PlayStation cancels Fairgame$, Haven Studios' live-service shooter

Sony Interactive Entertainment has cancelled Fairgame$, the live-service shooter in development at Haven Studios, a PlayStation first-party studio. The news was broken by Bloomberg on 10 November and, in reports from The Verge, Polygon, Kotaku and Shacknews, confirmed by a PlayStation statement and an internal email.

According to the email, reviewed by Bloomberg and picked up by the outlets cited, executives Sean Decker and John Doyle wrote that a recent playtest showed "strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement", but that "player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set". Combined with "challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre", the company decided to end development.

PlayStation told Bloomberg that no staff cuts are planned. "The studio will shift its focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative opportunities," according to the statement reported by Shacknews and Kotaku.

Fairgame$ was unveiled on 24 May 2023 on the PlayStation Blog as Haven's first new IP, a competitive heist experience coming to PS5 and PC. Sony acquired the studio in 2022. The Verge places the cancellation within PlayStation's broader retreat from live-service projects, following other known cancellations, including the shutdown of Concord.