We now have the official PC specifications released for Death Stranding 2 and they actually seem pretty reasonable, so plenty of people should be fine.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Welcome back to yet another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! We’ve got quite a bit to cover today, so let’s not waste too much time with a preamble and hop right into this list of headlines. Regime change at Microsoft Gaming and Xbox: According to reporting at IGN this afternoon, Microsoft Gaming CEO […]

In a recent Bloomberg report, Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed that it will shut down Bluepoint Games, the developer behind the Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes. The studio will close in March. Bluepoint Games was acquired by Sony in September 2021, about a year after the release of the Demon’s Souls remake. Following the acquisition, the studio worked as a co-developer on God of War Ragnarok and was also involved in an unannounced God of War live-service game, which was canceled in January 2025.

 

The full email to employees regarding the studio closure from Sony from Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst:

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share an important update from the Studio Business.

As I mentioned in the December Town Hall, 2025 had some strong highlights within PlayStation Studios. Ghost of Yotei launched to critical and commercial success, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach further showcased our commitment to narrative excellence, and Helldivers II and MLB The Show continue to drive on-going player engagement and revenue.

At the same time, we’re operating in an increasingly challenging industry environment. Rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behavior, and broader economic headwinds are making it harder to build games sustainably.

To navigate this reality, we need to continue adapting and evolving. We’ve taken a close look at our business to ensure we’re delivering today while still well-positioned for the future. As a result, we will be closing Bluepoint Games in March.

This decision was not made lightly. Bluepoint is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community. I want to thank everyone at Bluepoint for their creativity, craftsmanship, and commitment to quality. Where possible, we will work to find opportunities for some impacted employees within our global network of studios.

While I know this is hard news to hear, I’m confident in the direction we’re headed. Creativity, innovation, and building unforgettable experiences for players remain at the heart of PlayStation Studios. We have a robust roadmap for fiscal year 26, with much to look forward to in the months ahead.

Thank you for your hard work and continued support.

Best,

Hermen Hulst

CEO, Studio Business Group

The post Sony Interactive Entertainment Will Shut Down Bluepoint Games appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.

Ever wondered what happened earlier this month when the Helldivers mounted an offensive against Cyberstan? The massive Helldivers 2 event saw players assaulting massive Automaton cities and even going up against Cyborgs for the first time. However, it carried a unique condition – if players hadn’t secured victory before depleting a set number of reserves, the mission would be a failure.

Well, the results are in and surprisingly, the Helldivers failed, even with new toys like an explosive hammer and the Bastion Tank. “The underhanded, subhuman treachery of the Cyborgs returned to once again steal peace from Super Earth’s citizens. The threat of a socialist planet-killer remains active. This is a grotesque travesty of Justice,” reads the official, in-universe tweet about what went down. While exposing the Cyborgs is deemed beneficial, Super Earth is currently in a “strategic contraction phase.”

“We must retract and regroup to prepare for the inevitable, unjust counter-offensive from the surviving socialist menace,” it reads. Which is probably a nice way of saying that the Automatons could attack Super Earth or any supporting location when players least expect it.

Regardless, this is an interesting twist in the ongoing Galactic War. Far be it from the Helldivers to suffer massive defeats under near-impossible odds, but this still felt imminently achievable. Whatever happens next, we’re keen to see how the story develops further, especially since the Battle for Cyberstan marked Arrowhead delivering new meta gameplay on a far more ambitious scale than anything before.

Available for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Helldivers 2 reportedly passed 20 million lifetime sales last month, which is pretty good news for PlayStation’s live-service initiative (numerous failures notwithstanding). Stay tuned for more updates on what’s next in the coming weeks.

OPERATION VALID PRETEXT CONCLUDED
The peacekeeping Operation on Cyberstan has concluded.

The liberation of Cyberstan has failed. The underhanded, subhuman treachery of the Cyborgs returned to once again steal peace from Super Earth's citizens. The threat of a socialist… pic.twitter.com/4qrqAsC8Nw

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) February 21, 2026

We’ve seen all kinds of gameplay in Bungie’s Marathon, from a duo squad working together with a pair of Rooks in PvE to a montage of executions and class abilities. But what does a successful run on Tau Ceti IV look like? Bungie has enlightened us with a new 18-minute gameplay video, featuring the Destroyer, Thief and Assassin on the Perimeter map.

Some highlights include the Thief grappling onto a roof and taking down an enemy player with a shotgun, before executing another. We even get to see a 2v3 situation, which really showcases the stopping power of the BR33 Volley Rifle. After starting the extraction process, players essentially set up a post that they must stay close to, fighting off all comers.

Which is where the Thief’s drone comes in handy. It can survey the area and mark any targets while also stealing loot from enemies. When exfil is complete, you can spectate other players or proceed to the stats screen to see your Eliminations (with enemy Runners tracked separately), revives, and even inventory value.

The Progress screen also highlights your Runner Level and reputation gained among the six factions – standard extraction shooter fare. Interestingly, there are filter options available for auto-vaulting, transmuting and auto-selling gear after every run. There’s something that ARC Raiders should think about stealing.

