It’s no stranger to us, and surely to most of you as well, the great upheaval that the video game industry is undergoing, for several reasons. In this case, we specifically refer to the wave of layoffs, also called “restructuring“, carried out by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which has affected more than 900 jobs, including different subsidiaries such as Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games, developers of our beloved “Marvel’s Spider-Man“, among many other widely known classics.
It is to be assumed that any kind of change regarding such a large workforce, which in turn involves several different subsidiaries, is definitely negative, but recently Insomniac Games has issued a statement through their “X” account (Twitter), in which they lament the layoffs at the studio, and admit that it is an unprecedented situation for the team:
“Like other SIE and PlayStation Studios teams, Insomniac Games was affected by yesterday’s layoffs. There are not enough words to express our feelings about this. It’s a solemn and unprecedented moment for our studio.”
“We are focusing our energy on helping all those affected to overcome this difficult time. For those who are hiring, there are great people looking for new roles who made significant contributions to Insomniac’s history. We are very grateful for them and they will be missed.”
Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, and London Studios Affected
Among other affected studios, in addition to the aforementioned Naughty Dog, creators of sagas such as The Last Of Us, and Uncharted, we find Guerrilla Games, developers of classics and beloved titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn, its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, or the Killzone series, which includes titles such as Killzone 1, 2, and 3, and Killzone Shadow Fall. In a workforce of 400 employees, more than 10% have had to leave their positions, which is not at all common or easy to digest.
Between layoffs and project changes, other studios like Visual Arts have also suffered the consequences of the restructuring, after shifts in focus on a triple-A multiplayer project, which has not been confirmed, but the community assumes could be related to The Last Of Us multiplayer mode. Although it has not been officially confirmed that Naughty Dog is responsible for these layoffs, this whole situation has also notably affected its workforce, mainly after the development of said multiplayer was paused to evaluate its quality and long-term viability, after which only a small group of employees continued working on the game, and many others were assigned to different projects.
Perhaps the cherry on this sad cake is the case of London Studio, known for developing the SingStar series, EyePet, and VR titles such as PlayStation VR Worlds and Blood & Truth. The fact is that London Studio will be closed as part of this restructuring move. In numbers, the total amount of people affected by these labor changes is not known, but we are talking about an ENTIRE STUDIO!, with all that that entails.
There is no nice final note, but on the contrary, we are left with a uncomfortable bitter feeling. Behind the video game industry, everything, absolutely everything, is basically business, and seen from an external and cold perspective, everything works with some basic principles: market evaluation, supply and demand, likelihood of success, viability, and many other things that to many of us could be boring or about which we have limited knowledge. BUT, as fans, and many of us, GAMERS, members of the community, who have undoubtedly made great to our own beloved franchises like Marvel’s Spiderman, among many others, we cannot help but feel shocked or sad by these news…
Go ahead, the comments are all yours. Come and share your opinion, please, you know, we’ll read you… 😔
Images Source: X (Twitter), Reddit
