Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan announced today that the company is laying off 900 PlayStation employees, or around eight percent of the company, which will affect a number of its first-party game studios. This includes the closure of Sony’s London Studio, which created VR action-adventure game Blood & Truth (2019).
Ryan announced the news in a company-wide email today, noting that layoffs will affect a number of PlayStation studios across across the Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC.
The email wasn’t specific on where the layoffs will occur, with employees in the US expected to be notified today at some point. In the UK, the company says PlayStation’s London Studio will “close in its entirety.”
As the studio behind PSVR exclusive Blood & Truth, PlayStation’s London Studio was last working on an unannounced online co-op combat game, set in modern fantasy London. It’s expected the game is now cancelled as a result of the studio’s closing.
Ryan says headcount reductions will also affect Firesprite, the studio behind the Horizon franchise, including PSVR 2 exclusive Horizon Call of the Mountain.
This follows recent news that Sony is making PSVR 2 officially compatible with PC VR games, as the company hopes to release some sort of PC support for the headset later this year. Reading between the lines somewhat, it seems Sony is strategically scaling back on first-party content right now, which means an uncertain future for the sort of anchor content PSVR 2 needs as its heads into its second year.
This story is breaking. We’ll be updating soon once it’s more clear exactly which studios in the US are also involved.
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- Source: https://www.roadtovr.com/sony-layoffs-london-horizon-studios/
