Demon's Souls is by no means an easy game but only a month past its North American release, it's already gathered a huge fan following (and is a likely shoo-in for numerous best of the year awards). The game separates itself from other RPGs with a near-vertical difficulty curve that demands the respect of anyone who dares trespass in its cursed lands. It's also a very unorthodox RPG, and one that refuses to play by long-set JRPG precedents. Those differences make Demon's Souls a very unique game-one other role-playing titles could learn a thing or two from. Here's a list of possible new approaches Demon's Souls gives us for a genre some might say is in danger of becoming entirely stale.
Sammy: "Sony disastrously and disgracefully shuttered Texas-based fan favourite Bluepoint yesterday. The long-time PS Studios partner never got a chance to ship a game under its new parent company.
This news hit me particularly hard because I believe it reflects the erosion of once-great PlayStation management that I think we’ve all been feeling for quite some time."
How was this allowed to happen? A studio know for excellent remakes and remasters were put on a GOW live service game? Something nobody wanted? There are so many other, more interesting projects, for me they were the prime studio who should have remastered or remade Bloodborne, what an absolute waste, I'm really annoyed about this.
Hulst should have followed Jim Ryan out the door, especially after his failed concord brainchild, execs really do only fail upwards.
You say "no body wanted" but we don't actually know if the Devs were the ones to pitch it. For all we know
If that was the case you would have thought Sony would have told Bluepoint no & had them make the God Of War trilogy remake instead while having Santa Monica Studios concentrate on the next God Of War & what ever else they're working on. A Bloodborne remake/remaster would have definitely printed Sony millions. It seems the upper management doesn't care what the fans think including them making awful business decisions. To take Bluepoint under their wing for 5 years & dismantle them is crazy work, Sony should have auctioned Bluepoint off to to a company that could really use them.
If the really did pitch it then they would have wanted their own IP for being a brand new game, not using someone else’s IP when it’s not a remake this time.
I mean I guess, but doubt that a small team of 70 wanted to do a live service game, I don't buy it personally, but we'll never 100% know.
i think you are half right. sony became hyper-focused on live service games and given that, studios would then pitch live service games because those projects were the most likely to be greenlit by the higher ups. now, as for what the hell bluepoint was working on since their god of war game was cancelled is beyond me. it's just increasingly frustrating when sony just announced a god of remake which is still in its infancy when bluepoint could have been working on it for years and likely would have shipped it by now.
We had a god of war mp in the past and it didn’t do well back then with less competition so doubtful people wanted a live service game especially from devs that made some top tier remakes
Copium like this is the reason they're in this position. Sony could do no wrong and when something did go wrong, it's never the corporate suits at sony who are to blame.....its either: devs bad or ms/phil spencer bad while their own backyard is on fire. This is the result of not caring what your fav company does just because another company does (way) worse and automatically condoning everything. I hope they can turn it around without having to fuck over their customers more because especially some of the games on ps1 through ps3 were absolutely amazing.
Can't really say im surprised it's gotten to this point although I didn't expect them to close Bluepoint who has always delivered stellar work.
The devs didn’t pitch it. It’s already been discussed publicly. They had literally just started on a new undisclosed project they were still in the initial ideas phase when they were asked to stop and do GoW instead.
Love the downvotes considering it's since become public knowledge that yes bluepoint DID infact pitch the god of war game. They also eventually pitched a Bloodborne remake but from software torpedoed the project, sadly.
Everyone keeps asking for a Bloodborne remaster or remake — a game that genuinely deserves preservation and modernization. Instead, we got a remake of The Last of Us and then a remaster of The Last of Us Part II, both of which were already recent and widely available. That decision feels tone-deaf. It’s hard not to question priorities when so many legacy titles are untouched.
Bluepoint built its reputation on honoring PlayStation’s history. They were masters at remakes and remasters. There is an entire catalog — from PS1, PS2, and PS3 eras — that fans would celebrate. Yet instead of leveraging that strength, they were redirected toward live service ambitions. Six years later, there’s nothing to show, and now the studio is gone. That’s not just disappointing — it feels like wasted potential.
Sony Bend is another example. Days Gone 2 wasn’t greenlit, and the studio was reportedly shifted toward live service. Years later, that project was canceled, and they’re back at square one. That’s years of development time lost in a generation that already feels light on first-party output.
