Although the article "hints" (speculates) this is the case, the leaks that I saw don't support this. Sony have put in place measures across their internal studios intended to stop costs spiralling upwards the way they have been. This looks to be about games costing tens of millions of dollars above their original budgets.What Hacked Files Tell Us About The Studio Behind Spider-Man 2
Internal documents show how a big PlayStation studio plans its futurekotaku.com
Seems like budget and personnel cuts are coming to Sony studios.
Although the article "hints" (speculates) this is the case, the leaks that I saw don't support this. Sony have put in place measures across their internal studios intended to stop costs spiralling upwards the way they have been. This looks to be about games costing tens of millions of dollars above their original budgets.
But a September email from Sony specified a full-time employee max headcount of 470, down from its current estimated 485 employees.
A more recent presentation in November points to potentially more drastic cuts. “Slimming down Ratchet and cutting new IP will not account for the reductions Sony is looking for,” reads a PowerPoint note attributed to Insomniac head Ted Price.
The presentation is in the context of actual budgets exceeding the predicted budgets and that teams have been spending more to hit released schedules (which presumably Sony authorised), and options for hitting budgets rather than release schedules or doing both. The presentation is fairly easy to find and it looks reporters have given a take on later slides and ignored the context of the previous slides.They aren't hinting or speculating. From the article:
"A more recent presentation in November points to potentially more drastic cuts. “Slimming down Ratchet and cutting new IP will not account for the reductions Sony is looking for,” reads a PowerPoint note attributed to Insomniac head Ted Price."
The industry media is always going to report layoffs and not often report hirings. I'm curious about what the net job gain/loss is.
The industry media is always going to report layoffs and not often report hirings. I'm curious about what the net job gain/loss is.
“Paired with tight economic conditions, the impact of layoffs has been amplified by reduced hiring and increased job competition,” said International Game Developers Association executive director Dr. Jakin Vela in an interview with Polygon. “This has been one of the most volatile periods in the games industry in the last 15 years.” Vela said that the IGDA is “deeply concerned” about the layoffs.
Wonder if some employees saw this coming, or the internal situation has just soured ...
It was announced publicly two months ago, in the Q3 letter to shareholders. What wasn't known was the scale of it.