Two months in 2024 and the video game industry is facing another round of major layoffs. This time, Sony has announced that it is laying off about 8% or about 900 people across its global PlayStation workforce. This affects PlayStation studios such as Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Guerrilla,. Most significantly, PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety.

As a result of those lay-offs, it is not surprising that projects that were in development have been cancelled. According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, this includes a Twisted Metal live-service game that was in development at UK-based studio Firesprite.

SOURCE

 

[DJPlace]

i'm going call it something is going happen to MICROSOFT.

 

[CoolMe]

This is what you get for fucking over both Crunchyroll and Funamation!

Im somewhat out of the loop here, tho i did hear about Funimation closing but i didn't know exactly why.. Is Sony somehow one of the reasons that happened?

 

[SkittleDash]

Didn't they recently bash Microsoft for laying off employees? Does this count as hypocriticism? lol

 

[MikaDubbz]

Make a Twisted Metal game, but built to last, not live service shit.

I mean if it was built on a model like Rocket League, I don't see the big deal. That game is both built to last and it's a live service game.

 

[Xzi]

Can live service games be played offline for a single player mode?

Maybe it is, but online-only games are eventually going to become unplayable just like MAG was.

Live-service games don't HAVE to be online-only, but yeah they do pair together to make a shit sandwich quite often.

 

[Glyptofane]

Karmic retribution for the gutting and dissolution of Japan Studio. I only hope some of the startups that came out of that will succeed.

 

[tsam2]

Can live service games be played offline for a single player mode?

Maybe it is, but online-only games are eventually going to become unplayable just like MAG was.

Holy crap. I remember selling this game to a retail shop. The employee told me that they don't accept online only games, but I told him that on their site they have a list with games that they buy second hand - and guess what MAG was in it. The best bargain i've gotten, I felt like selling a box with rocks.

 

[K3Nv3]

Selling ps5: $600 DVD drive included.

 

[seseiSeki]

Firesprite? That's the new Psygnosis or "Studio Liverpool." They got thrown out by Sony again? Man...
I guess Sony really is not interested in new WipEout games.

 

[DJ-Yoshiman]

Good!
Fuck Sony and fuck live service games! This is what you get for fucking over both Crunchyroll and Funamation!
I hope we see the Big N and M$ suffering next

Why don't you want GBATemp to exist?

 

[Bladexdsl]

guess there won't be a ps6 not that it will matter that won't have any games either

 

[codezer0]

While I typically will take any opportunity to celebrate some schadenfreude on Sony, I am inclined to feel empathy for the affected employees.

Unless they were executive level staff; not a single one deserves any less than life in prison.

 

[Tri-Z]

it's not going to hurt the company as a whole at all. it's just regular people getting fucked over by the execs who'll still make millions while their employees struggle to pay rent.
This is just another scheme to attempt to make ~line go up~ because infinite profitability is the goal of all companies now, despite that goal being detrimental to all industries, and leading to creatively bankrupt products.
But the execs don't care because they'll profit either way.

Gotta love how in their letter they been discussing it for months but probably left the employees that were gonna be affected in the dark until they sent their letter. Yeh I bet they feel real bad they have to let those people go. Wanted to make sure it didn’t affect their productivity and to squeeze the most quality work out of them b4 dumping them.
Prob the same as most companies, get rid of the higher paid employees that know what they are doing and bring in young talent that can get away with paying less. Pass the declining quality games onto the consumers that will prob keep buying whatever they feed them.

 

[LightyKD]

Good!
Fuck Sony and fuck live service games! This is what you get for fucking over both Crunchyroll and Funamation!
I hope we see the Big N and M$ suffering next

Ironically, if everyone listened to Nintendo back in 06 about the price of game development and how maybe, just maybe the industry needs to slow down a bit, things would not be as bad.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Maybe every major studio has realised that making $300 million games that take 7 years to develop isn't sustainable and everyone's downsizing.

Good thing for the industry possibly (bad for workers let go tho)

 

[Subtle Demise]

So looks like the industry is due to crash every 40 years or so since the first one. How can we accelerate this?

 

[orangy57]

I'm not a fan of live service battle pass slop but a new microtransaction twisted metal game is better than no twisted metal game. tragic

 

[Metoroid0]

They canceled twisted metal tv show...gee i wonder why.

 

[Marc_LFD]

They canceled twisted metal tv show...gee i wonder why.

Oh that's good news, then. That show was shit.

I'll admit, it got me interested on what was going to happen on season 2, but season 1 was boring as hell.

Unfortunately, the Halo show is still going even though it feels more like a CW show.

 

[Metoroid0]

Oh that's good news, then. That show was shit.

I'll admit, it got me interested on what was going to happen on season 2, but season 1 was boring as hell.

Unfortunately, the Halo show is still going even though it feels more like a CW show.

none of those are passion projects, so they are doom to fail from the start.