Marathon is out next week, but you can go hands-on early with the upcoming Server Slam, which runs from February 26th to March 2nd on all platforms. Head here for more details on what to expect.

In a surprising move, PlayStation has shut down one of its most beloved studios behind some early PlayStation 5 launch titles and known for producing some incredible work.

What studio is PlayStation shutting down?

Bluepoint Games, the Sony-owned studio that became known for producing several high-quality remasters including Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, has been shut down by Sony. News of the shut down was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who noted that roughly 70 people will lose their jobs as a result of the studio’s closure.

In a statement to Bloomberg, PlayStation confirmed the closure, which says the news came “following a recent business review.” The spokesperson for PlayStation also praised Bluepoint in their work for PlayStation. “Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community,” the spokesperson said. “We thank them for their passion, creativity and craftmanship.”

Bluepoint Games, founded in 2006 in Austin, Texas, was best known for developing several high-end remakes of older games. Sony acquired the company in 2021, right after the release of Demon’s Souls, which was a PS5 launch title.

The company then did additional co-developing work on 2022’s God of War Ragnarök and was reportedly working on a live-service game set in the God of War franchise, which was subsequently canceled in 2025.

As of now, Bluepoint Games has not made any remarks on the move, and it’s unclear what the future holds for those who worked at the studio. It’s also unclear what, if any, project they were working on for Sony prior to their closure. Most reports in 2025 suggested the company was pitching and working with Sony on their next direction following the cancellation of the God of War live-service game.

(Source: Bloomberg)

The post PlayStation Shockingly Shuts Down Beloved First-Party Studio Making PS5 Games appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sony has closed its first-party studio Bluepoint Games, which was known for developing the PS5's launch title, Demon's Souls Remake. Over 70 developers will lose their jobs as a result, with Sony issuing only a blunt remark in a brief corporate statement.

This closure comes after Sony performed a "business review" recently, though the exact reasoning is still unclear. Sony only briefly commented on the matter in a statement issued to Bloomberg, where they thanked the studio's employees and described them as an "incredibly talented team" that has "delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community."

The sudden closure of Bluepoint has drawn a lot of criticism from fans of the studio, who've compared the situation with Microsoft's shutdown of Tango Gameworks. Though Tango was saved from total collapse by Krafton, it seems Bluepoint will be going away for good, which some players couldn't explain: "Why not just let the studio go independent again?" one Reddit user questioned.

Others blamed Sony's management, or rather the lack thereof, believing Bluepoint had some of the most talented developers of all the studios working under Sony's first-party umbrella.

At any rate, it's certainly a loss for gamers.

Bluepoint Games was founded in 2006 and was best known for working on remasters and remakes of popular franchises, bringing them up to date with modern standards. Its most notable projects include Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Shadow of the Colossus remake, and the PS5 launch title, Demon's Souls Remake.

The post Sony goes all ‘I don’t recall saying goodbye’ with shock shutdown of Demon’s Souls remake studio Bluepoint Games appeared first on Destructoid.

AI, if we can even label it as intelligence at all, has become a real burden on the tech world. Well, that's at least if you're not a corporate giant with billions of dollars around to buy RAM with. The increasing demand for AI, no matter how or where, is draining the world's memory supply, and consoles could be hit particularly hard once backups dry up.

But the PlayStation 5 is set to remain at its proposed price point for the foreseeable future, or so indicates a report by Push Square, which went through Sony's recent earnings call.

According to that outlet, Sony Group CFO Lin Tao said the company has enough RAM to continue manufacturing PlayStations at a stable rate throughout this year and aims to further negotiate with suppliers to ensure there's always enough memory.

But with AI giants spending untold billions to buy out undiced wafers (memory that hasn't yet even been made into separate DRAM, VRAM, or other types), supply is running dramatically low, even for Sony to maneuver around. The bubble keeps expanding and will likely continue to do so throughout 2026 and probably 2027 as well.

If it happens to run out of memory, Sony has plans to offset PlayStation 5 price increases by putting the burden of funding onto, you've guessed it, the player. "Monetizing the installed base," i.e., finding ways to get more money out of existing users, will be Sony's backup strategy in the case of memory supply issues, Push Square writes.

Tao mentioned "growing software and network revenue," which could indicate a bigger cut for Sony per sale (increasing game prices), ramping up PS Plus subscription costs, or introducing new monetization schemes that we haven't seen yet. At the end of the day, it won't matter because prices, in some respect will rise despite our best wishes. The only variable in the equation is what exactly will cost more, the console itself or the stuff on it.

I won't play smart and try to figure out which would be better, because it's coming out of our pockets nonetheless, and all because people want to make videos of a black-and-white baby singing Chinese songs.

What a world.

The post If Sony runs out of RAM, PlayStation 5 will be sustained by increasingly ‘monetizing’ the users, according to report appeared first on Destructoid.

Upset at the news that Demon’s Souls remake developer Bluepoint Games is being shut down, a reader is adamant that Sony has crossed a line.

After a pretty good State of Play the other week Sony must’ve felt uncomfortable with so much praise and positive press, so they immediately decided to go back to form and shut down Bluepoint Games. I couldn’t believe the news when I read it but then I realised it wasn’t surprising at all. People have been trying to convince themselves for month, that Sony has seen sense about live service games, and is throttling back, but they’re not. I don’t think they’ve learned a thing since this generation started.

