Sony Interactive Entertainment to Lay Off 8% of its Workforce, Hitting Guerilla Games, Insomniac Games And Naughty Dog

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that they will be laying off roughly 900 people, about 8% of their workforce, affecting their internal studios such as Guerilla Games, Insomniac Games, and Naughty Dog.

In the Sony Interactive Entertainment blog post, Jim Ryan, current President and Head of SIE said that clear changes needed to be made to develop and grow the business. As such, the difficult decision was made after months of careful consideration and leadership discussions.

Jim Ryan, the current president will be stepping down in March 2024. With Sony Group Corporation president and chief operating officer Hiroki Totoki taking on the role of interim CEO starting from April 1st, 2024.

They also mentioned that affected employees will receive support, including severance benefits upon their departure.

Soon after the first post, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst updated on what studios have been impacted by the workforce reduction, in which he revealed that Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog are impacted.

For those unaware, Insomniac Games are the developers behind Marvel’s Spider-Man series and Ratchet & Clank series, while Naughty Dog is the developer of The Last of Us series.

He then announces that further reductions will happen in Guerrilla Games, the makers of the Horizon series, and Firesprite, a British Studio that was acquired by PlayStation Studios in 2021.

After the blog post was made, Guerilla Games reportedly laid off 10% of its workforce as part of the reorganization at PlayStation, as reported by AD. An unannounced Twisted Metal live service game that was being developed by Firesprite was also reportedly canceled, according to a Bloomberg reporter’s post.

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

Across the past year, gaming companies’ mass layoff news has continued to rise, with Sony Interactive being one of the more recent casualties. Just yesterday, the developer of Until Dawn, Supermassive Games also announced a layoff of 30% of their workforce. Microsoft has also seen a huge number of layoffs, with 10,000 employees laid off on January last year.

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