Rumour: Layoffs At PlayStation All-Stars Developer

Unfortunately we’re in for another rather depressing bout of layoffs at a developer. This time they’re coming from SuperBot, developers of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. We rather enjoyed the game, rating it at 9/10, but it didn’t seem to do too well at retails, dropping out of the UK charts after just one week.

These layoffs haven’t been formerly announced though, and there’s a chance that it may all just be a miscommunication. The news came via Mike Birkhead’s twitter account. He’s a designer over at Insomniac, and presumably knows some of those affected by the layoffs.

When asked about the number of employees that could be losing their jobs, he responded that it would be around twenty.

If the reports from Birkhead to prove to be true it would be rather unfortunate, coming after a single game from the studio. However, it’s unclear whether these are inspired by hard times, or simply come as the company winds down a little after their first project. With character and stage DLC set to release soon it may simply be that a lot of the technical work is now completed and SuperBot can’t afford to keep as many people on right now.

Interestingly, the careers page of their website says their still looking to fill several roles, including Lead Designer and Art Director. Those are typically the type of roles you fill when you’re looking to expand a studio, rather than laying off staff.

Whatever the situation is at SuperBot our sympathies go out to any employees affected by the layoffs, and we hope they’ll be able to find new work as soon as possible. Given the way the development community tends to rally around in hard times, as has been seen during the recent uncertainty at THQ, anyone let go by SuperBot should hopefully be back on their feet soon.

15 Comments

  1. SCEA’s confirmed it.

  2. Really really wanted to love this game but can never tell what the hells going and just cannot keep track of my character on screen

  3. Didn’t Rockstar do something similar after the release of Red Dead Redemption?

  4. Sad News but hopefully they(the people who are left & it looks like they will) will still make more DLC characters because i am dying to see ‘Crash Bandicoot’ in the game + it’s the best & most FUN fighting game since ‘Tekken 3’ on the PS1 for me :P

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