Sony Cancels Fairgame$, Ending Haven Studios’ Heist Shooter Without Any Layoffs
Sony has cancelled Fairgame$, the competitive multiplayer heist shooter that Haven Studios had been developing since 2021 and revealed to the public in May 2023, according to a Bloomberg report. Unlike several earlier cancellations across Sony’s live-service lineup, this one will not come with layoffs at the studio.
No Layoffs This Time
A PlayStation spokesperson told Bloomberg that no jobs would be lost as a result of the cancellation. Haven Studios will instead shift its focus to supporting other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative projects of its own.
In an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg, PlayStation Studios executives Sean Decker and John Doyle explained that a recent large-scale playtest involving thousands of players, likely the “Project Espresso” test reported on in September, had delivered mixed results. The test reportedly showed strong operational execution, solid live-ops readiness and healthy community engagement, but player feedback and retention fell short of the goals the team had set.
“We have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game.”
PlayStation Studios executives Sean Decker and John Doyle, in an internal email to staff
The executives also pointed to challenging market conditions in the player-versus-player shooter genre as a further factor behind the decision.
From Reveal to Cancellation
Haven Studios was founded in 2021 by Assassin’s Creed co-creator Jade Raymond, shortly after her departure from Google Stadia, initially to work on an unannounced PlayStation project. Sony acquired the studio outright in 2022, and Fairgame$ was unveiled the following year as a competitive heist experience in which players would infiltrate secured locations to rob the “untouchable super-rich,” outsmarting guards and security systems while also competing directly against rival player crews.
Fairgame$ promised competitive heists against laser-guarded vaults, with rival player crews racing for the same loot.
The game ran into trouble well before this week’s cancellation. Raymond left Haven Studios in 2025, reportedly after an earlier playtest left PlayStation leadership concerned about how the project was being received and about its overall progress.
Part of a Wider Pattern at PlayStation
Fairgame$ becomes the latest entry on a long list of live-service projects Sony has scrapped since announcing an ambitious slate of about a dozen such games back in 2022. The Last of Us Online, a Spider-Man multiplayer project at Insomniac, a Twisted Metal battle royale and a God of War multiplayer title in development at Bluepoint have all been cancelled over the past few years, while Concord, a hero shooter, was pulled offline less than two weeks after its September 2024 launch and never returned. Marathon, another survivor of that original slate, has stayed in development but has reportedly fallen short of expectations since its launch, and a live-service Horizon spinoff was said to have been reworked after a poor reception during testing.
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Picture Source: PlayStation Blog
