Media Molecule Was Close to Being Shuttered as Part of PlayStation Layoffs – Rumour

Media Molecule has set a date for the last of its staff affected by layoffs announced last October to leave the studio.

Studio Media Molecule has been winding down its live development and support for Dreams for a while now, as it shifts towards work on its next big game. The next step in this process is the stoppage of the game's live curation, which has been manually handled by a dedicated team since the game's launch.

Media Molecule has confirmed that its curation team is being let go as part of previously announced layoffs.

Earlier today, rumours started swirling that PlayStation was moments away from announcing its acquisition of Arrowhead Game Studios, the Swedish team behind the wildly successful Helldivers 2. While the two parties already have a strong relationship – Sony has published both of the Helldivers titles – founder Johan Pilestedt was quick to pour cold water on the reports.

There’s a lot to love about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and its open world setting is surely high on that list. On top of being massive and incredibly varied across its many different regions, the entire map is also entirely seamless, which means you’re never hit with a loading screen when traveling from one area to the next (unless, of course, you’re fast traveling). Interestingly, however, according to producer Yoshinori Kitase, the game’s open world design wouldn’t have been quite so impressive if it hadn’t been developed as a platform-exclusive title.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios is not being acquired by Sony, according to its CEO.

PlayStation’s MO when it comes to acquisitions has often been to pick up studios that it has previously worked with as exclusive second-party developers, from Guerrilla and Insomniac to, more recently, the likes of Housemarque and Bluepoint Games. Independent team Arrowhead Game Studios has, of course, recently joined the ranks of external teams that have had successful partnerships with Sony, thanks to the unexpected success of Helldivers 2, and recent rumours had begun claiming that, in keeping with its strategy, Sony had agreed an acquisition of Arrowhead as well.

Sony has confirmed it's cancelled «some» unannounced games at PlayStation Studios, and according to Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, one of them is the long-rumoured Twisted Metal game from Firesprite. The journalist reports the project was in «early development» and hadn't been greenlit by Sony to go into full production yet, according to a source.

Update: Sony has officially released the PS5 Slim, which is slowly starting to replace the original model at retail. All the details and links you need have been added below.

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.

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.

Media Molecule has reportedly avoided closure amid the continuing round of layoffs. In 2023, approximately 9,000 workers in the video game industry were hit by a round of layoffs and some of these workers included employees at Media Molecule. Perhaps the most shocking was the fact that these layoffs had hit the biggest companies, such as Hasbro, EA, Microsoft, and more. It seemed like that was the worst it would get, and many looked to 2024 with hope for the future.