It is closing its London Studio completely.
More news of widespread layoffs has been reported today, making it yet another gloomy day for the gaming sector. During this particular instance, PlayStation is the one that is destroying its studios. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has announced that it will be laying off approximately 900 employees from its PlayStation business. This represents approximately 8 percent of the total manpower for that department.
The cuts have an impact on the games Insomniac (which includes Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank), Naughty Dog (which includes The Last of Us), and Guerrilla (which includes Horizon). It is these studios that are responsible for some of the most significant franchises on PlayStation. As an illustration, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 had already sold 10 million copies within three and a half months of its official release.
The London Studio of Sony, which had been working on a cooperative multiplayer game for the PlayStation 5, is completely shutting down, and Firesprite will also be seeing some of its employees leave their positions. In addition, employees from PlayStation’s Technology, Creative, and Support teams will be let go from their positions.
Today is the day that PlayStation employees in the United States who are going to lose their employment will be informed. For the purpose of carrying out layoffs in other territories, Sony will, according to the firm, comply with the local laws and regulations. The company has stated that people in all of its global regions will be affected.
“After careful consideration and many leadership discussions over the course of several months, it has become clear that changes need to be made in order to continue to grow the business and develop the company,” said Jim Ryan, the outgoing president and CEO of SIE, in an email to the team. Because of this, we were required to take a step back, examine our firm from a more comprehensive perspective, and move forward with the intention of ensuring the long-term viability of the business and providing the most enjoyable experiences for our community. The purpose of this endeavour is to streamline our resources in order to guarantee our continued success and improve our capacity to provide the experiences that gamers and artists have come to anticipate from us.
During this time, Hermen Hulst, who is the head of PlayStation Studios, stated that the leadership of SIE conducted an evaluation of its studios and portfolio, as well as looked at projects that are in various stages of production. The cancellation of several of the projects has now taken place. Despite the fact that Hulst did not disclose any additional information, it is certain that the project that London Studio was working on is among the initiatives that have been scrapped. A live-service Twisted Metal game that was developed by Firesprite and was in the early stages of development is one of the projects that have been cancelled, as reported by Bloomberg.
“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,” Hulst stated in a memo to colleagues. For as long as we can remember, our philosophy has been to encourage creative innovation. Sometimes, even the best concepts don’t end up becoming the best games. When a project is initiated with the greatest of intentions, there are instances when the strategy is altered as a result of alterations in the market or industry.
In addition, Hulst mentioned that SIE is reevaluating its strategy for delivering the kinds of pricey blockbuster single-player games that PlayStation has grown famous for over the course of the past decade or so, and that it is also attempting to strike a balance between its goal to develop long-tail multiplayer games and delivery of these titles. “Delivering the immersive, narrative-driven stories that PlayStation Studios is known for, at the quality bar that we aspire to, requires a re-evaluation of how we operate,” according to Hulst. “Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences — allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways — as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and mobile, requires a different approach and different resources.”
Sony is currently working on a number of live-service games, and the company had intended to release ten them by the year 2026. It was decided to put The Last of Us Online, which was one of those games, on hold. On the other hand, the company has experienced some success in the live-service side of things, with Helldivers 2 becoming one of the most successful games of the year up to this point.
On the other hand, it was revealed last month that Sony does not intend to release any sequels for its big first-party titles until at least April of the next year. In order to assist overcome the holes in its own pipeline, it is relying on titles developed by other parties, such as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the Elden Ring extension. Also, the business has reduced its sales projection for the PlayStation 5 for the current fiscal year, which will come to a close on March 31. In the fiscal year 2023, the company anticipates selling 21 million consoles, which is a decrease from the earlier projection of 25 million.
The overall number of job losses in the video game business so far this year has surpassed 7,000 (and we haven’t even reached the month of March yet). This slate of layoffs pushes the total number of employment losses above 7,000. This is in addition to the nine thousand persons who were terminated from their positions within the industry in the year 2023.
In January, Microsoft laid off approximately 1,900 employees from its gaming sector as part of a comprehensive restructuring of the company. Additionally, Riot Games, Unity, Supermassive Games, Behaviour Interactive, the creator of Dead by Daylight, and Sega of America are among the companies that have implemented layoffs. Twitch is a games-adjacent firm rather than a gaming company.
At 10:53 a.m. Eastern Time on February 27, a note was added regarding a Twisted Metal project that was supposedly one of the games that were cancelled.