Disco Elysium Standalone Expansion Reportedly Cancelled, ZA/UM Facing Layoffs | Push Square

Persona 3 Reload is getting an 'Expansion Pass', and Episode Aigis is going to be part of it. To be clear, Episode Aigis forms the additional story scenario that was present in Persona 3 FES on PS2. It was called 'The Answer' here in the West, while 'Episode Aegis' was its Japanese name.

It’s that time of the month once more where Sony makes your wallet scream in pain with a deluge of discounts, spanning almost 3,000 games and add-on packs this time. There are an absolute wealth of standouts here, including the excellent Monster Hunter World for just £7.99/$9.99 and the Deluxe Edition of Lies of P for a new low of £44.99/$52.49.

In case you missed the big news last week, PlayStation joined the rest of the industry in cutting hundreds of jobs across its business. What's more, the platform holder is closing one of its longest-standing developers, London Studio — but it seems another UK team may have been at risk, too.

You could be forgiven for thinking the video game industry is collapsing, and you may be wondering why. Last week, PlayStation announced it was laying off over 900 employees and shutting its long-running London Studio, and it’s not alone. There have been thousands upon thousands of jobs cut across the entire industry, and virtually every major publisher and platform holder has been affected. So, why is it happening and what does it all mean?

Skull and Bones, the live service pirate game that released just over two weeks ago on PS5, is already having its price slashed across the US and Europe. It was a full-price title at launch — your now-standard $69.99 / £69.99 — but it's currently down to as low as $44.99 / £49.85 (as reported by VGC). While that's certainly not what we'd call cheap, it's still a significant discount after such a short length of time on the market, and it suggests that retailers are struggling to shift copies.

For those too young to remember, the Year 2000 Problem, also known as the Y2K scare, was a brief, glorious bit of chaos enjoyed in the late 90s when fears of a catastrophic computing apocalypse were rampant, a total collapse predicted because of differences in dating systems. We got to relive some of that magic today, as publishers EA and Square Enix were caught wrong-footed by the extra day in February, leading games from both to be temporarily rendered inoperable.

Just a day after Sony confirmed it's laying off 900 PlayStation employees across its first-party studios, publisher EA has announced it's doing the same. In the region of 670 workers — or around five per cent of the company's workforce — will lose their jobs as the EA Sports FC, Battlefield distributor moves «away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry».

Of the 900 PlayStation employees that lost their jobs during yesterday's layoffs, it's reported that roughly 40 of them — or 10 per cent of the developer's workforce — belonged to Horizon Forbidden West team Guerrilla Games. Dutch outlet AD shared the news that the layoffs at Guerrilla Games concerned «ten percent of the staff, or about forty of the more than four hundred employees», having spoken to sources.

A new Twisted Metal project has reportedly been cancelled as part of today's layoffs across Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Twisted Metal game, which was said to be a live service, was rumoured to be in developed at Firesprite, a Sony-owned studio that is affected by today's layoffs.

Everywhere developer Build A Rocket Boy has reportedly been hit with layoffs.

Bandai Namco has revealed that it cancelled at least five in-development games, and will change its internal development structure moving forward. Stricter rules will make it more difficult for future games to proceed past specific development milestones, as increasing costs make games even more expensive, risky propositions.

Sony has flagged another 2,000 PS5 and PS4 items for discount on the PS Store, with the price of a variety of add-on packs and full games slashed by up to 90 per cent. Some standouts, after a cursory glance, include the Digital+ Edition of Marvel’s Midnight Suns for a lowly £17.49/$29.99 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s Deluxe Edition for £50.24/$53.59.