Sony have announced that they are to shut their Manchester games studio ‘as part of our efforts to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness’ with all staff being let go.
The studio was set in 2015 to create PlayStation VR games and had been working on an announced project but that appears to have been cancelled. This is the second studio in the north of England that Sony has closed, the other team being Studio Liverpool, home of the Wipeout franchise.
This leaves Sony with just two UK studios, Media Molecule who about to release Dreams, and London Studio, the team behind PlayStation VR shooter Blood & Truth. Sony had previously closed Guerrilla Cambridge and Evolution, both teams had been working on PSVR titles.
The closure of yet another PlayStation VR developer is puzzling and may remind some of when interest in PlayStation Vita was waning and Sony ruthless killed off a number of PS Vita teams. However, PlayStation VR is still selling really well and as it will be compatible with PlayStation 5 there’s no reason for it to be discontinued. It may just be that Sony are going to rely mostly on third party VR games to support the device.
Source: Gi.Biz
