The decision came after a recent playtest didn't go quite as planned.

For those unfamiliar with it, Fairgames was being developed by Haven Studios as a multiplayer heist game in which players would compete to steal valuable items from the super-rich.

But there's some good news for the people working on the game: nobody has lost their job as a result.

Instead, Haven Studios will move on to other projects, with Sony saying the team will "shift focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios," while also looking into new creative opportunities.

So, what went wrong with Fairgames?

Well, according to GamesIndustry.biz, the decision came after a recent playtest failed to deliver the results Haven Studios had been hoping for.

The report also says executives explained the reasons behind the cancellation directly to staff.

Why PlayStation cancelled Fairgames

Haven executives Sean Decker and John Doyle reviewed the results in an email to staff, seen by Bloomberg.

The playtest had shown "strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement," they said.

But player feedback and retention, they wrote, "were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set." They also pointed to "challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre."

Haven Studios and the wider live-service pattern at PlayStation

Haven Studios opened in Montreal in 2021 under industry veteran Jade Raymond, with PlayStation Studios taking it over a year later.

Fairgames was announced in 2023, originally due in 2025, before slipping to spring 2026.

The cancellation stands in contrast to PlayStation's single-player strengths elsewhere in its portfolio.

The God of War series is one example, where Dave Bautista's transformation for Kratos has drawn fan attention, while Fairgames never got beyond testing.