Haven Studios' competitive heist shooter, originally revealed as Fairgames three years ago, has resurfaced under the codename Project Espresso. According to Polygon, Sony's Montreal-based studio is now running a public playtest for the game on Player.gg for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. It has largely disappeared from public view since 2023. This reappearance signals Sony's commitment to the studio's debut title.
Project Espresso is a third-person PvPvE competitive action game where teams race to infiltrate high-security locations, steal valuable cargo, and make their escape before rival teams do the same. Its description closely mirrors the original Fairgames concept, which was marketed as a Robin Hood-style heist game centered on stealing from the ultra-rich and "rebalancing the scales." Both projects share visual elements beyond just character design, including vault aesthetics and environmental details. A character wearing a white ski mask appears in both the Project Espresso playtest footage and earlier Fairgames trailers, reinforcing speculation that the projects are fundamentally the same beneath different codenames.
Haven Studios was founded in 2021 by Jade Raymond, the former Assassin's Creed producer and ex-head of Google Stadia Games and Entertainment. Sony acquired the studio in 2022 to develop the project as a flagship first-party title.
When Fairgames was first publicly announced in 2023, creative director Mathieu Leduc emphasized the studio's desire to create a new type of competitive PvP experience with emergent sandbox gameplay. It was positioned as offering players the thrill of "breaking the rules" as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or someone simply looking to collect cool loot. Raymond has since departed from Haven Studios. It had remained largely quiet until this playtest announcement, which represents a significant development in its path toward release.
Interested players can sign up for the playtest through Player.gg. No official release date has been announced for the game.