Soul-inspired games are becoming more and more common these days, but that hasn't stopped the PlayStation 5 exclusive Ballad of Antara from impressing players when it was revealed during the May 2024 State of Play. Despite this relatively recent reveal – and an even more recent gameplay demo in September of that year – the PS5 game has reportedly been cancelled.
The first rumbles Ballad of Antara the cancellation came via the GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit, with a user named MrEpicFerret noticing that the game's concept artist was sharing some of their art online and mentioning that the game it was intended for had since been canceled. While the tweet in question has since been deleted, evidence of its existence was picked up by PlayStation LifeStyle, with a series of social media posts from a Chinese insider named @ignusthewise also highlighted. While these comments were under the radar when they were posted in September 2025, they shed light on what potentially happened to an interesting soulslite.
According to @ignusthewise and reported via PlayStation Lifestyle, Paper Games, the company that owns it Ballad of Antara developer TipsWorks, underwent a major restructuring in January last year. The TipsWorks team was thus reduced from 120 people to just 20, with the game seemingly too difficult for a team of that size to see it through to completion. While it hasn't been officially announced that this promising PS5 exclusive will be scrapped, the game has been radio silent since late 2024. And since 2025 was originally supposed to be the year of its release, there is good reason to believe that these rumors are true and that the game may never see the light of day.
It is worth noting that Lingchang2000, the Ballad of Antara the artist in question deleted his post about canceling the game and created a new account. So maybe the hope is that development has simply stopped instead.
Scrapping the Antara ballad would be a serious case of wasted potential
Ballad of Antara cancellation would be a real shame. Sure, the 14-minute gameplay demo had its flaws — base enemies had absurd amounts of health and looked a little too spongy — but there was also plenty to impress. The elements of Chinese culture and the lavish boss battles were very similar Black Myth: Wukongwhile the environments themselves were particularly engaging. Enemy designs also shined, such as the massive, unsettling bird creature that Linchang2000 pointed out in another social media post. Dealing with enemy health would make combat look more attractive, while impressive graphics, a charming companion character who rides a giant cat, and an interesting world could shine. However, now players may never experience the game.
Ballad of Antara was apparently quite deep in development, so it's somewhat surprising to hear that it may be delayed. Still, it's not unheard of; The infamous Xbox exclusive from PlatinumGames Scalebound comes to mind. Recently, Sony has left many live service titles in the editing room. AND God of War multiplayer project, and Marvel's Spider-Man multiplayer project and deep development The last of us online these are all prominent examples of the abandoned era of live services that never really had a chance to succeed. Perhaps the best comparison is Deviation Games, as its game was also canceled despite PlayStation's support and the millions of dollars that went into its creation.
So far, everyone who was interested Ballad of Antara we can only hope that these rumors turn out to be false. Until there is an official announcement from TipsWorks or its publisher Infold Games (the company behind the free-to-play Infinity Nikki), there's still a bit of hope that the game could one day make a comeback – though sadly that seems unlikely.
