Quote Originally Posted by Polygon
Sony spent five years building a new PlayStation VR studio, then abruptly shut it down
Sony Manchester’s CSAR: Combat, Search, and Rescue was to be a VR helicopter action game harking back to the old days, but it never ended up materializing

On February 5, 2020, PlayStation head of Worldwide Studios Hermen Hulst visited Sony Manchester to tell employees the studio was closing. The news came as a shock to some inside the studio — a group made up of expats and locals, a few with decades of experience working at Sony. The studio had been advertising new positions at the time, and suddenly team members were looking for jobs, as Sony abandoned the project they had been working on for the last five years. [...]

Sources reveal that Sony Manchester was developing a throwback to old-school action games like Genesis shooter Desert Strike — albeit in 3D and utilizing modern technology on PlayStation 4. It even had a name — CSAR: Combat, Search, and Rescue, or Rescue for short. The concept had started at Evolution Studios, the group behind PS4 racing game Driveclub, as one of many ideas the studio had been conceptualizing for PlayStation VR. Evolution pitched a video of potential VR experiences, and the idea of a helicopter game caught the eyes of Matthews and Green, who decided to take the concept further at the new Manchester studio.

The game had players flying around, shooting at enemies and rescuing people from the cockpit of a helicopter. The player had a co-pilot and access to an aircraft carrier that acted as a central base. It was at this aircraft carrier where the player could select their next location and mission, before flying out into the world to complete objectives. [...]
Full: Why Sony Manchester’s PlayStation VR game was canceled - Polygon