What’s even more concerning is the broader shift. PlayStation used to thrive on bold, risk-taking single-player projects and strong Japanese creative influence. Now the strategy appears more Western-focused and heavily driven by the live service model — where multiple failures are acceptable as long as one becomes a breakout success.
Competition used to push Sony to take creative risks. The PS3 vs. Xbox 360 era forced innovation. Today, Xbox has shifted direction, Nintendo operates independently in its own lane, and Sony doesn’t feel the same competitive pressure. Without that tension, the urgency to push boundaries seems diminished.
The frustration many fans feel isn’t just about one remake or one canceled project — it’s about a sense that PlayStation’s identity is drifting. And while loyalty is natural, defending every decision without criticism doesn’t help the platform grow.
It’s not anger because we hate PlayStation. It’s frustration because we care about what it used to represent
Jack tretton
Shawn laden
Andrew house
Kaz
Shu Yoshida
These people aren't walking through the doors anymore
It does concern me that they think closing amazing studios like Bluepoint and Japan Studios is smart.
I'm honestly surprised Media Molecule is still around. They put out what 1 game in the past 10+ years? I personally wasn't interested in Dreams, so they have been a wash for me since the PS3 era. Are they working on a new game? What are they doing?
I immediately recalled when they shut down Japan Studio. I don’t understand why any studio would agree to be acquired by Sony, EA, or Microsoft with their history of studio closures.
Because of money. Most game studios need financial backing in order to develop games.
Frustrating news, for sure. Hulst is on a major losing streak. Baffling decisions....
They could of let them do a Remakes of Sly, Jak and Daxter maybe the old Killzone games. Ported Demon Souls to other platforms. Steady revenue for growth becoming a 70 team to 100+ eventually.
Precisely! PlayStation have a rich back catalogue that is screaming out for a talented team like those at Bluepoint to work their magic upon.
Such wasted potential. And a terrible thing to happen to those talented workers at Bluepoint.
Demon's Souls remake was the gateway to FromSoft games for me. I'd fully beaten Bloodborne, but had struggled to get into Dark Souls. Demon's Souls - as a launch title - showed me how these games are meant to be played.
As a PS Fan and someone that looks to new exsperiences not rehashing old ones I can feel for the devs but it does not move the needle as far as getting new video games.
Sony Group Corp. is shutting down Bluepoint Games, the PlayStation subsidiary responsible for developing remakes of video games such as Demon’s Souls.
Roughly 70 employees will lose their jobs amid the studio closure, a PlayStation spokesperson said, writing in a statement that the decision was made “following a recent business review.” Bluepoint will officially shutter next month.
They’d been working on a God of War GaaS game that got shut down I think. Had been hoping they would be taking the lead on the remake of the original trilogy as their next project instead.
damn, loved their work on the Uncharted series remasters. That would have been great as I missed the earlier GoW entries.
Same. I figured they may have created some useful assets while working on the scrapped GaaS game that could have been transferred for use in the trilogy remake. Such a shame, Bluepoint did a phenomenal job with the Demon Souls remake. A transition to the GoW remake seemed like a perfect match for their talent.
The only reason Sony would've shut down Bluepoint is because it's not profitable. But the reason it's not profitable is because the studio has spent years working on a GaaS game that wasn't released - that's not its fault!
With a ready made accomplished team Sony could've had them work on anything, how short-sighted to dismantle them. This move is a bad move from the highest level of management and accountants and it's a worrying signal that behind the scenes PlayStation is being mismanaged.
God damnit Sony! These guys are so talented and you guys criminally misused them! And for what? Jim Ryan's crazy GAAS future that was hated by gamers from the get go and never materialized??
I hope that guy rot in gaming hell for what he has done but why didn't Sony put them onto another remake project? They are very good at that and whatever they come up with will surely sell, come on! Why the sudden closure? This sucks balls!
I am very worried about Bend Studio now.
DAMN... I say we stick it to Sony and all jump ship to Xbox.
/s
Yes, that was a joke. What isn't a joke is where will these guys go now? They are really talented at remaking games. So any publisher would be wise to scoop them up. Lord knows there are tons of quality games from years gone by that could use a bit of modern TLC and re-introduced to new generations of players.
Nintendo has a ton of old games that could use remakes fingers crossed
@lightning pretty rare for Nintendo to shut studios down
Uuh no Nintendo would turn then into a Nintendo retro shop reselling remastered games for 60 or 70$. MS? Would shut them down also. None of these companies are your freakin friends.
