Amidst economic uncertainty, the technology and entertainment industries have been cutting projects and downsizing their workforce as of late. It appears that the Sony PlayStation family is next on the docket of layoffs with multiple PlayStation-backed projects being shut down in recent weeks. Just over a week ago we saw award-winning first party PlayStation studio PixelOpus closed and this week the trend continued with more project cancellations.
First reported by Timur222 (@bogorad222 on Twitter), Sony has reportedly cancelled an unannounced sci-fi shooter in development at First Strike Games. The game had been in development for 3 years and was being planned to launch on PS5 and PC in approximately 2 years time. Timur, who is known for drawing his information from LinkedIn profile updates of those working in the games industry, has gone on to report that a developer from First Strike reached out to confirm a 40% reduction to the size of the staff with the cancellation of the project.
Sadly, that’s not all. PlayStation backed Deviation Games was also hit with layoffs this week with as many as 90 staff reportedly being affected. Deviation is (or possibly “was”) developing an original AAA IP to be published by PlayStation. At this time, the studio is not currently offering any open roles. It is also unknown if additional PlayStation-backed studios or projects will be downsized in the weeks ahead.
Image from: PlayStation
