PlayStation might be one of the biggest names in the gaming industry, but that doesn't mean it is immune to messing up. In fact, over the years, the company has had some pretty major mistakes, ranging from overinvestments in ambitious projects to a lack of faith in certain pursuits, showing that even the very best can have their pitfalls.
However, these fumbles are mostly just blemishes on an otherwise pretty solid record, as for the most part, PlayStation has remained a pretty well-respected producer within the gaming world ever since the early days. What they do show is how successful companies can have many problems of their own and a few catastrophic blunders, regardless of whether they have done well in the past.
Bloodborne
No Sequel Or Remaster In Sight
Details:
- Countless rumors, but no concrete announcements
- Bluepoint is now shut down
Bloodborne is widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever made, but despite that acclaim, it remains locked to a decade-old system. No matter how many times players have asked for a sequel or a remaster, nothing ever seemed to go right, and after so many leaks and potential beams of light at the end of the tunnel, it seems that now any chances have finally been fizzled out.
Sony themselves retained the name and kept it all to themselves, and it seemed like that would remain the case until the end of time. However, Bluepoint, the team that worked on the Demon's Souls remaster, pitched the idea of a Bloodborne remake to Sony, and they actually approved the project, but FromSoftware themselves blocked the project, leaving the fate of the IP uncertain once again. It is unclear whether a remaster or sequel could have happened earlier if Sony had made the push, yet the reality is that Bloodborne will likely stay in the past for the foreseeable future.
Concord
One Of The Biggest Flops Of All Time
Details:
- Taken offline within two weeks
- Losses in the hundreds of millions
Concord was announced back in May 2023 with a cinematic trailer that showed the cast of characters for the first time, in a world that was supposed to shake up the PvP scene. When the game dropped just a year later, it effectively never got off the ground, with very limited sales and player numbers ultimately resulting in it being shut down just two weeks after the launch.
The reasons for the failure are very much open to opinion, but the most commonly cited ones were a lack of originality in a saturated market, as well as a $40 price tag for a game that stood alongside countless free-to-play titles within the same genre. Whatever the reason, the closure was reported to cost PlayStation somewhere in the region of $200-400 million, making it one of the biggest disasters in the history of gaming.
The Last Of Us Online
No Co-Op Apocalypses Today
Details:
- Canceled internally due to concerns regarding the shift to live-service
- Focus on single-player games instead
The Last of Us Online was a canceled multiplayer version of the iconic zombie experience that was originally conceived as a standalone online game set in the same universe as the previous games. Developed by Naughty Dog, the project began as a multiplayer component for the sequel before evolving into a much larger live-service title with its own progression systems, world design, and long-term support plans.
However, as development progressed, the studio realized the scale of the project had expanded far beyond a traditional multiplayer mode, and supporting a live-service game would have required a large dedicated team for years after launch, something that the devs just simply couldn't accommodate. Whether the project would have been a success or not will remain a mystery, but it is still a shame that PlayStation and Naughty Dog were unable to find a way to make it work in the end.
PS Vita
So Close To Handheld Domination
Details:
- High entry price and memory cards
- Less support than the PS4
The PlayStation Vita launched in 2011 as Sony’s successor to the PSP, promising near-console-quality gaming on a handheld device. Technically, it was impressive for its time, featuring an OLED display and strong hardware capable of running ambitious titles like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, but due to the high price point, the system struggled to achieve mainstream success and was gradually abandoned by Sony.
Several factors contributed to the Vita’s decline, like the expensive proprietary memory cards and the lack of major releases, as many internal studios shifted their focus toward the rapidly growing PlayStation 4. Though not a complete failure, it would have been interesting to see another handheld towards the mid-2010s, like something to compete with the global success of the Switch, but as things are today, the Vita ended up as more of a niche experiment than a real hit.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