I do put the blame here squarely on Sony. When they were losing in the Xbox 360 generation, they kept insisting they were still the market leader, and always would be, but when they actually needed to show some leadership they’ve got nothing. They’re running all their developers into the ground and producing almost no new games.

Bluepoint were only 70 people, how were they supposed to produce a hit live service game when Rockstar and Epic Games have thousands of people working on GTA and Fortnite? So Sony gave them an impossible task and then shut them down when they failed, instead of getting them to make a game they were actually set up to do.

Despite what we want to believe Sony isn’t interested in anything but live service games. They’ll keep still doing the very biggest games, because the profit margins on them are good enough – things like Spider-Man and Naughty Dog’s stuff – but everything else is being phased out.

Looking at their list of recent acquisitions, I wouldn’t bet on any of the studios surviving, except for Insomniac Games. Haven will be shut down the minute Fairgame$ is a flop, if it even comes out, and Housemarque are probably dead as soon as Saros doesn’t do well. As for Bungie… they’ve been a dead developer walking for at least a year now, it’s just a question of when Sony pull the plug.

Sony has no interest whatsoever in going back to the way they used to work before the PlayStation 5, or even in its first year or so. That time is over and even though their games are the thing people used to love them for they don’t care. All they want is the absolute biggest hits and nothing else matters. They don’t care about being experimental, about taking a risk, or doing anything for the simple art of it.

It sounds naïve to say it like that – they’re a business, of course they’re not interested in art – but Sony got where they are today by pushing the art of gaming. The PS1 changed what people thought a video game console and its games could be. They changed the perception, amongst the general public, forever and for years afterwards they pushed the boundaries and produced some of the best games ever made.

But then they let costs get away with them, without doing anything to reduce them, and instead of trying to figure out a new way of doing things just gave up. It was live service games, and the occasionally quadruple-A game, and nothing. It’s a dumb, cowardly way of thinking about things but because Xbox is no longer any competition they’ve been able to get away with it, because what other console are people going to buy?

Well, I can tell you that I’ll be sticking to my Switch 2 and PC from now on and that will do me fine. This might not be the final betrayal but I’m not waiting around for that. I’m selling my PlayStation 5 and I’ll buy Saros on PC, when it comes out on that. Assuming Sony don’t shut them down before they have a chance to make it.

By reader Grackle

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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Bluepoint Games’ closure is another disastrous repercussion from Sony’s acquisition spree, which has led to multiple studio shutdowns, layoffs, and cancelled games.

This console generation has been defined by unfulfilled expectations, both in how few games actually capitalise on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S hardware, and the output from Sony and Microsoft’s studios.

But the groundwork for this failure was laid the prior generation, when Microsoft started a wave of acquisitions in order to bolster its limited first party slate. In 2018, it bought Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, InXile Entertainment, Playground Games, and several others, which was followed by Double Fine, ZeniMax Media (including Bethesda), and eventually Activision Blizzard.

This rush of acquisitions, which was also mirrored by Embracer Group, sparked a rush for ownership at Sony. Since 2018, Sony has acquired Insomniac Games, Housemarque, Bungie, Firesprite, and others, many of which were set to serve in the company’s hunt for a live service hit.

As we now know, this chase has been disastrous. The Sony-published Helldivers 2 has been a hit, but developer Arrowhead is independent. When it comes to internally developed games Concord was shut down after two weeks, Fairgame$ and Marathon have suffered heavy delays, and others – such as a Twisted Metal live service game and The Last Of Us Online – have been canned entirely.

Bluepoint Games, who were working on a God Of War live service project before that was cancelled last year, has become the latest casualty from this acquisition-to-Sony mismanagement pipeline. It’s the third recently-acquired studio to be closed by the company over the past two years, following Neon Koi and Concord’s Firewalk Studios.

However, as the list below highlights, it’s emblematic of how Sony has mishandled a lot of its recent acquisitions. There are exceptions, most notably Insomniac Games, but several studios are still yet to launch a game (Firesprite, Valkyrie Entertainment, Haven Studios), while others, like Bungie, have been transformed by widespread layoffs.

Beyond its recent acquisitions, Sony has shut down several other studios over this console generation, including London Studio, the VR-focused Manchester Studio, Japan Studio, and PixelOpus, the team behind Concrete Genie and Entwined.

Additionally, many of its other studios – like Naughty Dog, Bend Studio, and Media Molecule – haven’t released a new game (i.e. not a remake or remaster) in the past five years. Naughty Dog is working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but that doesn’t even have a release year yet.

The impact of this devastating pursuit for studio acquistions, and a live service hit, probably won’t slow down anytime soon either. Guerrilla Games is working on a Horizon multiplayer title, while the long-delayed Fairgame$ is still in development at Haven Studios – despite widespread gamer apathy.

Microsoft has been just as brutal when it comes to shutdowns and layoffs, and it hasn’t even got the excuse of chasing live service games. Over the past few years, Xbox has closed an abundance of studios, including The Initiative, Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks (before it was reconsituted by Krafton), Alpha Dog, Roundhouse Games.

