"Wave of layoffs" at PlayStation reported by developer of unannounced game
rockpapershotgun.com2023's mass eradication of the games industry continues with reports of layoffs at Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation Studios. It's unclear how extensive these losses are - Sony have yet to provide comment, at the time of writing - but they appear to include staff at PlayStation's Visual Arts studio, based in San Diego, which supports developers like The Last of Us creators Naughty Dog and Spider-Man 2 creators Insomniac.
"Unfortunately, following a wave of layoffs last week was my last at Playstation," reads a LinkedIn update from senior level designer and Ubisoft alumnus Daniel Bellemare, whose credits include Assassin's Creed Valhalla. "While this is certainly not news I was hoping for, I'm grateful to have had a chance to work amongst extremely talented colleagues on incredible projects and I'm leaving with good memories of my time there."
Bellamare had been at PlayStation for just five months, joining in May 2023 to work on an "unannounced project" with combat elements. His CV notes for good measure that his "role ended due to layoffs at Playstation - not performance related".
Senior technical recruiter Matt Barney has also lost his job, as detailed in a plucky emoji-strewn goodbye post. "For the past few months, I knew this layoff wave was coming," he wrote. "I love PlayStation & I always will... I mean, I stayed when I had the chance to leave, so obviously!"
Barney worked with a number of teams within PlayStation, including MLB: The Show developer San Diego Studio, God of War support studio Valkyrie Entertainment and XDEV, the UK-based studio that began life as part of WipEout creator Sony Liverpool. "To those of you within my former organization that have been impacted today, I wish you the
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