Sony just dropped some genuinely gut-punching news for the gaming community. PlayStation has confirmed it is shutting down Bluepoint Games, the Austin, Texas-based studio behind some of the most celebrated remakes in recent gaming history.
The closure, first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, will happen in March, and roughly 70 employees are out of a job. The official reason from Sony? “A recent business review.” That’s corporate speak for: things didn’t work out.
PlayStation Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst sent an internal email to employees acknowledging the decision was “not made lightly,” praising the team’s talent and craftsmanship, and promising to look for spots for some of the affected staff within Sony’s global studio network. Nice words. Cold outcome.
A studio that never put a foot wrong
Here’s what makes this closure so baffling. Bluepoint wasn’t some experimental studio struggling to find its footing. These guys were the go-to team when PlayStation needed something done right.
Founded in 2006, they built an impeccable track record delivering remaster after remaster with surgical precision: the God of War Collection, the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection, the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, the 2018 Shadow of the Colossus remake for PS4, and the jaw-dropping Demon’s Souls remake that launched alongside the PS5 in 2020. That last one is still considered one of the most visually stunning games on the platform.
Sony acquired Bluepoint in September 2021, just months after Demon’s Souls proved the studio could hang with the very best. The expectations were sky high. Fans were convinced a Bloodborne remake was just a matter of time. Spoiler: it never happened.
What actually went wrong
After the acquisition, Bluepoint spent the next few years in a direction that turned heads for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of doing what they were world-class at, remaking beloved single-player classics, they were put to work on a live-service God of War title. That project, which reportedly started development in 2022, was quietly cancelled in January 2025 as Sony began pulling back from its live-service ambitions across the board.
Bluepoint also contributed as a co-developer on God of War Ragnarök, but never released a standalone game under PlayStation Studios’ umbrella.
So the timeline reads like this: Sony buys one of the best remake studios on the planet, redirects them toward a type of game they were never known for, cancels that game when the live-service wave crashes, and then shuts the whole studio down.
Of the 9 studios Sony has acquired since 2020, at least 3 will have been shut down by April 2026, with at least 2 others hit by layoffs. That’s a track record that raises some serious questions about PlayStation’s acquisition strategy.
The gaming community has not been quiet about it. Reactions across social media range from heartbroken to outright furious, and honestly, it’s hard to blame anyone for either reaction.
What do you think about Sony shutting down Bluepoint? Did PlayStation just make one of the worst decisions in recent gaming history? Drop your thoughts below, we want to hear you!