It’s also cancelled multiple major projects, including Rare’s Everwild, ZeniMax’s Blackbird, Perfect Dark, Contraband, and more.

Beyond Sony and Microsoft, we’ve seen Embracer Group swallow up and shut down studios in rapid succession. Square Enix Montréal, Volition, Pieces Interactive, and Free Radical Design are just some of the studios we’ve lost in the last few years.

All of this combined has contributed to what feels like a stunted console generation, where corporate greed and failures of leadership have done irreparable damage to the games industry as a whole.

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The Friday letters page has some choice words to say about Sony’s handling of the PS5 generation, as one reader thinks Mario Kart Arcade is a bad game.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Wasted generation
Just seen the news that Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games and I’m appalled. That team put out nothing but top quality games and were specialists in remakes, which we’ve had more and more of recently, so you would’ve thought they’d be extra valuable to Sony right now.

Instead, we just see continued short-sighted, bone-headed decision making from Sony, who have been awful this whole generation. The PlayStation 5 has been a disaster and I’m not confident that Sony has any kind of plan to avoid permeant decline, all the while shutting down more and more developers. I definitely would be polishing up my CV if I worked at Bungie or Bend Studio.

The obsession with live service games, which clearly hasn’t ended at all, has been such a disaster. Not just in terms of failed games (remember, Concord cost $400 million!) but a whole wasted generation, where developers have had no time to make anything else, and are now being shut down before they have the chance anyway.

I detest Sony for how they’re handling all this, and I say that as someone that’s owned an original PlayStation console and everything else since. They shut down one of their best developers just so they could look good to their investors for five minutes and it’s obvious they’ll happily sacrifice more for the same reason.
Cranston

Pity the poor exec
Thank goodness that Hermen Hulst, Head of Worldwide Studios at PlayStation from 2019-2024, is here to protect the company from ‘changing player behaviours’ and ‘rising development costs’ by shuttering one of their most renowned studios.

Absolutely nothing else he could’ve done since 2019, to give players the type of games they expect from PlayStation. Nope, we all wanted 12 live service games, from studios who specialise in single-player games, so it’s our fault for changing our minds…

PlayStation has been on the slide since they consolidated and moved their headquarters to the USA. They’ve lost almost all of the riskiness and playfulness that made them successful in the first place. Hope the Bluepoint employees bounce back quickly.
Magnumstache

Never-ending Kratos
I was really hoping that Santa Monica Studio would be working on a new IP or sci-fi game but it really doesn’t sound like that’s what’s going on. I loved the last two God Of War games but the story’s over and I have very little confidence that there’s a good plan for what happens next.

Cory Barlog said he didn’t make the Norse games a trilogy because he didn’t want to work on the same story for 15 years but here we are and it’s looking very much like he’s just going straight back to God Of War.

I know the next game is meant to be a spin-off but how different is it going to be really? Unless it’s a flight sim or something it’s just going to be more of the same and that’s a shame.
Coolsbane

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Experimental reasoning
It does make me laugh that Todd Howard has now publicly admitted that people find Starfield boring, but I’m sure he doesn’t really understand why. How someone of his supposed experience could have put out such a dull, badly made game I don’t know. He’s just lucky the Fallout TV show was a hit, as otherwise I think he would’ve fond himself out the door.

No one would love The Elder Scrolls 6 to be great more than me, but Bethesda is too high on its own supply nowadays and I really have much less confidence in them than I used to. He tries to paint Starfield as some big, risky experiment but all they do was take all the best bits out of Skyrim and replace it with nothing.

I’m not really sure what he’s on about with Fallout 76 either. It’s just a bog standard MMO cobbled together with left over bits from Fallout 4. It’s those two games that made me start to think less of Bethesda, not because they were risky ventures but because they were lazy cash grabs.
Shortround

Kart it off
I always wondered why Nintendo bothered with the Mario Kart arcade games. They weren’t very good, because they let Bandai Namco make them, and it hardly seems like Mario Kart is a series they have to get people interested in or promote. It’s not exactly an unknown brand, is it?

Putting Pac-Man in was extra weird too, as even though he’s a cartoon character he still looks out of place. Anyway, I still gave it a go. But paying £1 to play one race of the worst Mario Kart ever isn’t something I’d want to do again.
Biter

Bad business
The gaming world can truly change on a dime. Bluepoint Games has been shut down by Sony. After giving us fans a brilliant remake of Demon’s Souls and Shadow Of The Colossus, Sony has closed down the studio. One of their most revered, to say the least. It’s out of nowhere and quite a baffling decision. From what I understand, the studio was to create a video game based on an original IP and not another remake. So why Sony have chosen to erase that prospective idea is beyond my understanding.

Then again, we hadn’t heard any news, updates or any information from them in a long time, so perhaps it was inevitable. I suppose the silence was a reckoning or rather an ill omen in the shadows. I really would have liked to see what Bluepoint were making or what was cooking behind the scenes. To see the creativity floating around, but it either happens with a new studio that is formed, or it remains a what if?

It worked for Sandfall Games. After they broke away from Ubisoft, we were presented with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the rest is history. So maybe the developers still have a semblance of a future. What that will be is unclear at this moment, so who knows what is next?

