Report: PlayStation Is Quietly Erasing 'Convallaria' Amidst Messy Mismanagement Accusations
It looks like the China Hero Project might have a villain problem lurking behind the scenes.
I have been keeping an eye on Convallaria for a while now because it looked like a solid addition to PlayStation's push into the Chinese market. It was supposed to be one of the stars of the "China Hero Project," a program designed to lift up indie devs and put them on the global stage. Instead, the game has seemingly vanished into thin air, and a new report suggests the reason isn't technical difficulties, but a complete breakdown in leadership involving frozen payments and hostile takeover threats.
The Great Disappearing Act
The first sign of trouble is usually silence, but the second sign is when a publisher pretends you never existed. As spotted by the folks at MP1st, PlayStation has quietly updated its China Hero Project website. They added new games and kept the released ones, but Convallaria has been completely scrubbed from the lineup in the Americas and Europe.
This isn't just a glitch or a "limit on how many tiles the website can show." It is a deliberate removal. When a publisher wipes a game from their active roster without an announcement, it is almost never good news. It usually means the project is dead or the lawyers are currently screaming at each other.
The Ugly Accusations
According to documents and emails obtained by MP1st, the situation at developer Loongforce is dire. The report alleges that the studio has been butting heads with Bo Bao, the Director of China Game Production at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The accusations are messy. We are talking about allegations of stalled funding and threats to withhold payments. The emails reportedly show Sony management threatening to take the game away from Loongforce entirely and hand development over to Virtuos, a massive support studio known for porting games.
It paints a grim picture. Imagine working on your dream project for years only to have your publisher threaten to replace you because you aren't playing by their specific, allegedly unfair rules. The report even claims management tried to force the studio to hire specific IT firms they were personally acquainted with. That is the kind of corporate behavior that makes my skin crawl.
A Bad Look for the Hero Project
If these reports are true, this is a disaster for the China Hero Project's reputation. The whole point of this initiative is to support smaller creators, not bully them into submission or hijack their IP.
I doubt we will get an official "we messed up" press release from Sony anytime soon. Usually, these things end in quiet cancellations and NDAs. But for now, it looks like Convallaria is effectively dead in the water, a victim of the gaming industry's favorite boss battle: middle management.