More layoffs.
PlayStation is the latest gaming organisation to layoff employees, with 900 impacted by its cull. As part of the layoffs, Sony confirmed it would completely close London Studio.
“After careful consideration and many leadership discussions over several months, it has become clear changes need to be made to continue to grow the business and develop the company,” wrote outgoing SIE president and CEO Jim Ryan in an email to staff. “We had to step back, look at our business holistically, and move forward focusing on the long-term sustainability of the company and delivering the best experiences possible for our community. The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us.”
While London Studio will close and employees lose their jobs, staff at other studios including Spider-Man 2‘s Insomniac Games, The Last of Us‘ Naughty Dog, and Horizon‘s Guerrilla Games, and Firesprite will also be impacted. Alongside the layoffs come news that Sony has cancelled several projects, reportedly including a live-service Twisted Metal title under development at Firesprite.
“I want to be clear that the decision to stop work on these projects is not a reflection on the talent or passion of team members,” PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst wrote. “Our philosophy has always been to allow creative experimentation. Sometimes, great ideas don’t become great games. Sometimes, a project is started with the best intentions before shifts within the market or industry result in a change of plan.”
More than 7,000 layoffs have rocked the video games industry in the first two months of 2024 alone. Impacted developers and publishers over 2023 and 2024 include Supermassive Games, Devolver, Eidos-Montreal, Riot Games, Thunderful, Embracer and Gearbox, Twitch (again), Unity, Codemasters, 505 Games’ Digital Bros, Amazon, Bungie, Media Molecule, Ubisoft, Aussie studio League of Geeks, Versus Evil and many more.
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