On another note, it’s a week from tomorrow that Resident Evil Requiem releases. A funny anecdote is that I pre-ordered it for £47.99, on Amazon. I take another look and it’s suddenly £59.95. Talk about a lucky move. It looks absolutely fantastic and since Leon Kennedy is my favourite male gaming character, I hope it reviews well.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Two for two
I want to recommend Pure Pool Pro on PlayStation 5. It’s a really fun game with excellent physics. It looks great and has an enjoyable career mode and trophies.

It’s only the second game I’ve bought for the PlayStation 5 after Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. Keep up the good work.
EricBIG777 (PSN ID)

GC: Thank you.

Actually final
RE: Ochreblue. I find it hard to imagine, after the Final Fantasy 7 remakes have been completed, that another remake of a fan favourite would be made anytime soon, at least on the scale of Final Fantasy 7’s budget.

I think that so much money has backed these three massive games that it would seem nonsensical to risk another big venture so soon, due to what the actual returns were from a financial point of view. I can imagine that it would have needed a lot more sales to accommodate a reason to make, let’s say the sixth or ninth Final Fantasy games in the series, even if they definitely do deserve one.

Possibly a remastered version of Chrono Trigger would be interesting, with a fresh lick of paint and a new up-to-date remake of the original soundtrack would be a great winner for me and other fans. No need to go and rebuild everything like the FFVII Remake, but way simpler using artwork that is skilfully applied to the cute looking world whilst keeping the atmosphere peak.

But we definitely have to get into our minds that the Final Fantasy 7 remakes could be the ultimate Final Fantasies, encapsulating everything from the original and introducing so much more.

This asks the question of how powerful do the next generation of consoles really need to be and have graphical qualities reached their zenith yet? GTA 6 will probably be that zenith but it’ll be pretty obvious that GTA 6 will be earning a hefty profit when the sale figures start coming in.

But definitely it will be an exception compared to other big releases, who will be relatively successful but with way less titles being sold. Let’s see what happens over this year and the next.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
Sony shut down Bluepoint Games? Make it make sense! Surely they should be remaking Bloodborne?
Zombiekicker

One positive thing about all these console delays is that parents could be saved the £400 to £1,000 yearly scramble to get a new toy for their spoiled kids.
Bobwallett

GC: Who is spending £1,000 on new consoles every year?

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New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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The developer responsible for remakes of Shadow Of The Colossus and Demon’s Souls has suddenly been closed, with the loss of over 70 jobs.

You’d never know at a glance, but the video games industry is in dire trouble at the moment. Just this week we’ve had suggestions that the memory crisis, which could make it impossible to manufacture gaming hardware in bulk, could last up to a decade, while at the same time gaming is increasingly losing out to things like gambling and porn in terms of how people spend their time and money.

As if to underline the issue, it’s been revealed that Sony is to shut down Bluepoint Games, the studio they bought five years ago and which specialises in remasters and remakes.

Bluepoint has been around for 20 years but after the remake of Demon’s Souls, for the launch of the PlayStation 5, they’ve haven’t announced any new games.

Behind the scenes, it’s been rumoured that they, like most of Sony’s other first party studios, were put to work on a live service game – thought to be part of the God Of War franchise – but it was later believed to be one of two projects cancelled by Sony last year.

Whether they were about to realise their dream of working on a big budget new IP, as they originally intended to do after Demon’s Souls, is unknown, but in recent months they were hiring for people to work on some sort of third person action game.

Sony has made no public annoucement about the closure, but it was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, with the text of an email from PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst later appearing on ResetEra.

‘We’re operating in an increasingly challenging industry environment. Rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behaviour, and broader economic headwinds are making it harder to build games sustainably,’ wrote Hulst.

‘To navigate this reality, we need to continue adapting and evolving. We’ve taken a close look at our business to ensure we’re delivering today while still well-positioned for the future. As a result, we will be closing Bluepoint Games in March.

‘This decision was not made lightly. Bluepoint is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community. I want to thank everyone at Bluepoint for their creativity, craftsmanship, and commitment to quality. Where possible, we will work to find opportunities for some impacted employees within our global network of studios.’

In addition to various remasters, remakes, and ports Bluepoint also worked as a support studio for God of War Ragnarök, which is presumably why their live service game was based on the franchise.

As awful as the news is, it may only be the tip of the iceberg as far as Sony closures go, with many already worrying about the future of Destiny maker Bungie and Days Gone developer Bend Studio, who haven’t released a single new game this generation.

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Sony Corporation released its financial report for October-December 2025. We have selected the key highlights concerning its gaming division.

More details: https://gameworldobserver.com/2026/02/05/the-active-audience-of-the-playstation-network-has-reached-a-record-level-and-more-from-sonys-report

It has been reported that as a result, 1,194 games have been removed from the PlayStation Store.

