In recent years Sony has shelved several promising projects. One of the titles that might have been lost in that process was a new game from Santa Monica Studio, the team behind God of War.
Former PlayStation chief Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that two major PlayStation projects were cancelled after each had absorbed roughly $25 million in development costs. One of those was a new intellectual property from Santa Monica.
Yoshida said the project was a fresh IP (not another God of War) with an “extraordinary concept” and “very intriguing gameplay ideas.” It had been in development for several years, and PlayStation repeatedly poured millions into its production.
At a certain point the team informed Yoshida that they needed to halt work. He suggested the likely reason was an inability to “find the right form for the game” — the concept looked excellent on paper, but the gameplay never reached the required level.
This was not the only cancelled effort. Yoshida also referenced a second large-scale project, similarly budgeted at about $25 million, which was developed under his oversight within Worldwide Studios. Despite strong concepts coming from European studios — from London Studio to Guerrilla Games — one of the bigger games “lacked a solid gameplay core” and was ultimately shut down.
Yoshida emphasized how difficult these decisions are: teams often cling to the hope of rescuing a project, but if the work isn’t producing results there’s a real risk of developer burnout. He therefore recommends a “clean reboot” — starting something new rather than remaining stuck on a project that will never take shape.
Source: iXBT.games