Sony Live Service Woes Continue as PlayStation Executive Jade Raymond Exits Fairgames Developer After External Test Sparked Concern

Jade Raymond has left Haven Studios, the Sony-owned developer behind online multiplayer shooter Fairgames, with the game reportedly delayed following an external test in yet another blow to PlayStation’s live service ambition.

According to Bloomberg, Raymond exited the company she founded several weeks after an external test of Fairgames apparently didn’t go down well. The game was due out fall 2025 but is now delayed to spring 2026.

As Bloomberg put it:

PlayStation leadership didn’t give Haven staff a reason for her departure, but it came several weeks after an external test of Haven’s first game, the online shooter Fairgames, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some developers at Haven were concerned about how the game was received and its progress, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Sony is sticking with Haven and Fairgames for now, with new co-studio heads Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski in place.

It’s yet more trouble for Sony’s embattled live service ambition, which now appears to be in full retreat. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 was a breakout hit, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, Sony’s other live service games were either canceled or suffered disastrous launches.

Indeed, Sony’s Concord is one of the biggest video game disasters in PlayStation history, lasting just a couple of weeks before it was brought offline amid eye-wateringly low player numbers. Sony later decided to kill the game entirely and shut its developer.

The Concord flop came after Sony had already canceled Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game. And earlier this year, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced live service games, one a God of War title in development at Bluepoint, the other in the works at Days Gone developer Bend.

Sony announced plans in February 2022 to launch more than 10 live service games by March 2026, later saying the push would bring games of different genres to different audiences. It spent big on studio buyouts as part of the drive, bringing in Destiny developer Bungie, Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios, and the now shuttered Firewalk Studios.

But in 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the company was reviewing the 12 live service PlayStation games it had in the works, and committed to launching only six of them by the end of financial year 2025, meaning by the end of March 2026. Totoki said Sony was still working on when the other six live service games would come out, adding: “It’s not that we stick to certain titles, but for the gamers quality should be the most important.”

Bungie is still flying the live service flag, with Destiny 2 ongoing and the in-development Marathon set to launch fully later this year. Earlier this month, Sony announced a new PlayStation studio called teamLFG and teased its debut game, which is a live service incubation project. Guerrilla’s Horizon multiplayer game is also in development.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.