More details: https://gameworldobserver.com/2026/01/16/sony-blocked-one-of-the-largest-publishers-on-the-playstation-store

The Thursday letters page is unsurprised God Of War: Sons Of Sparta was unremarkable, as one reader is enamoured by fan remakes of Pokémon Red/Blue.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Console apocalypse
So, um… all this stuff about memory and electronic components getting bought up by AI companies seems pretty bad, right? Like, really, really, bad? This guy talking about potentially a decade of problems presumably knows what he’s talking about, given his position, and that is going to be a nightmare for gaming. Never mind smartphones and everything else.

Do we even know if Sony and Nintendo are safe? They’re not gigantic companies like Microsoft and electronics is pretty much all they do beyond games. Maybe all three will go third party at the same time! I’m not really sure what companies he’s hinting at that could go under, as I’m not sure who counts as a smaller business, but it’s clearly not good news, no matter what happens.

There’s so much going wrong with the games industry, and the world in general, at the moment and yet it seems like it could still get much worse and very quickly. In the worse case scenario you’re talking about consoles, and gaming PCs, being impossible to manufacture for several years.

Whether that would last for a whole decade I don’t know but that’s an industry ending problem. I hope you’re all into retro games, because that might be all we have soon!
Oz

Monkey paw
So I guess one of the big victims of these memory shortage problems is going to be all those PC handheld gaming devices from companies I’ve never heard of. If even Steam Deck has only sold a few million I hate to think what some of these others are pushing. Even the Xbox Ally one, which I have literally not heard mentioned again even once since it came out.

That’s going to affect the rumoured Xbox portable and the PlayStation one too, to the point where they might just cancel them completely, because I imagine they involve a lot of custom chips – even more than if it was just a home console.

I’m sure no one but them knows the full details but this is all very bad news and yet… if you didn’t want there to be a next generation so soon your prayers have been answered. But you know the problem with being careful what you wish for, since now the PlayStation 6 might not arrive until 2036!
Korbie

Next in line
Like a lot of readers I’m looking forward to hearing abut the third Final Fantasy 7 remake game but I’m also wondering what might get the remake treatment after that is all finished up with. Do they even consider Final Fantasy 7 Remake to be a success is the first big question and I’m not sure what the answer is, other than there’s a good chance it might be ‘not really’.

They definitely seemed to have cooled on the idea of a Final Fantasy 9 remake, as there were rumours like crazy around that for a while. That was only meant to be a lower budget remake too, so that might be an indication they’ve already had it with triple-A remakes.

For me the obvious choices for Final Fantasy are 6 or 10, although personally I’d prefer 12. Final Fantasy 6 would require a completely new game, so I don’t think that will get the treatment. 10 is going to be a big job too, so I’m not honestly sure any of them will get remakes.

I’d love Chrono Trigger, but I think that’s the same problem as Final Fantasy 6, and so I think maybe the most likely is Kingdom Hearts, especially with a new game coming up to promote. Or maybe the answer is none of them. If a big budget Final Fantasy 7 remake only sells okay, what chance does anything else have?
Ochreblue

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Fan suggestion
I agree that this year is Game Freak’s big chance to turn around Pokémon in terms of the quality of the games and the technology behind them. I don’t know how likely it is, but if they don’t try this time I’m not sure they ever will.

Although most people imagine some kind of amazing high-tech open world I prefer the idea of something closer to the HD-2D style, that’s a mix between modern and retro graphics. There have been a lot of fan mock-ups with this idea over the years and while I don’t think any of them are perfect I’d rather go with something like this but keep it more of a top-down view.

Unless Nintendo is going to spend GTA 6 style money on it I don’t think there’s any point making Pokémon 3D. It’s got to be stylised and it’s got to be more like the wonder of the original Game Boy games. We might get that for a future remake but I’m afraid the next mainline game will just be another low-tech, janky knock-off.
Taylor Moon

You can dig it
Great Reader’s Feature about A Game About Digging a Hole at the weekend. I instinctively knew I would get some form of enjoyment out of it. Digging, collecting ore, selling it, upgrading equipment, and digging deeper? Absolutely all over it for £3.64.

Spaced out on Tramadol for a back issue last night, played for over two hours and it was an almost religious experience. Well not quite, but highly recommended to all other readers, especially for the price.
Whiskeyjack11

Fighting multiverse
RE: Lee Dappa. The closest you’ll get to playing all versions of Street Fighter 2 in one place, as one game, is not on the 30th anniversary collection of Street Fighter 2 but actually on the 35th anniversary collection labelled as Capcom Fighting Collection.

This release features Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition. You can choose fighters from all versions of the Street Fighter 2 editions in one package.

Choosing World Warrior Ken from the original will give him extra strength, no super move, and he will be a palette swap of Ryu. Choosing Ken from Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting will give him his longer range dragon uppercut and air whirlwind kick and still no super move.

Choosing Street Fighter 2 Turbo’s Ken will give him his flaming dragon punch but less damage, and thus more reliant on combos. But he will have his super move to use and the power bar for it at the bottom of the screen. This would apply to all characters across the games so you can have World Warrior E. Honda vs. Street Fighter 2 Turbo’s version of Blanka, for instance.
Nick The Greek

Online ban
I always wondered why companies don’t just lock a game out until the day it’s released, to avoid all these leaks you always get. It’s literally every game but they never seem to care. But surely it could just work like pre-loading, where you have the game but you’re not allowed to start playing it until the right time.

