God of War developer Santa Monica Studio has canceled a new IP project it had been working on for a long time. While the project was conceptually strong, it was shelved due to the lack of gameplay.
PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida said that despite years of development and an investment of around $25 million, the team had decided to cancel the project on their own initiative because they “couldn’t find the core spirit of the game.”
Yoshida noted that canceling such a large project at such a late stage was a difficult decision for both the development team and management. He said that this was not limited to Santa Monica Studio, with some of the major PlayStation studios in Europe also having to cancel AAA budget projects “because it wasn’t clear what they were going to deliver to the player.”
It is emphasized that such cancellations are part of a long-term quest for quality and innovation as risks increase, costs increase and returns become more difficult within PlayStation.
As a result, the Santa Monica studio is being refocused on the creative process after the lost budget and time, and it is eagerly awaited what project the studio will present to gamers in the future.
