Layoffs are rocking the video game world. Not one of the main PlayStation studios is immune from it. According to reports at least 25 developers were fired at Naughty Dog. A number of departments were to be affected, including art, production and quality assurance.
Ethan Gach reports on the situation with the authors of The Last of Us and Uncharted My city. He learned this from two sources familiar with the situation. The employees are due to be laid off at the end of October this year, so it is expected that they will still be working in the coming weeks. They should have learned about everything last week and it should be on everyone in the team pressured not to release any information. Also, the management should not have offered them severance pay yet, it should not be required in their contracts.
TROUBLED MULTIPLAYER THE LAST OF US AND WAITING FOR A NEW GAME
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The layoffs may be related to issues with the standalone multiplayer game set in the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us. In May, journalist Jason Schreier of Bloomberg reported that work on the title was to slow down significantly, the team was downsized, and Naughty Dog’s management was to reassess the quality of multiplayer and prospects for its profitability. Bungie studio should have started it when zpochybnilo multiplayer The Last of Us and expressed concerns that the project would be able to interest players in the long term. It is the authors of Destiny from Bungie who are supposed to oversee all live service projects created at PlayStation Studios.
The last big title from Naughty Dog is The Last of Us Part II. The continuation of the story of Joel and Ellie was released in 2020 on PlayStation 4. Since then, we have only seen a remake of the first part, which was called The Last of Us Part I. It arrived on PS5 in 2022 and on PC this March. It has long been speculated that an improved version of the second part should also be released, both for PS5 and mainly PC.
It is appropriate to recall one important thing. A few months ago he announced retirement co-president of Naughty Dog. Evan Wells has worked at the company for 19 years, and Neil Druckmann, who is also head of creative, will take the helm of the studio.
Jim Ryan is also headed for retirement. The CEO and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment will retire on the last day of March next year. Hiroki Totoki, who is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Sony Group Corporation, will become the interim CEO.
Already in January, studio 343 Industries (Halo) from the Microsoft stable was hit hard by the dismissal. In recent months and weeks, other large companies have joined such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Epic Games (laying off 16% of employees) or Embracer Group (cancelling studios and unannounced projects and layoffs).
2023-10-03 12:59:11
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