Jade Raymond has departed from Haven Studios, a Sony-owned developer working on the online multiplayer shooter Fairgames. The game is now reportedly delayed following an external playtest, dealing another blow to PlayStation's live-service ambitions.
According to Bloomberg, Raymond's exit from the studio she founded came several weeks after Fairgames' external test, which received a lukewarm reception. The game was originally slated for a fall 2025 launch but is now postponed until spring 2026.
As Bloomberg reported:
According to people familiar with the matter, PlayStation leadership did not give Haven staff a reason for her departure. However, it occurred several weeks after an external test of their first game, Fairgames. Some developers expressed concerns about the game’s reception and progress. These sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
For now, Sony continues to support Haven and Fairgames, with new co-studio leads Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski now in charge.
This represents further turmoil for Sony's live-service strategy, which now appears to be retracting significantly. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 was a breakout success—selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks to become PlayStation Studios' fastest-selling game ever—Sony's other live-service titles have either been canceled or suffered disastrous launches.
Concord, for instance, stands as one of the biggest video game failures in PlayStation history. The game lasted only a few weeks before being taken offline due to critically low player counts, ultimately prompting Sony to shut it down entirely and close its developer.
The collapse of Concord followed the earlier cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Earlier this year, Sony reportedly scrapped two unannounced live-service games: a God of War title in development at Bluepoint and a project in the works at Days Gone developer Bend Studio.
Sony initially announced ambitions in February 2022 to launch over ten live-service games by March 2026, aiming to deliver diverse genres to various audiences. The company invested heavily in studio acquisitions as part of this push, bringing in Destiny creator Bungie, Jade Raymond's Haven Studios, and the now-defunct Firewalk Studios.
However, in 2023, Sony President Hiroki Totoki stated the company was reviewing the 12 live-service PlayStation games in development, committing to only six releases by the end of the fiscal year in March 2026. Totoki noted they were still determining release windows for the remaining six titles, emphasizing, "Quality for gamers should be the top priority, not sticking rigidly to specific games."
Bungie continues to carry the live-service banner with its ongoing Destiny 2 and the upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, set for a full release later this year. Earlier this month, Sony announced a new PlayStation studio, teamLFG, teasing its debut title as a live-service incubation project. Guerrilla Games' Horizon multiplayer game is also still in development.
