10 PlayStation Games Sony KILLED
Rest in peace to these fallen warriors of the games industry.
When the gaming industry was in its infancy, playing a game was no problem. But in recent years, beloved titles have become permanently inaccessible, for one reason or another.
If an online brand has its servers pulled or is discontinued from digital stores, it could be gone forever. Although certain shooters, role-players, or battle royales might still function offline, it's a real kick in the teeth when the servers close shop, especially if the property had a passionate online community.
Even though Sony has been a tech giant for donkeys years, the PlayStation creators have been urged to kill quite a few of their projects. If a product is below standards or haemorrhaging money, cutting it loose is completely understandable. Other times, the publishers pull the plug on a specific IP to focus on its successor.
Occasionally, other factors come into play that compel the powers-that-be to terminate a game, even if it's well-received and successful.
Some entries on this list may have been popular in their day and developed a devoted fanbase, but that didn't stop Sony from shutting them down for good.
10. SOCOM Confronation
A development team should be really confidant in a recognised IP before deciding to switch things up and turn a mainstream entry into an online multiplayer-focused game.
And since SOCOM Confrontation was the first instalment in the military series that wouldn't contain a single-player campaign, this decision was risky. Having said that, Slant Six Games' franchise was impressively consistent, so this new direction had potential.
But due to the technical issues, constant lag, and game-crashing bugs, this PS3 tactical shooter was a major misfire. Many of these issues were resolved, but Confrontation never redeemed itself, due to its lack of maps, graphical limitations, and unambitious gameplay. Sitting with a score of 63% on MetaCritic, the underwhelming multiplayer title is the lowest-rated SOCOM yet.
A mere three years after launch, Confronation's servers were put to rest. The online services for the follow-up, SOCOM 4, came to a close on the same day.
The reason why Confrontation ranks so low on this list is because it's technically possible to still play it. In 2021, a die-hard fan called Thalhammer reverse-engineered the servers for defunct online games. Using a private connection, Confrontation found a way to live on (no thanks to Sony). That said, the aforementioned SOCOM 4 (in 2011) remains the last game in this now-buried franchise.