God of War Studio Sony Santa Monica Hit With Layoffs

[Alex Co]

God of War Studio Sony Santa Monica Hit With Layoffs

Sony confirms that Sony Santa Monica has been hit with layoffs, and allegedly, an unannounced game the studio was working on has now been cancelled.

Following Irrational Games' studio closure announcement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132317-Irrational-Games-to-Close-After-BioShock-Infinite-DLC-Update], Sony Santa Monica, most known as the studio behind Sony's God of War franchise, has been hit with layoffs. At the time of this writing, Sony has not given a number as to how many people have been affected, but did say it is offering "outplacement services and severance packages" for those affected.

SCEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio. This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS. We do not take these decisions lightly. However, sometimes it is necessary to make changes to better serve the future projects of the studio. We have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease transition for those impacted.

Also of note, due to the layoffs, it's said that there are indications that one of the unannounced projects the studio was working on has been cancelled, thought that's all the info we have for now.

Sony Santa Monica is credited for releasing futuristic racing game Kinetica, God of War, God of War II, God of War III and God of War: Ascension since it's inception in 1999. However, in addition to its released list of games, Sony Santa Monica is known to help Sony's second-party studios with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale being its most recently released collaborated game with SuperBot.

Currently, Sony Santa Monica is co-developing the action-adventure game, The Order: 1886, with Ready at Dawn for a Q3 2014 release on the PlayStation 4.

Source: IGN [http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/25/layoffs-hit-god-of-war-studio-sony-santa-monica]

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[Casual Shinji]

I also seem to remember they helped with Journey.

Anyway, to see one of Sony's top first-party studios take a hit like this is rather distressing. I hope Naughty Dog isn't next.

 

[Alex Co]

I also seem to remember they helped with Journey.

Anyway, to see one of Sony's top first-party studios take a hit like this is rather distressing. I hope Naughty Dog isn't next.

Yep, they did. Along with Unfinished Swan, and a host of other indie games. I didn't list everything down, though.

Really, really hope Naughty Dog isn't affected. Doubt they will, since most of the games they've released has been met with commercial success. SSM's last title, God of War: Ascension, has been a disappointment at retail.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Really, really hope Naughty Dog isn't affected. Doubt they will, since most of the games they've released has been met with commercial success. SSM's last title, God of War: Ascension, has been a disappointment at retail.

Maybe the studio also got too big for the amount of work they've been producing since GoW3, which doesn't seem to have been much at all. I mean, I know they made GoW: Ascension, but that really felt like it was made by the B-team.

 

[J Tyran]

After the really poor sales of God of War: Ascension Sony are probably a little nervous about sinking to many resources into the next one, the producer Whitney Wade suggested that it cost $40-60 million (USD) to develop and its took the better part of a year to scrape in under two million sales. Sony probably want to reduce the costs of the next game, assuming that God of War: Redemption for the PS4 is still go of course but I have not seen any news or rumours about it being cancelled though. At least until today with the rumour of "an unannounced game the studio was working on has now been cancelled".

I wonder what this means for the God of War series, was this [http://uk.ign.com/blogs/nooch333/2013/03/23/the-god-of-war-franchise-is-done] guy right?