London Studio

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?

Sony president Hiroki Totoki will today step into his new role as PlayStation CEO following Jim Ryan's retirement after a more than 30-year tenure at the company. While retaining his duties across the wider business, Totoki's main objective will be to aid the search for a true successor to Jim Ryan while defining «the next chapter of PlayStation's future».

Hiroki Totoki officially takes control of PlayStation as their interim CEO, starting today, April 1, 2024.

Sony first-party developer Bend Studios is staffing up for another «AAA live service» game, and it seems that PlayStation will continue to chase the live service dragon. When we last heard from the Oregan-based developer of Days Gone, Bend said it was still «cooking» and, if nothing else, seemed confident whatever they were working on would take the studio to the next level.

PlayStation has released a digital Jim Ryan bobblehead to commemorate the exec's time at the company.

Something Wicked Games has reportedly laid off «most of» its staff, according to a handful of people impacted.

Sony has reportedly temporarily halted all production of the PlayStation VR2. The company's purported decision to hit pause on PS VR2 manufacturing is said to be a result of the headset's lackluster sales, which caused an inventory buildup.

Sony is rumored to have temporarily halted manufacture of their PlayStation VR 2 headsets.

Naughty Dog announced in December that it had cancelled The Last of Us Online, but stated at the same time that it was working on multiple “ambitious, brand new” single player games. We’ve known for a while that at least one of those is being directed by Neil Druckmann – co-president of Naughty Dog and director of the Last of Us games and Uncharted 4 – and speaking recently on rapper Logic’s podcast Logically Speaking.

It sounds like all is not well at Sony studio Firesprite, which the platform holder acquired in 2021. Despite moving into expensive new digs in its home city of Liverpool, a Eurogamer report paints an extremely grim picture of the outfit, which is allegedly bleeding staff and lost its managing director Graeme Ankers suddenly last May.

Sony has today confirmed around 900 PlayStation employees — or around eight per cent of its workforce — are being laid off in order to «future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead». As a result of the downsizing, PlayStation's own London Studio is being closed completely and Firesprite will be reduced in size. The staff reductions will also hit Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Guerrilla Games. Some unannounced games have been cancelled.

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.

Sony has confirmed that «some» unannounced games in development within PlayStation Studios have been cancelled as a result of the decision to lay off around 900 employees. In a separate article from Hermen Hulst, it's explained: «We looked at our studios and our portfolio, evaluating projects in various stages of development, and have decided that some of those projects will not move forward.»

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.

PlayStation recently announced that it will be reducing its workforce by roughly 8 percent, which translates to around 900 layoffs, and given that number, it’s no surprise that the effects are going to be felt across the company. A number of major first-party studios are set to make job cuts, Firepsrite’s rumoured Twisted Metal game has been cancelled (alongside reports of workplace toxicity within the studio), while SIE London Studio has been shut down entirely.

Guerrilla’s multiplayer Horizon game is reportedly not among a number of recently cancelled PlayStation titles.

EA is the latest game company to announce layoffs, with 5% of its workforce to be made redundant. From the most recent headcount EA provided – 13,400 in March 2023 – that would amount to around 670 people.

Deck Nine has announced that it had laid off 20% of its overall workforce, due to the current market situation which has led to a large scale series of redundancies across the video game industry. The developer, which has developer Life Is Strange: True Colors, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, Life Is Strange Remastered Collection, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, confirmed the news of X, formerly known as Twitter.

Yesterday, shortly after EA laid off 670 employees and canceled a new Respawn game, a report has revealed Mass Effect 5 is still alive, and in pre-production.

EA is the latest game company to announce layoffs, with 5% of its workforce to be made redundant. From the most recent headcount EA provided – 13,400 in March 2023 – that would amount to around 670 people.

Deck Nine has announced that it had laid off 20% of its overall workforce, due to the current market situation which has led to a large scale series of redundancies across the video game industry. The developer, which has developer Life Is Strange: True Colors, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, Life Is Strange Remastered Collection, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, confirmed the news of X, formerly known as Twitter.

As part of the sweeping layoffs of 900 Sony Interactive Entertainment employees, Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, has confirmed that there have been some game cancellations.

Deck Nine Games has confirmed that it’s laying off 20 percent of its staff as a result of being affected by “the games industry’s worsening market conditions.”

As part of the sweeping layoffs of 900 Sony Interactive Entertainment employees, Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, has confirmed that there have been some game cancellations.

It’s been confirmed that 10 Chambers, the studio behind the horror shooter GTFO and upcoming cooperative heist shooter Den of Wolves, has laid off a number of its staff amid changes intended to “benefit the long-term development” of its next game.

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.

Sony has announced mass layoffs across PlayStation Studios with 8% or around 900 people set to be made redundant across their worldwide studios. This will include the complete shutdown of London Studio, while Naughty Dog, Insomniac and other studios are affected as well.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is laying off around 900 workers, or 8% of the company, outgoing president and CEO Jim Ryan said in a news release published on Tuesday. Employees from all regions — North America; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; Japan; and Asia-Pacific — are impacted by the cuts, including several PlayStation development studios. London Studio, the in-house team that created the SingStar series, will close entirely, Ryan said.

Sony is to lay off 900 people, equating to eight percent of its workforce. This reduction will see PlayStation Studios' London Studio close in its entirety, plus reductions made within Sony's Firesprite studio. There will also be reductions in various functions across SIE in the UK

Sony is the latest company in the video game industry to announce massive layoffs in 2024. We’ve learned that Sony Interactive Entertainment is letting go of about 900 people across several studios; PlayStation’s London Studio will shut down as a result.

PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst has said the platform holder is “reevaluating how we operate” as part of its decision to lay off 900 employees worldwide.

PlayStation is set to lay off around 900 employees worldwide.

Sony Interactive Entertainment will lay off about 900 employees across the globe, or about eight percent of its total workforce, the company announced. London Studio, which was developing an online cooperative combat game set in a fantasy London for PlayStation 5, will also close in its entirety as a result of the lay offs.

PlayStation is laying off 900 workers. As part of this, it will shut down its London Studio entirely, likely cancelling its announced new IP. There will also be layoffs at other Sony-owned studios in the UK, including Firesprite studio, which it acquired in 2021.

Supermassive Games has made quite a name for itself. After the success of Until Dawn, the studio has continued with similar gameplay experiences. We’ve seen the team bring out titles like The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of games that played out similar to Until Dawn. However, you might be surprised to learn that Until Dawn was not the original development team responsible for getting this project off the ground. Instead, the developer responsible initially for this horror game was Sony’s London Studio. 

Sony will only release six live titles by the end of March 2026 instead of the 12 initially announced.

PlayStation has a lot of live-service games in development. Part of buying Bungie was even to utilise its expertise, which led to the less-than-favourable internal evaluation of The Last of Us' standalone Factions game. But it's not the only upcoming Sony multiplayer release to be pushed back, as half of its 12 titles have now been delayed.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has halved the number of live service games it plans to release in the coming years, it’s confirmed.