2023 has seen a devastating spree of layoffs throughout the games industry, from Embracer Group to Epic Games to Microsoft and many, many others, and, to little surprise, companies are still looking to make cuts in an effort to reduce costs. In particular, new details have emerged on similar internal plans within Sony, thanks to the recent data breach suffered by Insomniac Games.
A report published by Kotaku has shed light on internal documents that suggest that Sony is demanding lower budgets – which isn’t surprising, given the eye-watering budgets its AAA first party titles are now being developed on – while it seems the company has also stipulated that a development team working on a single game cannot exceed 470 people going forward.
There’s also mention of potential layoffs, and the possibility of Sony shuttering a first party studio, though there’s no word on what studio will be targeted. The company also seems to be asking all of its first party studios to make job cuts in the future. It’s unconfirmed whether these cuts have already taken place or are still part of the plan, but all of this is as per a file dated as recently as November 9, so it’s likely the latter.
Specifically where Insomniac Games is concerned, it seems the developer is looking to cut about 50-75 jobs in the coming year, and leaked internal documents suggest there’s been some internal considerations about how to go about that. Seemingly, the studio is looking at cutting those jobs “deeply” into the production of Marvel’s Wolverine, which is seemingly targeting a 2026 release, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 3, which is targeting a 2028 launch.
In the leaked files, Insomniac mentions it feels cuts within development teams working on its new IP and a new Ratchet and Clank game “will not account for the reductions Sony is looking for”, and with many of the studio’s veterans working in those teams, it feels any cuts there would “lose institutional knowledge and leadership that is key for future titles”.
PlayStation hasn’t been immune to 2023’s industry-wide layoffs, with the likes of Naughty Dog and Media Molecule having suffered job cuts over recent months. Meanwhile, earlier in the year, Concrete Genie developer PixelOpus was shut down.
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