PlayStation has cancelled Fairgames, the online shooter that Montreal-based Haven Studios had been building for years. Bloomberg reports that the decision comes with no job cuts, so the studio’s developers stay on. The news broke on 10 November, when Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published it alongside an internal email to PlayStation staff.
Why PlayStation pulled the plug
In an email to employees dated 10 November, PlayStation said a recent test with thousands of players didn’t deliver the results it expected. In the note, PlayStation executives Sean Decker and John Doyle wrote that the test showed strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement. They added that “player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set.” Together with challenging market conditions in the PvP shooter genre, that led them to cease development.
The project had a long and uneasy history before that verdict. Fairgames was announced in 2023 as part of PlayStation’s push into live-service games, which keep earning from in-game purchases long after launch. The game was reworked several times over three years, and a re-reveal under a new title was planned. Game Informer notes that PlayStation hadn’t shown much of the game since the 2023 announcement, which led many to assume development was struggling.
What happens to Haven Studios
The studio isn’t closing, which sets this apart from several recent PlayStation cancellations. Bloomberg notes that PlayStation has cancelled several games and closed multiple studios in recent years, including Bluepoint and Dark Outlaw Games. A PlayStation spokesperson said there will be no job cuts, and the company said in a statement that Haven will shift its focus to collaborating with other PlayStation Studios teams while exploring new creative opportunities. PlayStation hasn’t named the projects Haven will support.
Jade Raymond founded Haven in 2021, Sony acquired it in 2022, and Raymond left in 2025. The studio kept working on Fairgames without her until now.
A live-service push that keeps shrinking
Fairgames adds to a growing list of casualties in Sony’s live-service strategy. Bloomberg reports that the initiative, for which PlayStation said it would release more than a dozen games, has mostly been unsuccessful. Game Informer points to the original plan of more than 10 live-service games by March 2026 and lists the cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer game, Bungie ending active development on Destiny 2, and a reported overhaul of the Horizon spin-off Hunters Gathering after poor playtest feedback.
For players in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, nothing changes in practice: Fairgames never had a release date or regional pricing, and there’s nothing to refund or uninstall. The more useful signal is where PlayStation’s attention goes next. Sony has already stepped back from PC ports of its single-player games, and its online plans now lean on proven projects such as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a fighter that has leaked with a 64-player online mode.
What was Fairgames?
It was revealed as a PvPvE online shooter in which players would fight to steal money and loot from the wealthy. Game Informer lists it for PlayStation 5 and PC, with no release date.
Can I still play or pre-order Fairgames?
No. Development has ceased, and the game was never released or opened for pre-orders. The only public-facing build was the recent test with thousands of players, and PlayStation hasn’t said whether any of that work will carry into other projects.
Will Haven Studios make another game?
PlayStation’s statement says the studio will collaborate with other PlayStation Studios teams while exploring new creative opportunities. The company hasn’t announced a new Haven project.
