Jade Raymond has departed Haven Studios, the Sony-owned studio behind the online multiplayer shooter Fairgames, marking yet another setback for PlayStation’s live service strategy. The news follows reports that an external test of the game did not go well, prompting a delay from its original fall 2025 release window to spring 2026.
As reported by Bloomberg, Raymond left the company she founded several weeks after the disappointing external test results. While PlayStation leadership did not provide specific reasons for her departure to the team, internal concerns reportedly grew around the game's reception and overall development progress. Sources close to the matter (who requested anonymity due to lack of public speaking authorization) noted the growing unease among staff.
Despite Raymond’s exit, Sony remains committed to both Haven Studios and the development of Fairgames. Leadership has appointed new co-studio heads Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski to guide the team moving forward.
This development adds to a growing list of challenges for PlayStation’s live service initiative, which now appears to be scaling back significantly. Although Arrowhead Game Studio’s Helldivers 2 became a major success—selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks—many of Sony’s other live service titles have either been canceled or launched poorly.
The most infamous example is Concord, which became one of the biggest failures in PlayStation history. It shut down within weeks of launch due to extremely low player engagement, leading Sony to fully cancel the title and close its developer. Prior to that, Sony had already scrapped Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer project, and earlier this year, reportedly shelved two unannounced live service titles—one a God of War game at Bluepoint Games and another in development at Bend Studio.
Sony laid out ambitious plans in February 2022 to release more than ten live service games by March 2026, investing heavily in studios like Bungie, Firewalk Studios, and Haven Studios as part of the push. However, in 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki announced a strategic review, reducing the number of planned live service titles to six by the end of the fiscal year 2025 (March 2026). Totoki emphasized that quality would remain the top priority, stating, “It's not that we stick to certain titles, but for the gamers, quality should be the most important.”
Currently, Bungie continues to lead the live service charge with Destiny 2 and the upcoming Marathon, set to fully launch later this year. Meanwhile, Sony recently announced a new internal studio called teamLFG, whose debut title is described as a live service incubation project. Additionally, Guerrilla Games is still developing its Horizon-branded multiplayer experience.
