PlayStation recently announced that it will be reducing its workforce by roughly 8 percent, which translates to around 900 layoffs, and given that number, it’s no surprise that the effects are going to be felt across the company. A number of major first-party studios are set to make job cuts, Firepsrite’s rumoured Twisted Metal game has been cancelled (alongside reports of workplace toxicity within the studio), while SIE London Studio has been shut down entirely.
In fact, another UK-based first-party PlayStation studio was also considered for closure, according to journalist Ethan Gach, who has claimed in his Substack newsletter Dead Game that alongside SIE London Studio, Sony was also looking at LittleBigPlanet and Dreams studio Media Molecule as a candidate for closure, before deciding to shut down the latter.
According to Gach, London Studio ended up being shuttered due to the slow progress it was making on its PS5 live service fantasy game. Switching from VR to console development and treading into an entirely different genre, progress on the project was apparently not satisfactory to Sony, and London Studio allegedly not expecting the game to “see the light of day anytime soon” seemingly contributed to the studio’s shuttering.
Media Molecule’s last project was Dreams, which was a critical success – sitting at a Metacritic score of 89 – but failed to attract a large enough audience to remain relevant for too long. Support for Dreams ended in September last year, with Media Molecule confirming that it was working on its next game, and that it wouldn’t be a Dreams sequel.
Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healy – who also directed LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Dreams – left the studio last year. In October, Media Molecule laid off around 20 of its employees.
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