Bluepoint Games closure: PS fans rip Hermen Hulst for doing "generational damage" as Sony's live-service push fails
Fans are mad at Sony and Hermen Hulst for shutting down Bluepoint Games. Known for their excellent Demon’s Souls remake for the PS5, Sony bought Bluepoint Games in 2021. The studio was primarily responsible for developing remakes of Sony IP as well as acting as a support studio. However, instead of letting the studio remake Bloodborne, as fans have been clammering for, Sony reportedly tasked the studio with developing a live-service God of War, which was later canceled. This appears to have been among the contributing factors that led to Bluepoint Games’ demise.
“Hermen Hulst might have more studios closed than games released at this point” was the sarcastic comment of a Reddit user on r/PS5 after the news of Bluepoint Games’ closure first broke. This user sentiment appears to be widespread, as fans are blaming Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, for the disastrous situation.
However, Hermen Hulst reportedly blames harsh economic realities, changing player behaviors, and ballooning game development costs as the reasons for Bluepoint Games’ closure. Granted, AAA games are getting more expensive to make, with Spider-Man 2 reportedly costing over $300 million. However, it’s not like Sony is in any sort of financial trouble, as the company recently revealed a 22% Year-over-Year increase in operating profit and is projected to beat profit forecasts.
Admittedly, many fans are asking Hermen Hulst to go. One fan, for instance, called Hermen Hulst’s current tenure “PlayStation’s worst generation of first-party titles”. Another exclaimed that “Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst have done generational damage to the PlayStation brand”, while reminiscing over the time of Shuhei Yoshida and Shawn Laden and their intense focus on single-player PlayStation titles.
Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst’s live-service push
While the PS5 enjoys some great single-player first-party titles, it will be remembered as a console generation where Sony tried its best, and repeatedly failed, to ride the live-service train. The company spent $400 million developing Concord. The game was shut down after only two weeks. Sony has also reportedly canceled a live-service game from Bend Studio, a live-service The Last of Us game from Naughty Dog, a Spider-Man live-service game from Insomniac, and more.
Things are also not looking good for the in-development Fairgames, which is multiplayer title in development by Haven. It remains to be seen whether the game survives till launch or is shuttered mid-development.
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