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Fairgames cancelled: Sony ends Haven's live service heist shooter
Sony has cancelled Fairgames, the co-op heist shooter in development at Haven Studios. Eurogamer, citing a Bloomberg report, says the decision followed the results of a recent playtest and was communicated to staff on Tuesday. The silver lining: the studio is not closing and there will be no layoffs.
Why was Fairgames cancelled?
According to Bloomberg, PlayStation executives Sean Decker and John Doyle explained the decision in an email to staff: "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 email continued: "Combined with challenging market conditions in the PvP shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game."
A PlayStation spokesperson later confirmed that Haven's developers will now support other teams within PlayStation Studios as they continue to "explore new creative opportunities". GameSpot also stresses that there will be no job cuts at the Montreal studio tied to the cancellation.
A troubled development
Fairgames was announced in 2023, but it was never shown to the public again after that. Based on the reports, the key moments in the project's history look like this:
- 2023: the game was announced, and the same year studio founder and Assassin's Creed veteran Jade Raymond left Haven.
- Following Raymond's departure, the release was pushed from 2025 to 2026.
- Later, game director Daniel Drapeau also left the studio.
- In May, Sony filed a trademark for "Break In". Eurogamer says this was believed to be the new name under which the game would be re-revealed.
GameSpot reports that Haven reworked the Fairgames concept several times over the past three years. With the project now cancelled, though, Eurogamer notes we may never know whether Break In really was the game's new name.
What happened to Sony's live service plan?
Fairgames was part of an initiative led by former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan. According to Eurogamer, the aim was to create more than a dozen games that generate recurring revenue. Rock Paper Shotgun points out that back in 2022 Sony talked about releasing 10 live service games by 2026. Most of those titles were cancelled before they were even revealed, and among those that did launch, Concord flopped badly.
Even Guerrilla Games appears to be struggling. Recent reports say Horizon Hunters Gathering, originally envisioned as a live service take on the Horizon series, will shift to a more traditional co-op structure without live service elements, assuming the team can show a revamped version to executives by December. GamesRadar+ describes the situation as PlayStation's "constantly expanding graveyard", while Eurogamer says Sony's live service push is withering away.
What does this mean for players in Azerbaijan?
Because Fairgames was never released, nobody in Azerbaijan was able to play or buy it. The reports contain no information about a price or pre-orders, so local players face no lost money or refund questions. For PS5 owners, the more meaningful takeaway is that the Haven team keeps its jobs and will join other PlayStation Studios projects, which means their experience may still show up in future games. If you want to top up your PlayStation Store balance for games that are already available, you can check out PlayStation cards on GNET.
