Following the tragic trend of the year 2024, Sony will lay off 900 PlayStation employees from the studio, affecting several regions.

PlayStation has announced layoffs in several studios, which shows a worrying trend in the gaming sector even in 2024. The move is just the latest in a series of mass layoffs the gaming industry has faced over the past year. Based on Sony’s latest announcement, it looks like this trend is unlikely to slow down in the coming months.

Last year, some of Sony’s own studios, such as Media Molecule and Visual Arts Group, were affected by layoffs, as well as the downsizing of The Last of Us producer Naughty Dog.

Rumors of more layoffs followed these announcements. But the company did not provide details at that time. Now that the gaming industry is on track for more than 6,000 layoffs in the first two months of 2024, Sony is apparently taking more drastic cost-cutting measures.

Sony has announced that it will lay off 900 PlayStation employees. This is about 8% of the global workforce. Sectors affected include the VR gaming division, where Sony is closing its London studio. Also, Firesprite, the Horizon Call of the Mountain VR game developer, is being taken down. The layoffs may also affect Guerrilla, Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games staff. This confirms rumours that Sony is under pressure to cut Spider-Man 2, development staff. Commenting on the news, the outgoing head of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, stated that the decision was made after several months of discussion within management.

It is a means to “move forward focusing on the long-term sustainability of the company” while “delivering the best experiences possible” for PlayStation.

Could the new Twisted Metal be cut due to PlayStation layoffs?!

A previously unannounced Twisted Metal game has reportedly been cancelled amid layoffs at PlayStation. The Liverpool-based development company Firesprite would be behind the return of Twisted Metal. It was rumoured to be a live service game.

The unannounced Twisted Metal cancellation report comes from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who confirmed that it was due to mass layoffs at PlayStation today.

The game was intended as a live service series by Sony developer Firesprite, founded from the ashes of Studio Liverpool. As part of the layoffs, Firesprite was noted as one of the hardest-hit teams. So, unfortunately, deletion seems to be a natural consequence of this. Firesprite previously co-developed Horizon Call of the Mountain with Guerrilla Games before apparently moving away to work on Twisted Metal.

Right after his first report, however, Schreier dispelled some rumours that had surfaced in the wake of the Twisted Metal news. Speculation has been that the title was close to completion when it was cancelled. But Schreier confirmed that the game is very early in development. In fact, it hasn’t even been given the green light yet. This means that even without the layoffs, there’s a chance the title would never have seen the light of day, regardless. The previous title in the series was one of the best vehicle-based games on the PS3. It’s sad to hear that the work done so far is going to waste like this.

Source: The Guardian, X

NEW: As part of today's mass layoff, Sony has canceled a Twisted Metal live-service game that was in development at UK-based studio Firesprite, Bloomberg has learned.

Firesprite will also lay off an unspecified number of people. https://t.co/pvCDsS7yxe

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 27, 2024