I guess you could buy the disc and then purposefully keep the console offline, and get around it that way, but who wants that much trouble? And besides, most games don’t seem to work without a day one patch anyway. At the very least a timer would cut the problem down, but the companies don’t even seem to try.
Flint

What it looks like
I know they say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but God Of War: Sons Of Sparta was an out of the blue shadow drop, it had what looked like terrible graphics, and it immediately looked inferior to about a 100 other Metroidvanias you could get instead. And as a bonus it was by some developer I’d never heard of, who’s biggest game was a Five Nights At Freddy’s spin-off.

I feel you have to be very optimistic given all that, to the point where I could probably sell you some magic beans. It’s not a question of whether it’s rubbish or not but if you want to spend a fair amount of money and a lot of time beating it, and I definitely don’t want to. Talk is cheap but time is not and at the moment I haven’t time for 10/10 blockbusters, let alone deeply average Metroidvanias.

I feel there’s plenty of interesting things an indie dev could’ve done with a low budget God Of War game and a 2D Metroidvania with Young Kratos seems like the absolute least exciting option. You could’ve had a game where you played as one of the Valkyries, you could have had a literal god game where you’re populating Midgar with humans, you could’ve had an archery thing with Arteus, heck you could’ve had a sledding simulator and it still would’ve been more interesting that what we got.

I know it was the safe option, but when the best option was probably not making a spin-off at all there’s no point going for the boring and obvious choice.
Campbell

Inbox also-rans
So Highguard has outlasted Concord, but by the sound of it it’ll be lucky see the weekend, so it’s really only going to beat it by a matter of days.
Goops

I really hate that Microsoft switched the buttons round on their controller compared to Nintendo’s. Why do so silly a thing and make it so difficult to switch (no pun intended) between the two consoles. I can never remember which is which way round.
Mobert

GC: They were copying Sega, who they were very cosy with in the initial years of the Xbox.

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With Metal Gear Solid 4 finally leaving the PlayStation 3, GameCentral names the other games that should follow suit and get a proper re-release.

During the recent State of Play, Konami announced the long awaited follow up to its Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. The second volume includes re-releases of PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the little-known Game Boy Color spin-off Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and, most importantly, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots.

That last one is significant because Metal Gear Solid 4 only ever released for the PlayStation 3, in 2008, and has otherwise been unavailable ever since. As the finale to the entire Metal Gear Solid saga (at least chronologically), fans have demanded a re-release for years and come August, their patience will be rewarded.

But this has us thinking what other PlayStation 3 exclusives could do with a re-release, especially ones from Sony itself, many of which are already in danger of being forgotten.

Sony does have a sizable list of PlayStation 3 games available through its PlayStation Plus service, but only via cloud streaming, which isn’t ideal if you don’t have an optimal internet connection. It also doesn’t include all the games below and is only rarely updated.

God Of War: Ascension

It’s going to be a long time until those God Of War remakes come out and while fans do have Metroidvania prequel Sons Of Sparta to whet their appetites, it’s not exactly a traditional God Of War experience.

A God Of War: Ascension re-release would be a smart follow-up since it’s chronologically the next game after Sons Of Sparta and sets up the original trilogy, with a decently interesting story about Kratos’ attempt to free himself from his bond with god of war Ares, after he was tricked into killing his family.

It’s also just a very solid action game and though its gory violence can be tasteless, it’s one of the best-looking PlayStation 3 games, having launched towards the end of its lifecycle.

inFamous 1 and 2

Sucker Punch is unlikely to ever go back to inFamous when samurai games Ghost Of Tsushima and Ghost Of Yōtei have been far more financially successful, but it wouldn’t hurt to make the original PlayStation 3 games more readily available, alongside the PlayStation 4 sequels.

There are admittedly better superhero games out there, but the first two inFamous games are still enjoyable to play and double as supervillain power fantasies if you’re tired of goody-two-shoes heroes like Spider-Man.

Protagonist Cole McGrath is too much of a boring grump for our liking, although not necessarily any worse than the unfunny and overly enthusiastic Delsin from inFamous: Second Son.

Killzone Trilogy

Guerrilla Games is far too busy pumping out new Horizon games (including the new multiplayer spin-off) to ever revisit Killzone. That only makes it more surprising that only PlayStation 4 entry Shadow Fall and the PlayStation Portable spin-off are on PlayStation Plus.

Re-releasing the Killzone Trilogy compilation from 2012 would prevent the original PlayStation 2 game from being left out. That said, it is the weakest of the bunch and one you could probably skip in favour of its two PlayStation 3 sequels.

Killzone 2 is most fan’s favourite and it’s the only one that has something close to a memorable character, in villain Colonel Radec. The one downside is that any re-releases would obviously lack the online multiplayer.

MotorStorm Apocalypse

If Gran Turismo is like a sophisticated, professional race car driver, who can land sponsorships and cut a winning smile for photo opps, MotorStorm is its grungy cousin, that isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

For a series that is now all but forgotten there are an awful lot of entries, with MotorStorm Apocalypse being the best of the bunch. We’d take MotorStorm: RC as well, which launched for the PlayStation Vita and is the best Micro Machines game never made.

