Sony is closing PlayStation London, the studio behind Blood & Truth, and laying off staff in the studios behind Horizon Call Of The Mountain.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) revealed it will soon commence “a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people” across all regions through an organizational restructuring. Most prominently affected is PlayStation Studios’ London Studio, best known for Blood & Truth and PlayStation VR Worlds on PSVR.
A letter from SIE’s outgoing president, Jim Ryan confirms the London Studio “will close in its entirety,” coupled with a “reduction in various functions across SIE in the UK.” Furthermore, Horizon Call of the Mountain co-developers Guerrilla Games and Firesprite – the latter of which was acquired by Sony in 2021 following The Playroom VR and The Persistence, also face “reductions” but not outright closure. Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, confirmed Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog and more studios were also affected.
PlayStation is yet another division facing heavy layoffs, adding to an already turbulent time within gaming. The games industry reportedly reached over 10,000 layoffs in 2023 alone. Before this week, there had been over 6400 estimated job losses in 2024. Adding to this is Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR developer Supermassive Games, and Bloomberg reports “roughly 90” employees are currently at risk. You may recall that just before Christmas, First Contact Entertainment, who developed Firewall Ultra which was published by SIE, shut down four months after launch.
Today’s announcement also throws renewed doubt on PlayStation VR2, which reached its first anniversary last week with announcements for Zombie Army VR and Little Cities: Bigger!. While it’s currently unknown if London Studio was developing anything for PSVR 2, seeing two of Sony’s most experienced VR developers hit by layoffs will do little to encourage faith in the headset’s future.
Henry Stockdale
