I Hope PlayStation Finally Learned Its Lesson From Latest PS5 Exclusive Flop

Sony's big-budget PlayStation 5 hero shooter is shuttering only a couple of weeks after its release, and I wish I could say that I'm surprised. With a big cinematic trailer and gameplay reveal that opened Sony's State of Play showcase in May, was straining to be the next live-service hit. The response was far from enthusiastic, however, and in the months following the State of Play, the road to release started to look more and more like a death march.

It doesn't take any particular astute insight to clock that was conceived somewhere in the wake of the original release. A $40 price point and the lack of any immediately obvious twist on the formula are products of a world where a polished hero shooter is inherently destined for success. In 2024, that's not a world that exists anymore. Toss in familiar character designs and snarky writing that feel all too beholden to the films, and it's hard to see where 's own identity even comes into the picture.

A big problem with is that it didn't have much of a target audience, but if there was one, I'd consider myself about as close to it as you can get. I'm almost as trapped in the original era as is, with a lingering fondness for the game that kept me coming back until took its place. When it comes to free-to-play live-service games, I can never find anything that I love, and I'm severely allergic to aggressive battle passes and the long lists of daily tasks theoretically intended to hook players in.

's removal from the market was announced on the official PlayStation Blog, which clarified that refunds will be offered and implied that the game could eventually return to the market after developer Firewalk Studios explores options to reach a larger playerbase.

Even I wasn't that excited about , though, which shows just how weak the game's hook was. More than delivering features that excited me, it just avoided things that I would have disliked, whether that's free-to-play monetization or the general desperation to