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

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B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Loch Doun said:
Kratos is to Sony what Mario is to Nintendo what Master Chief is to Microsoft.
You can bet there will be a new God of War game.
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Kratos is from 2005
Master Chief is from 2001
Mario is from 1981

Maybe we're lucky and Kratos dies before he hits the 10 years that makes him immortal.
 
G

Gammacide

Member
In terms of the layoffs it could just be par for the course--once a game goes into production they don't need all the staff that helped up to that point.

In terms of the cancelled game, it could be anything really. If they want to focus on the biggest and best that the studio has to offer then it would make sense to cancel something smaller and reallocate some of the staff to the bigger or more-assuredly successful project.
 
D

Dragon1893

Member
Meier said:
To say that the series has had significant fatigue for a very long time is an understatement. When you don't innovate, people can only deal with the same thing for so long. There's no passion from the fans or the developers for the series at this point. I think it's probably an IP that needs a very long rest or a MAJOR overhaul. New gods, new era, etc.
Click to expand...

You said the franchise has been going downhill for a very long time which is a lie. GoW3 was the biggest GoW ever and was very well received by both fans and critics.
What you say only applies to the most recent entry.
I agree that GoW should be retired but it was still growing until recently. Everything you're saying only happened with the release of Ascension.
 
A

Ape

Banned
Fuck, 50 people. Let's see if we can't start another thread to help them out like we did with the Irrational devs! I live close to their studio and it's EXPENSIVE to survive down here. These will appreciate it, trust me.
 
R

reptilescorpio

Member
First reaction is a Vita title, although I find it hard to believe SCEA even let them prototype Vita games at this point.

And yeah, Ascension team or a brand new team would be the most likely to take a hit.
 
A

Apathy

Member
Hope those that lost their job find new ones. 50 does not seem like too many but you still never want to hear people loosing their job. hope the project that was cancelled was not one of the balrog or stig ones but I don't know what else it could have been (unannounced one?).
 
Freeman

Freeman

Banned
Who works on that new building SCEA was boasting about last year? If they are forced to downsize a studio like SSM, maybe they shouldn't be spending that money.

Its also strange that they were offering to hire Irrational staff, just last week.
 
V

Vizzeh

Banned
Its possibly a restructuring. I think game developement has changed with a pre-production team and 1-2 main projects.170 people is still fairly sizable.
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Loch Doun said:
Why? God3 was solid. I wouldn't mind another trilogy, but more like God3 and less like Ascension.
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Fuck that. We had 6 games in under 10 years. Enough is enough.

Freeman said:
Who works on that new building SCEA was boasting about last year? If they are forced to downsize a studio like SSM, maybe they shouldn't be spending that money.

Its also strange that they were offering to hire Irrational staff, just last week.
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Sony Santa Monica are the ones that are switching offices because their current office was too small. (Allegedly.)
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
That's a lot of people. Were they just gearing up to be three teams? Would this signal a switch back to two teams?

A small number of redundancies could indicate minor restructuring, but this seems too big for that. Also seems early in the generation to start paring back. You want to get that momentum going.

Hmm.
 
C

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
TheOddOne said:
50 people laid off.
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Finally, some numbers. Sounds like a preproduction team. Or a Vita game. We really need to some insiders on this case. But they are hiring, and they are moving. So the cancelled game thing sounds correct, I guess it wasn't going anywhere. How odd.
 
T

Trevelyon

Member
Just hope they weren't part or connected to the "partners" initiative, its absolutely one of the best things Sony WWS has going for it going into next-gen and to cull it or pull it back drastically would be very unsettling. Obviously anyone losing there employment is unsettling, of course.
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
coolasj19 said:
Finally, some numbers. Sounds like a preproduction team. Or a Vita game. We really need to some insiders on this case. But they are hiring, and they are moving. So the cancelled game thing sounds correct, I guess it wasn't going anywhere. How odd.
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Pretty sure it was a preproduction team and I doubt it was Barlog's since their goal was to gather a lot of industry talent for that. Either that or some of the partners people.
 
Freeman

Freeman

Banned
benny_a said:
Fuck that. We had 6 games in under 10 years. Enough is enough.

?
Sony Santa Monica are the ones that are switching offices because their current office was too small.
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Im not talking about SSM, I'm talking about PlayStation New building in NA.
 
O

Off-Kilter

Banned
50 people yikes. Never good to hear about layoffs, but 50 people is practically a whole team. I wonder if it was a Vita game.

Hope everyone lands on their feet.
 
T

TrojanBlade

Member
Wasn't SSM on a hiring spree? I think we had threads about them hiring? It's one of the best Sony studio, and I hope new PS4 games don't get canned. And hope they find jobs soon. Layoffs are always hard.
 
R

ReaperXL7

Member
They probably won't, but Sony should get out in front of news like this. In the internet age speculation just runs wild, and people start thinking all kinds of crazy shit. I can't imagine how it benefits them to be silent on stuff like this rather than just explaining the reasons this happened.

They will keep quiet and let the press have a field day with it though.
 
A

Ape

Banned
sn00zer said:
So when is the photshopped version of the people no longer with the studio going to show up
12202341333_744db5ed18_z.jpg
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Are you serious right now?
 
Nicktendo86

Nicktendo86

Member
Can we stop burying our heads in the sand now about the industry being just fine? It in serious trouble. Everyone buy a wiiu.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
Takao said:
Bend has always tried to make big games. This Santa Monica game could've been some small project on the scale of Tearaway.
Click to expand...

Hmm, not impossible. But it'd probably have to have been greenlit a while after launch in order to not have been announced already, and given the dearth of Western first-party Vita announcements since Gamescom 2012, I'd be more inclined to think that they basically just abandoned or repurposed most such outstanding projects in spring/summer of last year. (Aside from KZ:M and Tearaway, which were close enough to completion at the time to qualify as sunk costs.)

EDIT: 50 people? Probably Stig's new PS4 IP, then.
 
B

beril

Member
A company like Sony really shouldn't be laying people off right now regardless of cancelled games. In a big studio working on multiple AAA projects it should be relatively easy to move people between projects, and Sony Santa Monica has a history of assisting other teams at Sony as well so there has to be some way to utilise their talent even if the there's not a full project for them at the moment. Sony need as much manpower they can get to support the PS4 lineup, so this is certainly not a good sign, though it's hard to judge without knowing the extent of the cutbacks.

edit: 50 people? ouch
 
D

Dragon1893

Member
Damn that's a lot of people. They definitely had 3 projects going and cut it down to 2.
Hell, If there are only 170 left that's less staff than most AAA projects get these days, no way they're doing more than 2 games simultaneously now.
 
S

Sword Of Doom

Member
BruiserBear said:
I honestly don't have a lot of faith in the man. I think he's incredibly likeable, but I believe Sony's worldwide studios have been very poorly managed over the past 5-8 years.
Click to expand...

Please elaborate

Giant Panda said:
We don't have all the information, but from what we do know this puts Yoshida's management in a bad light.
Click to expand...

We have no idea what is really going on. I don't understand where this is coming from. Also his job is probably a lot more difficult than if should be given how bad Sony is doing financially.
 
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