Sony is closing Bluepoint Games — and it exposes PlayStation’s bigger bet on live service

Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games. This is worse than a layoff.

This caught my attention because Bluepoint wasn’t some marginal outfit – it was the go‑to studio for high‑end remakes. The team that rebuilt Demon’s Souls for PS5 and brought Shadow of the Colossus back to life is being closed as part of a PlayStation consolidation. Bloomberg first reported the shutdown and Eurogamer, JeuxVideo and 3DJuegos all confirm the same messy picture: roughly 70 people affected, the studio to close in March, and the immediate trigger a cancelled Bluepoint‑built live‑service God of War project.

• Bluepoint – renowned for Demon’s Souls (PS5) and Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) – will be shuttered and about 70 staff laid off.
• Sources say the closure follows a business review, rising development costs, slowed market growth, and the cancellation of a God of War live‑service game Bluepoint was making.
• PlayStation positions this as a tough but strategic consolidation for FY26; critics argue it’s the result of misapplied GaaS priorities and poor post‑acquisition planning.

Why this matters now

All three outlets underline the same immediate facts: Sony bought Bluepoint in 2021, the studio was reassigned to a live‑service God of War project that was cancelled in 2025, and a “recent business review” led to the decision to close. PlayStation boss Herman Hulst’s internal message — reported by Eurogamer — thanks Bluepoint for its “technical expertise” and says the company will look for placements for some impacted staff inside PlayStation’s global studios. That’s polite corporate language covering a blunt reality: reintegrating a niche remake team into a sprawling first‑party machine isn’t straightforward.

How the pieces fit — and where the sources diverge

Bloomberg’s original reporting framed this as a consequence of Sony’s broader cost‑cutting and a corporate review. Eurogamer echoes that while adding the human context: Bluepoint made launch‑defining tech work on Demon’s Souls and legacy remasters. JeuxVideo and 3DJuegos bring the sharpest criticism, arguing this is emblematic of a PlayStation push toward games‑as‑a‑service (GaaS) that doesn’t line up with what Bluepoint does best — lovingly crafted single‑player remasters.

Where the outlets agree is significant: critical acclaim and commercial pedigree didn’t save Bluepoint. Where they offer different emphasis is telling: Eurogamer foregrounds the corporate explanation and the cancellation timeline; European outlets frame the closure as a failure of strategy and a cultural mismatch between GaaS ambitions and player appetite for premium remakes.

What this means for PlayStation — and for gamers

For PlayStation, this looks like consolidation cooked into the company’s FY26 roadmap. Rising development costs and slower growth are real pressures, but the closure highlights a bigger problem: acquisitions need coherent post‑purchase plans. Bluepoint’s core value was technical craft and preservation‑grade remakes. Reassigning that talent to a long‑running GaaS product was always a gamble — and it didn’t pay off.

For players, the immediate loss is institutional. Bluepoint’s techniques — animation polish, engine surgery, frame‑rate and fidelity wrangling for legacy titles — don’t vanish overnight. Future remasters or preservation projects in PlayStation’s portfolio will either need to be farmed out, reimagined internally, or risk a gap in quality. For fans of single‑player, auteur‑driven remasters, that’s bad news.

Context: not an isolated incident

JeuxVideo and 3DJuegos place Bluepoint’s closure in a string of post‑acquisition struggles and studio shutdowns at PlayStation over recent years. This fits a pattern: Sony has bought multiple studios since 2021 with mixed outcomes. Some integrations have worked (Nixxes’ porting support is a clear utility), others have been rocky, and a few studios have been closed after strategic shifts. Bluepoint’s closure amplifies an uncomfortable truth for PlayStation: acquisition headlines are cheap, integration that respects craft and culture is hard and expensive.

TL;DR — The practical takeaway

Bluepoint’s shutdown is a brutal reminder that corporate strategy and studio identity must align. Sony’s decision is rooted in canceled projects, cost pressure, and a push toward GaaS — but it also costs PlayStation the stewardship of one of the industry’s best remaster teams. Gamers who care about high‑quality remakes should be paying attention: expertise like Bluepoint’s doesn’t get replaced by a memo.