Develop are reporting that jobs are “on the line” over at Sony, with redundancies expected from Sony Liverpool, Sony London, and Evolution Studios, developers of MotorStorm Apocalypse.
Apparently it’s all part of a restructuring process, with currently unannounced projects streamlined or cut. “It has been decided that production on a small number of projects within London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and Evolution Studios will be streamlined or closed due to a portfolio review and project prioritisation,” Develop heard from Sony.
Guildford-based Media Molecule won’t be affected, but it’s not known how many staff across the three studios will lose their jobs.
“The affected first party studios have been, and will continue to be, vital assets within the WWS family, and have a history of producing genre-defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, SingStar and EyePet,” Sony said. “This decision will have no impact on the role that our first party studios will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms.”
A source close to the coal-face has told us that a certain Move title is almost certainly a casualty of the reorganisation, with further development now ceased despite the game being far into its development cycle.
We wish everyone affected the best of luck in these difficult times.
Pemberton_
I hope it isn’t Sorcery.
cc_star
Me too, although I’m now reminded of what I wrote in November
For a major title its been strangely absent from anything Sony has done… Whether that’s stuff like PlayStation Access, or even releasing trailers and more footage of the developers playing it.
cc_star
Forgot the link
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/11/06/sorcerys-disappearing-act/
Kovacs
All I can say is: it’s not Sorcery.
The Workshop are also not based in the UK.
MadBoJangles
Well thats good news at least.
Shame about the cuts though, seems to be hitting everywhere this recession lark :(
DrNate86
Whew! That’s one of my most wanted games this year!
cc_star
Very sad to hear
From a business point of view there must be a lot of overlaps in staffing to have 4 studios (London, Liverpool, Evolution & Media Molecule) all within a relatively short distance of each other.
Its also a shame that projects are being canned, with particular note to a Move title, I wonder if its quality was falling short – or if they found they wouldn’t sell enough to continue funding its development.
Either way these downsizing & consolidations amongst major publishers is a trend that has typified this generation.
monty2k
Wow, this year has not been good for British developers. Good luck to everyone at those studios.
Any idea on the reasons for the restructuring? Is it the cancellation of PSP titles so they can concentrate on the NGP?
TSBonyman
Weren’t they doing The Getaway also? :(
squashme
London Studio does The Getaway but thats been delayed NOT cancelled as Katie Ellwood and co have said numerous times
TSBonyman
Great, hope you’re right!
gideon1451
Blimey, that’s been delayed for a long time! I remember reading about it in some magasine way back in 2008!
Kevling
I thought I read some time back that Liverpool and Evolution had been merged, or did I dream it?
Grey_Ghost13
It’s not good when Sony starts cutting jobs, isn’t Sony Entertainment one of the only profitable divisions of Sony?
Blayney
I can only vouch for Sony Technology UK (Sony Broadcast Quality Camera factory in Wales) – but it looks like we were profitable this year :)
Sad to hear about more job losses in the gaming industry.
hazelam
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/03/09/online-storage-available-to-playstation-plus-members-from-tomorrow/#respond
good news bad, news day today.
beeje13
Its bad about these cuts, therefore i’ll leave my jubilations of what is on that link for the TSA article….
kivi95
I hope Motorstorm:Apocalypse sells good so maybe some of them can get their job back :(
Ben
Where is Evolution Studios based?
tonycawley
This is dreadful news for so many people, the devs, their families, gamers, other dev companies. Hope this is the end of the cuts and they don’t go deeper than this.