Sony pulled the plug on a shooter it spent three years building, yet somehow nobody at the studio is losing their job.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has canceled Fairgames, the live-service shooter being built at its Montreal studio Haven Studios, the company confirmed on November 10, 2026. The decision came after a recent player test showed mixed feedback and weak retention numbers, according to Bloomberg. Haven will stay open and will not cut any jobs.
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Fairgames cancellation follows disappointing player test results
The shooter, also styled as FairGame$, was announced back in May 2023 as a competitive, heist-themed multiplayer game for PlayStation 5 and PC. It never reached a public release date, and now it never will. Sony pulled the project after reviewing results from a test that included thousands of players, a scale big enough to give executives real confidence in their decision one way or the other.
According to an internal email sent by PlayStation executives Sean Decker and John Doyle and reviewed by Bloomberg, the test actually went well on a technical level. The game ran smoothly, live service systems worked, and players showed up to participate. But the numbers that matter most for a long-term shooter, feedback quality and player retention, didn't hit the targets Sony had set internally. That gap, combined with a brutal market for competitive shooters, pushed Sony to shut things down rather than keep pouring resources into a game that might not find its audience.
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Haven Studios avoids layoffs despite losing its main project
What makes this cancellation different from so many others in gaming is what's not happening. There are no layoffs. PlayStation confirmed to Bloomberg that everyone at Haven keeps their job. Instead of winding down or shrinking, the studio is shifting gears entirely, moving to support other teams across PlayStation Studios while it figures out what to build next.
A PlayStation spokesperson said the studio "will shift its focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative opportunities." That's a notably softer landing than what usually follows a canceled live-service game, where entire teams often get let go once a project dies. Sony seems to be betting that Haven's talent is worth keeping intact, even without Fairgames to show for years of work.
Jade Raymond's studio built the game without her for its final year
Haven Studios has an interesting backstory tied to one of gaming's more recognizable names. Jade Raymond, known for her work on the Assassin's Creed franchise, founded Haven in 2021. Sony bought the studio in 2022, folding it into PlayStation's first-party lineup of developers. Raymond left Haven in 2025, roughly four years after starting it, but the studio kept building Fairgames without her at the helm.
That leadership change didn't stop development, but it does add another layer to the story. The game was shaped under Raymond's early vision and then carried across the finish line, or in this case, not across the finish line, by a team that kept working after she departed. No public statement from Raymond has surfaced in coverage of the cancellation.
Sony's live-service ambitions take another hit in a crowded genre
Fairgames was part of a bigger push by Sony to break into live-service gaming, the model where a single game keeps generating revenue for years through updates, seasons, and ongoing player engagement rather than a one-time sale. Sony had publicly talked up plans for a wide slate of live-service titles, hoping to replicate the kind of long-term success seen in games like Fortnite or Destiny.
The PVP shooter space, though, is brutal right now. Established games already have loyal communities, regular content drops, and deep player habits built over years. Breaking into that space with something new requires more than solid execution, it requires giving players a reason to leave what they already love. Sony's own executives pointed to "challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre" as part of the reasoning behind the cancellation, not just the mixed test results.
What comes next for Haven and Sony's shooter ambitions
Right now, there's no word on what Haven will build next or which PlayStation teams it will support first. Sony hasn't named a replacement project, hasn't hinted at a new genre for the studio, and hasn't said whether anything from Fairgames, its ideas, tech, or art, will carry over into future work. The studio simply moves from leading its own game to backing up other teams within PlayStation Studios.
For Sony, the bigger question is what this means for its live-service strategy overall. The company hasn't walked away from the live-service model entirely, and this cancellation reads more like a quality check than a full retreat. Still, it's a reminder that even well-funded, well-tested games can get killed before launch if the retention numbers don't add up. Three years of development, a tested build, and thousands of playtesters weren't enough to save Fairgames once the data came back mixed.
