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IGN: ~50 Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica, Project Canceled [Up2: Was Stig's New IP]

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Dinjooh

Member
And here I thought it was gonna be DRIVECLUB news day since,.. we haven't heard from that title in 100 days.

Bummer.
 
Shitty - though if cutting God of War, I will admit I was growing weary of those titles and would hope Sony is planning to transition talent to a new IP.

Out of the potential three choices I'd prefer GoW to get the axe than Stig or Corey's games. While I've enjoyed all of them I feel like the audience needs and the developers have earned an opportunity to focus on something else.

I imagine this is in response to GoW: Ascension ?

I doubt it. A year ago or eight months ago then maybe, but now it seems too far in the past to be making layoffs as a direct result.

What? How is this his fault? Unless I missed something then slap me.

Yoshida is the boss of Worldwide Studios. I imagine decisions like this would ultimately fall to him.
 

Madness

Member
This is odd, with the momentum Sony has going and all...

They have momentum in their hardware gaming business. The rest of Sony is still in massive trouble and why they spun off their PC business, why they'll probably spin off their television service next, focus on mobile and gaming for the time being.

With the momentum, it makes more sense that they can refocus on some key exclusives, downsize their first party studio a little, they know they aren't doing as bad as MS. It sucks because Sony Santa Monica has a lot of talented developers.
 

RamzaIsCool

The Amiga Brotherhood
"This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS"

Sounds like they canceled a Vita game

Was thinking about the same thing. They sold what... like 17k last NPD and were like fuck it, lost cause!
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Man, folks act like you're not able to have fantastic sales success AND continue to restructure your company for long term growth.

Lasthope106 said:
The layoffs reported in this thread suggest otherwise...

No it doesn't. You're conflating two ideas that aren't necessarily related. That the studio closing is synonymous with a lack of faith on the part of SCE in the console market is a thought that (currently) has no basis in reality.
 
Dayum, this was totally unexpected, best of luck to those affected.

I hope the project affected isn't something major, especially not Stig's project, cause I quite liked God of War 3.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
this is one of sonys flagship studios... why would they downsize here and not elsewhere, if anythi.g japan studios and gg need a major overhaul. whats the future for this company now?
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Evo must have a guardian angel at Sony. DriuveCloob is definitely their last chance, though.

Missing deadlines to the extent they have should speak to them being gone regardless. I still can't get over Liverpool being gone and in the place of a Wipeout PS4 theres just a "whoops we missed launch deadline by half a year+" car disaster.

I imagine people must feel just as miffed internally at The Last Guardians continued development game of tennis while other projects get cancelled. Unless SSM was helping out and thats the team thats been scuttled!
 
Even I didn't have an idea the sales were that bad. Is it really a wonder they let some people go?

It's more a wonder that Sony thought GoW:A was even a good idea. Or maybe they just gave SSM too much freedom.
this is one of sonys flagship studios... why would they downsize here and not elsewhere, if anythi.g japan studios and gg need a major overhaul. whats the future for this company now?

This I can agree with. I know GG helps with engines and tech stuff but I've got no idea how they're allowed to keep making mediocre games with mediocre sales, and then given a whole new second team on top of everything. We're looking at GoW:A bomba numbers but does anyone have KZ2 and KZ3 LTD sales?
 

geordiemp

Member
God of war needed to change the camera angle to be more like other games- the fixed camera was always annoying to me.

Anyway, surprising they are downsizing when so many of us want ports of TLOU / GT6 on Ps4 that would probably sell well.

On the bright side these talented people will hopefully have a good chance of landing on their feet.
 
Face it GAF, the AAA industry is going down in flames. I made a thread a couple of months ago where I brought the observation that teenagers aren't into trying lots of games anymore.

Even all the AAA new IP last E3 looked mostly like the same shit we've played a hundred times before only reskinned. I wouldn't limit it to teenagers though.
 

Yawnier

Banned
Stig's project or Barlog's project? That is what I'm thinking. Stig's project is/was probably further along to Barlog's project given what we know.
 

Sn4ke_911

If I ever post something in Japanese which I don't understand, please BAN me.
It's weird since SSM were one of the few companies, who are ALWAYS hiring.
 
I just hope Stig and Cory's games are still a go. As for the cancelled game...
pour-one-out-o.gif
 

Withnail

Member
WTF, didn't they say they were hiring when Irrational shut down last week? Why would they advertise that they might hire Irrational employees (via twitter), when they were about do a round of layoffs?

Don't get me wrong, I feel for the employees that got laid off.


Not everybody in a company does the same job. It's quite common to be expanding in one discipline while simultaneously downsizing in another.
 

tanod

when is my burrito
My guess is that they decided against tacking multiplayer into another single player game like God of War.

Sorry to those who lost their jobs.
 
I still have no idea how Team Ico exists. Two games released since 1997. What a waste of resources.

they are only like 40-50 people and they've been moved around alot to help with other studio japan projects.

as for this news, we don't really know the impact yet, ie. how many people were laid off and what type of project was cancelled.
 

Zornack

Member
Two big profile studios having major reductions, one outright closed. Face it GAF, the AAA industry is going down in flames. I made a thread a couple of months ago where I brought the observation that teenagers aren't into trying lots of games anymore. This reaffirms that observation. Sure the gaming audience has grown, but I would argue the "core" has actually shrunk in size.

Some of the reactions in this thread are crazy. SSM cancels a project and lays off some people = AAA is dead?

And what are the two studios with major reductions? We have no idea what the scale of the layoffs was here so this can't be one of them.
 

Alchemy

Member
Sounds like SSM was getting a little large, and they're taking this moving period to realign their teams. Sucks, but it doesn't sound like its the result of poor game performances or anything.
 
I did not expect this. Or maybe I should've. Ascension was just a poor idea. I sure hope they didn't can the NOT God of War project, because by jobe I've had enough of that crap.

Of course that is probably what happened :(

GOD OF WAR 10 COMING SOON

EXCLUSIVE TRAILER AT VGX 2014
 
I can't understand first-party closures/downsizing. Sony's got three platforms they're trying to support - don't they need all hands making as much content as possible?

If it's in response to Ascension - the problem with that game was not with the developer, it was with a franchise that had seen its logical conclusion and was fatigued.

Sony is hardly supporting the Vita internally nowadays and ps3 support is winding down to the point where people will get some quick and easy ports of other titles.
Their focus on PS4 has been crystal clear ever since they announced that every studio is working on a game for the machine. Those are the same studios that are done with ps3 games and most didn't even bother with vita titles.
 

Dinda

Member
Damn, hope everyone affected finds a new job soon.

And i can bet they canceled whatever new IP they were working on, and we get more god of war instead.... nothing against God of War, but i really would prefer something new (if it's not an FPS....)
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Of all Sony's studios I would have thought SSM, and Naughty Dog were the safest. SSM especially with all the work they do helping other developers, it's even weirder considering they were just hiring.

This fucking sucks.
 
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