Sony Interactive Entertainment has cancelled Fairgame$, the competitive heist shooter that Haven Studios had been developing for PS5 and PC since before its reveal in May 2023.
Bloomberg first reported the cancellation on November 10, citing an internal email from Sony Interactive Entertainment executives Sean Decker and John Doyle. A Sony spokesperson told Bloomberg that no jobs will be cut as a result, and that Haven will move on to support other studios within PlayStation.
Playtest fell short of goals
According to the email, a recent playtest with thousands of players did not deliver the results Sony had hoped for. "While the test demonstrated strong operational excellence, live ops readiness, and community engagement, player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set," the executives wrote.
"Combined with challenging market conditions in the [player-versus-player] shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game," the email continued.
A long road for Haven's first game
Fairgame$ opened PlayStation Showcase 2023 with a CGI trailer and was pitched as Haven's first original IP. In the original PlayStation Blog announcement, creative director Mathieu Leduc described it as "a thrilling competitive heist game where you join an underground movement to rob the ultra-rich and rebalance the scales," built around emergent sandbox gameplay.
The Montreal studio was founded in 2021 by Assassin's Creed co-creator Jade Raymond and acquired by Sony in 2022. Fairgame$ never received a release date and was rarely shown after its reveal.
The cancellation adds to a difficult run for PlayStation's live-service push, which has already seen The Last of Us Online cancelled and Concord shut down shortly after launch. It is also the latest blow for a big-budget project this week, following Bandai Namco's decision to close Unknown 9: Awakening developer Reflector Entertainment.