There’s a impostor among us 🤣
With what I’m going to say I want you to understand first that I’m raging inside but I also understand that there is a lot that don’t get published about studios closures like monetary burdens, management issues, quality issues, are some of the one that come to mind.
I wish the best for those that lost their jobs and hope that Sony compensate them more than appropriately.and they get hired fast by other developers.
Go f*** yourself Sony
Your stupid management are the ones who made them waste years on a God of War live service title only to cancel it.
This is insane, they’ve really screwed up here, what the actual f*** man.
Sony has been sabotaging themselves for the whole generation. their focus on live service has been an absolute disaster for everyone involved, the gamers, the studios, the investors. where are the solo games? what did Bluepoint do to deserve this? they done a brilliant job remastering and remaking games for sony and this is how sony treat them? after years wasted for a crap GOW live service nobody wanted.
man, fuck sony. they're so dumb it's incredible.
I've been hardcore PlayStation since the PS1 but man If Xbox was legitimately competitive and not just giving their games away I might consider switching hell Nintendos been more appealing than Sony lately at least they are putting games out
This live service push has killed so much of my hype for Sony this gen
"Sony has been sabotaging themselves for the whole generation. their focus on live service has been an absolute disaster for everyone involved"
This is it. This is why you stick to what you are good at. If a studio themselves have a genuine interest in live service, sure let them have at it, but to push it on to developers is exactly how not to handle a studio.
Like you said BluePoint didn't do anything to deserve this. It was Sony's mismanagement of forcing them to do something that isn't their strength that led to the closure. They have done nothing but great things till the live service push and would still be here had it not been for that.
How much money have they lost since this live service push? So much wasted time and money on cancelled games and failures as a result.
@Prof
Not sure what you mean. Ever since Xbox started PS fanboys been wanting Xbox gone. They barely competing anymore this is what it looks like now. Been telling ppl for years but fanboys just make stupid excuses. So welcome to the outcome.
Seriously fuck Sony. People in charge of making the decision to push GAAS are all safe but the actual developers who had no say are all fired. Great work Jimbo/Herman!!
I think we can sadly say that we are witnessing the PlayStation fortress collapse before our eyes..
@Profchaos you sound dumb as Hell. What are you like 12? What do you mean by you might consider switching? For what reason can’t your grown ass buy whatever console you want? No one has forced you to be a loyalists to a single platform but yourself.
Grow up bro. All jokes aside.
Respect for being consistent on this take. Not sure why sony has been self-destructing since 2020
This really sucks they couldve did Socom remaster or live service instead of milking gow to get shut down this sucks a good studio.
Soulslikes are punishingly difficult but amongst the most compelling games. Power Up Gaming goes through the top ten Soulslikes you're likely not playing.
Demon's Souls isn't Soulslike. It's the original Souls game. WTF? And Elden Ring?
Another Crab's Treasure simply is not.
All the journos claiming things are "Soulslike" simply don't know what that word means.
The term “Soulslike” has become ridiculously diluted. I have seen it used for games just because they are difficult.
Nioh 1+2 imo are the best souls clone. Love the melee combat and ki system, really hoping team ninja doesn't abandon the IP and continue with a new title, hell just give us your take on the western fantasy setting for a new nioh game.
Lies of P and Wuchang Fallen Feathers are best soulsikes to me. I slightly prefer Wuchang ut they’re both awesome. I’d say Black Myth Wukong too but it’s a little more action than most souls games but it could fit in there as well.
I'd also add:
"Do away with overly complex narratives." The story in DS is ever present in the atmosphere and through the occasional, subtle story tidbit.
It's not linear and driven from one cut-scene to the next. FF XIII will most likely be the WORST offender this gen. Most JRPGs are pretty bad in this sense.
The only way JRPG makers are going to learn from Demon Souls is if JP gamers buy it. As far as I know while it did do well in Japan, it didn't do massively well. Which sadly is the quickest teacher in any market.
If we're lucky, at best some JP devs maybe listening to the reaction of the game in the West, but its not going to be many.
This game is really difficult.
I am also a bit confused about ps3 exclusive sales valkyria is hitting worldwide sales of 700k and demons souls is coming up to 400k only having been released in asia jp and NA. Are we at a point where if a title doesn't hit a million its a failure because if thats the case we are doomed to guitar hero and modern warfare and little else.
And sony would not publish DS outside of japan lol bet they are kicking themselves with it moving 120k in week 1.
And clearly they think WKC will be a total flop as its taken over a year. /end of off topic rant :P