Sony's London Studio, Media Molecule Were Reportedly 'Highest on the List' for Closure | Push Square

Last week was packed with a number of notable new video game releases, though as per the latest weekly physical sales data released by the Gfk for the UK (shared by GamesIndustry’s Christopher Dring on Twitter), none of the new releases were actually the region’s best-selling game last week. EA Sports FC 24 took the No. 1 spot, with Dragon’s Dogma 2 coming in at second place.

Sony has established a brand new production line for PlayStation 5 discs in Brazil, which should help make it easier for players in Latin America to obtain physical media for the console.

PS5 deals have hit both the US and UK in Amazon's Spring Sale, offering up a fantastic Spider-Man 2 bundle with a price cut to boot in the former region and a record discount on the console itself across the pond. That means players on both sides of the ocean can grab Sony's latest console with some serious value attached. 

Sony may have revised its PS5 sales estimate for the current financial year, which will end on 31st March. But unsurprisingly it still wants to sell as many systems as possible, which means it’s going to make one last push for that all-important 21 million units target it’s been eyeing. And how does it intend to do that? One last round of price promotions.

Helldivers 2 was only released last month and, already, it has had rave reviews among gamers. Early reports from those who have played the game applaud its challenging nature and it has provided a great follow-up to the first game, which was released in 2015.

The boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has denied a recent rumour that Sony is buying the studio.

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 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.

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.»

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.