It is no secret that it has been a very tough year for the gaming industry with many layoffs, affecting both large and small developers and publishers. And unfortunately, 2024 has continued on the same theme, with Embracer, Microsoft and Unity laying off a large number of employees.
Now it's apparently Sony's turn again, having previously fired staff from Bungie and Naughty Dog, among others. Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier writes that 900 people will be laid off, with their London Studio being hit with a total shut down, which means a major setback for their VR venture, and likely the cancellation of their live service fantasy project.
Schreier adds, "Among other divisions, the layoffs will hit Insomniac (Spider-Man), Naughty Dog (The Last of Us), and Guerrilla (Horizon), three of PlayStation's most successful subsidiaries".
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A reasonable guess is that this is part of the effort to create higher profitability for Sony, which reported such low margins and lower than expected console sales in the latest quarterly report that the share price fell by the equivalent of $10 billion.
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