal evaluations mounted. Of the 12 live-service games originally promised by 2025, a reported eight projects were quietly cancelled before they ever saw the light of day.
Other survivors of the cull faced their own trials. Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon endured numerous internal hurdles and has struggled to meet lofty expectations, while the hero shooter Concord became the epicenter of one of the most famously disastrous game launches in modern gaming history. Released to virtually non-existent player counts, Concord was pulled offline by Sony less than two weeks after its commercial debut and permanently decommissioned. Meanwhile, a planned live-service co-op spin-off within the Horizon universe, tentatively referred to as Hunters Gathering, was forced to undergo a total creative reboot following overwhelmingly negative player feedback during early playtests.
The catastrophe surrounding Concord profoundly shook Sony’s leadership, triggering a comprehensive re-evaluation of its multiplayer strategy and prompting the company to pull the plug on several other risky live-service ventures, including a planned multiplayer game based on the God of War franchise.
For Fairgames, signs of trouble began to multiply in 2025. Co-founder Jade Raymond departed Haven Studios amid growing industry whispers that the PvP heist sandbox was struggling to find its footing. Reports indicated that external playtests had left PlayStation leadership increasingly concerned about the game’s overall reception, core mechanics, and long-term viability in a fiercely competitive market.
Those concerns were ultimately validated during a subsequent large-scale playtest. In an internal email obtained by Bloomberg and sent to Haven Studios employees, PlayStation executives Sean Decker and John Doyle shed light on the final decision to scrap the project. They explained that while the latest playtest successfully demonstrated strong operational excellence, robust live-ops readiness, and effective community engagement features, the crucial metrics of player feedback and retention fell well short of internal performance goals. Combined with the punishing and challenging market conditions currently facing the PvP shooter genre, leadership concluded that continuing production was no longer tenable.
Despite the setback of losing a project years in the making, the commitment by Sony to retain Haven Studios’ workforce without layoffs provides a measure of stability for the developers. As the studio turns the page on Fairgames, its talented personnel will now channel their expertise into supporting other major projects within PlayStation Studios and seeking out fresh creative endeavors under the Sony umbrella.