At the very least, a MotorStorm re-release would be a nice throwback, since developer Evolution Studios is long gone, having joined Codemasters in 2016, who themselves aren’t in a good place nowadays.

Puppeteer

Even if they weren’t always successful, you could count on Japan Studio to craft some memorable and unique video games, which is why it was so tragic to see Sony gut the studio in 2021.

Of all its PlayStation 3 releases, Puppeteer was one of their best, if only for its phenomenally whimsical puppet show presentation. The combat wasn’t particularly impressive, but it had plenty of interesting gimmicks to make up for it, such as the magic scissors that let you fly as long as you had something to cut through.

It might have fared better if Sony had held it back for the PlayStation 4 (maybe even as a launch title) as it’s arguably the most forgotten, but highest quality, game on this list.

Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy

Considering its status as one of the main PlayStation franchises – one that has lasted since the days of the PlayStation 2 – it’s surprising Sony hasn’t made more of an effort to make the older Ratchet & Clank games readily available, beyond cloud streaming.

When it comes to the first three games, most fans would probably prefer the original PlayStation 2 versions than their PlayStation 3 remasters, but the Future trilogy of games made specifically for the PlayStation 3 still hold up well and, tonally, would be a hit with newer fans who joined the series with Rift Apart.

Playing Tools Of Destruction, Quest For Booty, and A Crack In Time back-to-back would risk being exhausting, given how similarly they look and play, but they have some amusingly unique weapons and solid platforming. New fans would also appreciate the interconnecting storyline, with some plot threads continued in Rift Apart.

Siren: Blood Curse

The tonal opposite of the aforementioned Puppeteer, Japan Studio’s Forbidden Siren series has quite the pedigree, having been directed by Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama long before he set up his own studio and released the far inferior Slitterhead.

Unlike that game, the Forbidden Siren series is pure horror through and through. All three entries are of similar quality so, frankly, all of them deserve a second lease at life, and stand to thrive thanks to how popular survival horror games are at the moment.

Since this is a list about PlayStation 3 games, we must highlight Siren: Blood Curse, which is essentially a reimagining of the original game, but with a reworked story structure and gameplay improvements from the second game.

SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs

SOCOM always seemed like a good fit for Sony’s live service games obsession, given it was a series of tactical shooters and one of the company’s first attempts at running online multiplayer.

The series saw two entries on PlayStation 3, but if one were to come back, it’d have to be SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs as the other – SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation – was a purely online game and Sony’s not going to establish new servers for a nearly 20-year-old title.

Multiplayer was a big part of SOCOM, but SOCOM 4 at least has an enjoyablesingle-player campaign, that should appeal to those nostalgic for the older Call Of Duty campaigns.

Tokyo Jungle

Although it’s not entirely a first party game, since it was a joint project between Japan Studio and a little-known studio called Crispy’s, Tokyo Jungle is still seen as one of Sony’s cult classics from the PlayStation 3 days.

Its premise is certainly novel, being set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo devoid of human life. Rather than some grizzled wanderer, you play as a wide variety of different animals – from Pomeranians and chickens to lions and even dinosaurs – and struggle to survive as long as you can.

Tokyo Jungle makes the most of this premise and what it lacks in graphical flair, it makes up for with an entertaining gameplay loop, some interesting survival mechanics, and a tongue-in-cheek tone that keeps it from being too morose.

White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2

We wouldn’t blame you for not remembering this, but Sony really wanted White Knight Chronicles to take off and pushed it hard as one of the PlayStation 3’s big exclusives. Obviously, that didn’t work, but it was still a competently made action role-player with some neat ideas.

Like Tokyo Jungle, this was another Japan Studio joint project, although the main developer was Level-5, better known nowadays as the studio responsible for Professor Layton and the Yokai Watch series.

White Knight Chronicles 2 also did the Mass Effect thing where you could carry over your character from the first game, along with all your money and equipment, creating a welcome sense of continuity. Not only were there two games but also a PSP spin-off, and yet the franchise never made it out of the PlayStation 3 generation.

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Apparently the game was too big for them to handle.

Sony hasn't even officially announced the PlayStation 6 yet, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning out an increasingly steady stream of leaks, insider reports, and solid hints from the company itself. With the PlayStation 5 well into the latter half of its lifecycle and the PS5 Pro already on shelves, the attention of hardcore gamers is increasingly turning toward whatever comes next. Here is everything we know so far about the PlayStation 6, from its release window and hardware to pricing and the possibility of an entirely new PlayStation handheld launching alongside it. Read this article with […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/roundup/playstation-6-everything-we-know-release-date-specs-price-games/

We've been surprised by video game studio closures before, like when Xbox shut down Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, but this latest studio closure is arguably the most shocking one we've seen in a long time. Bluepoint Games, the studio responsible for the Demon's Souls Remake and decades of remakes and remasters across several iconic franchises, is being shut down by PlayStation. It was Bloomberg's Jason Schreier who broke the news that just five years after the studio officially joined the PlayStation Studios family, its remaining 70 developers are losing their jobs in what is yet another baffling decision by […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/playstation-shutting-down-bluepoint-games/