Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed that God of War developer Santa Monica Studio had a promising new IP project canceled after investing $25 million. The studio itself requested the shutdown due to development challenges. This decision was made despite the project's innovative concept and gameplay ideas.
Background on the Cancellation
Shuhei Yoshida, who recently left Sony after over 30 years, shared insights on the canceled project during an appearance on the My Perfect Console podcast. The new IP, distinct from the God of War series, was in development for many years at Santa Monica Studio. Sony had high hopes for it, but the team struggled to realize the gameplay, leading them to approach Yoshida directly.
"They came to me and said, 'We have to stop.' I do not exactly remember the reason—probably the team was not able to find the game. It was a great concept, great idea, but you know, the gameplay didn't really come to be," Yoshida explained, as reported by VGC.
This cancellation differs from an earlier reported axing of a live-service God of War title. Yoshida emphasized that halting projects like this, though difficult, prevents larger financial losses and burnout among developers. "If we continued, it just got bigger and bigger in terms of [financial] loss, and the developers eventually get tired of working on these," he noted.
Broader Context in Game Development
Yoshida described game cancellations as a standard part of the industry, especially early on when costs are low. However, this mid-development shutdown was tougher due to the significant investment. He also mentioned overseeing the cancellation of another big-budget project from an unspecified European studio that lacked a core gameplay loop.
"These days, $25 million cancellation is nothing special. [There are] much bigger cancellations," Yoshida said, highlighting the evolving scale of game development budgets at Sony. He encouraged teams post-cancellation to view it as an opportunity for fresh starts, stating, "Not doing this means we can do something different, something new, like brand new. So let's do the fresh restart."
The executive's comments come amid discussions on Sony's shift toward live-service games, which Yoshida said he would have resisted.