AbsolutSurgen Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Sony laying off 900 PlayStation employees, London Studio to close in its entirety WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Sony is to lay off 900 people, equating to eight percent of its workforce. Quote We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about eight percent or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted," Ryan wrote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaysWho? Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Oof, that one stings. London studio was very talented. I feel awful for the people there. I feel even worse that their firings, along with many others around the industry, will help shareholders. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaysWho? Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 This year is brutal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Damn, no one is safe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I thought I was the only one who lost there job. This is getting really depressing now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Based on the executives' statements from the recent earnings report, this hardly comes as a surprise. It still sucks terribly, but certainly isn't unexpected at all. All divisions of SIE are impacted, including Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Guerrilla. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Just now, Commissar SFLUFAN said: All divisions of SIE are impacted, including Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Guerrilla. They are fucking with Naughty Dog? Omg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclyp Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Well that sucks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 According to Jason Schreier, the Twisted Metal live-service game that was in development at Firesprite was cancelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Do we know if the Naughty dog team let go was specifically focused on TLOU MP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Closing the London studio which focused on VR is another blow for PSVR2. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 50 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said: Do we know if the Naughty dog team let go was specifically focused on TLOU MP? We don't know that at this time though that's probably a reasonable assumption at this point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 PlayStation Studios head confirms projects cancelled in wake of layoffs WWW.EUROGAMER.NET PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst has confirmed that some projects have been cancelled in the wake of layoffs acros… Quote "PlayStation 5 is in its fourth year, and we are at a stage where we need to step back and look at what our business needs," reads the statement from Hulst. "At the same time, our industry has experienced continuing and fundamental change which affects how we all create, and play, games. "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." Translation: our margins are freakin' terrible and something's gotta give. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nublood Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Sony about to go full 3rd party... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbob42 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 6 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: According to Jason Schreier, the Twisted Metal live-service game that was in development at Firesprite was cancelled. At least something good came out of this. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 5 hours ago, nublood said: Sony about to go full 3rd party... lol imagine everyone going third party but Nintendo well Sony studios sole purpose is to move consoles, their games don't do well financially, so as a third party Sony would be completely doomed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoberChef Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 19 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: According to Jason Schreier, the Twisted Metal live-service game that was in development at Firesprite was cancelled. I had heard that the new Twisted Metal game was canceled, I was not privy to the fact that it was a live-service title, now I don't feel so mad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 Pushing Buttons: When even PlayStation is cutting jobs, something is seriously wrong with games | Games | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM In this week’s newsletter: Sony’s news that it is cutting jobs and cancelling projects for the mega-console underlines a depressing fact about game development – it’s go big, or go home Quote I wrote last week about the decades-long console wars between Xbox and PlayStation – and how the Microsoft’s looser attitude to releasing games everywhere people play them, even on rival consoles, might be the beginning of an end to them. Now we have news that Sony is laying off 900 people across its studios all over the world. Why is the maker of the hugely successful PlayStation 5, which has outsold its main rival by three to one, doing something so drastic? It seems that the end of the console wars might come not by choice, but by necessity: the way that the games industry worked in the past is simply not how it works now. The news that PlayStation would be laying off what amounts 8% of its workforce came via an all-company email from Jim Ryan, the company’s outgoing boss – who, less than a week ago, was pictured celebrating his Sony career at London Studios with many people who now no longer have jobs: the company is closing it entirely, along with cuts at Firesprite, and there will be “reductions in various functions” across the company in the UK. Guerilla Games (makers of the Horizon series), Naughty Dog (The Last of Us) and Insomniac (Marvel’s Spider-Man) are also seeing reductions. At the time of writing, Sony employees at US studios were still waiting to hear how they would be affected. “Please be kind to yourselves and to each other,” the email ends, with almost jaw-dropping irony. Quote Reading between the lines here reveals a familiar story of over-investment during the 2020-21 boom years, during which the video game industry was supercharged by the pandemic and cheap cash, and flooded with money. Plenty of studios and publishers overextended, and found themselves vulnerable when investment dried up. Despite being a very profitable industry, 2023 and 2024 have seen sweeping layoffs and “cost reductions” almost everywhere in games, and barely a week has gone by without another studio closure. Right before Sony announced its layoffs, Danish studio Die Gute Fabrik (of Mutazione and Saltsea Chronicles) announced it was winding up operations. But Die Gute Fabrik is a small-scale indie studio that failed to find investment. Sony is the market leader in home consoles. It seems absurd that even the market leader apparently cannot afford to fund large-scale game development in this era. We know that so-called AAA game budgets have ballooned out of control, and executives everywhere have insisted that studios work on ill-fated “live service” games that hope to continue extracting money from their players for years to offset the cost, with tragic results. But the PlayStation 5 recently sold its 50 millionth unit. Last year’s Marvel Spider-Man 2 was a huge hit (10m sales), and even that hasn’t protected its makers at Insomniac from cuts. This makes me incredibly worried about the sustainability of the console business: no amount of success appears to insulate the people who actually make the games we enjoy. Quote It also underlines a depressing fact about the modern games industry: it really is go big or go home. When blockbuster games cost $200m to produce, anything less than enormous success is as good as failure on the balance sheet. You can have two smash-hit games, but screw up the third one and you’re done. Big PlayStation games used to fund smaller ones: your God of Wars came alongside your Puppeteers, your Shadow of the Colossuses, and every now and again one of those mid-size games would be a really big hit, like LittleBigPlanet. But there seems to be no room for a mid-size game any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 Quote But there seems to be no room for a mid-size game any more. This is a bad take. The two biggest games recently are Hell Divers 2 and Palworld. Unfortunately, larger companies are only interested in the big risks and big rewards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 1 hour ago, Brian said: This is a bad take. The two biggest games recently are Hell Divers 2 and Palworld. Unfortunately, larger companies are only interested in the big risks and big rewards. Jeff Grubb (sorry Stepee) said something along the lines of most people (like average joes) don't know who makes their game and it doesn't matter if Capcom makes it or Bill down the street makes it, if it's good then they'll pick it up and Bill down the street has more to gain from from doing a mid sized game that takes off. (well he said something like that) In any case imagine instead of pouring a billion dollars into one game. They funded a bunch of small games with big ideas. Is that not a more sustainable business model? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 Is there a layoff thread for 2024? EA just announced a 5% cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 feel like this was kinda expected. their release slate for this year is weak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Why do people hate live service games? I enjoy games that continue to get updates so you have new content to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 5 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said: Why do people hate live service games? I enjoy games that continue to get updates so you have new content to play. They're usually overly grindy, and focus too much on replaying the same content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 25 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said: Why do people hate live service games? I enjoy games that continue to get updates so you have new content to play. They can be great, but they're especially susceptible to having their game design infected by executives who are trying to figure out how to get more money out of people instead of how to make the game more fun. So it ultimately depends on the development environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Rumor is Media Molecule was also on the chopping block. I hope their next game is a hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greatoneshere Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 5 hours ago, Brian said: Rumor is Media Molecule was also on the chopping block. I hope their next game is a hit. They should have let them finish their PC port of Dreams, where it could have found a second, better life with the much bigger fan-made and mod communities on PC vs. PS5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Sony studio Firesprite has been shedding talent amidst accusations of toxic culture, staff say WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Sony-acquired studio Firesprite has recently suffered high profile exits amid accusations of a toxic workplace culture,… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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