Ben-DutkaNobody likes to hear about layoffs but they're an unfortunate part of business.
According to a new Videogamer report , Sony has been forced to lay off an undisclosed amount of employees from three of the company's UK studios: Guerrilla Cambridge, SCE London Studio, and Evolution Studios.
In a statement, Sony said that an "internal review" incited this round of layoffs, as there was a "restructuring" need at all these studios. However, the good news is that this hasn't affected the development of the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive, Driveclub , which is in the works at Evolution. That's good to hear, although sometimes it's difficult to believe.
Here's part of the official statement:
"As part of this process, we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and have decided to make some changes to some of our European Studios. As a result of this, there will be a focused restructure within London Studio, Guerrilla Cambridge Studio and Evolution Studio to ensure that the SCE WWS is in the best position to achieve their goals going forward.
Our first party development studios are key to our creative strategy and we are very excited about the future projects being worked on."
Guerrilla is best known for their work on the acclaimed Killzone franchise, while the London studio has handled many of the popular SingStar titles, and they've also been responsible for projects like Wonderbook and The Playroom .
Sad to hear this keeps happening. That Santa Monica one has been the worst thus far. At least these three are not VERY important studios, such as Naughty Dog; now that would be catastrophic.
It's bad news regardless of the studio and Naughty Dog did suffer a significant loss in
Amy Hennig. I'd still like to get the real story behind that ridiculous and unnecessary parting of ways.
Last edited by Gamer46 on 3/26/2014 7:48:29 PM
I tell ya, every time Sony starts focusing r&d that is peripheral at best, like move and 3d and now morpheous, studios get downsized or cut. Yes, all these things are cool, just not at the cost of ultimately what is and always has been the most important…the games.
Couldn't agree more. Sony is already bleeding money. Stop spending it on stuff like VR, which will more than likely go the way of Move or the Eyetoy, neat idea that is ultimately underutilized. That money could be much better spent on securing a major third party exclusive, funding more first party projects or at the very least better marketing. Maybe it's just where I live, but I haven't seen much in the way of advertising for PS4. MS threw a party for Titanfall since June 2013, I didn't see one tv commercial for inFamous Second Son (great, great game by the way) and in the local game stores it was usually just one poster. Sony showed no pride in Sucker Punch's hard work.
Seems to me that rather than closing down a studio or two Sony decided to downsize a select few. I guess to keep up good output of first party games.
One should think that with the introduction of an entirely new platform there would be *plenty* to do at each of their studios.
I just think this is so strange, at this point in time.
Depending on stage of development and corporate strategy, though. I know that Digital Extremes here in London, Ontario had a fairly high number of layoffs about 3 months before the release of a major project, for example. I wonder if the case is similar given that these are all developers and not publishers.
I'm sure there is plenty of work to do maybe Sony just can't afford the payroll anymore.
Remember Sony has been bleeding money for like 5 years in a row. The Sony Reader is gone, the VAIOS are gone, the TV business is under review and there is going to be a 5,000 people workforce laid off. Sad to see Sony like this.
Underdog,
But one should think that with a new platform and an empty catalogue there'd be plenty projects in the pipeline to keep every single little developer occupied in the entire organization *at this point*.
Had this been, say, 2-3 years into the lifespan of the platform then it'd be one thing. But right now? Why aren't they *all* working on projects with a planned release a year or two into the future?
Last edited by Beamboom on 3/25/2014 4:07:51 PM
According to insiders, 2 projects were cancelled in line with these layoffs. Those 2 projects were struggling to get off the ground, they were great on paper but not really working out.
Sounds like a similar thing to what happened at SSM.
Always worrisome to hear news like this. I can't shake the feeling that something is dreadfully wrong with DriveClub, but I'm not surprised by that at all. Also, I wonder if Guerrilla Cambridge is working on the next full-fledged KZ entry considering that the Vita is pretty much dead outside of Japan, leaving the main studio to focus on their new IP (in the works since before the release of KZ3[!]). As for London… whatever. They seem to be Sony's tech demo/family-friendly studio, and I haven't been interested in their projects in quite some time.
This news has a silver lining to me, though. Media Molecule didn't suffer any lay-offs. 🙂
Anyway, hope the people that got let go find their feet soon.
Sony is a complete disaster right now.
Bit of an exaggeration.
I wouldn't say so, been a lot of bad news out of Sony first parties lately. I don't care as long as we keep getting good games but all these layoffs and high profile departures are troubling. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, and honestly I hope that's the case.
well i knew it was only a matter of time before sony's financaes hit SCE and SCE WWS and here's the evidence of that as far as i can see
happy gaming =)
Not really.
People are quick to assume this, but Sony as a whole is restructuring their business, and trying to improve their credit rating.
They can't really have employee's sitting around not doing anything effective, or actively working on funded projects.
2 projects were cancelled and a number of staff working on them had to go.
Where is he?
sigh, $ony really are falling apart!
add SM to that list as well seth confirmed he left the studio today as well.
so they have lost tod, stig, seth, 3 of the biggest best names in the industry!
whos next?
barlog?
funny how every SM game has had a new game director, they pop one out then they say sayonara.
gotta wonder why……………..
Last edited by ___________ on 3/26/2014 3:34:50 AM
Love how they've laid off people from Santa Monica and now three UK studios, yet if you're in Japan and haven't produced a game in 9 years like Team Ico, you're safe.