In a statement on Twitter / X, Insomniac Games has confirmed the sweeping Sony layoffs announced on Wednesday have had a major impact on studio staff. As announced, around 900 staff at studios including Insomniac Games, Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, Firesprite, and London Studio have been or will be let go, as Sony attempts to “future ready” itself for changes to the gaming business landscape.
“The leadership team and I made the incredibly difficult decision to restructure operations, which regrettably includes a reduction in our workforce impacting very talented individuals who have contributed to our success,” Sony CEO Jim Ryan announced on Wednesday. “The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us.”
As part of these changes, a number of jobs were cut across each PlayStation studio. Per Insomniac, the nature and scope of this change is “unprecedented” and it will have a major impact on work at the studio.
Read: Sony is laying off 900 employees from PlayStation studios
“Like several other teams across SIE and PlayStation Studios, Insomniac Games was impacted by yesterday’s layoffs. There are no sufficient words to express out feelings about it,” Insomniac said. “This is a solemn and unprecedented moment for our studio.”
“We are focusing our energy on helping everyone affected through this challenging time. For those who are hiring, there are great people seeking new roles who made important contributions to Insomniac’s history. We are extremely grateful for them and they will be missed.”
Notably, Insomniac Games currently has a massive array of games in development – some of which were recently revealed in an illegal data hack. Not only is the company working on new Spider-Man games, it’s also well into developing Marvel’s Wolverine, a single player adventure game starring the fan-favourite X-Men hero. There’s no doubt work on the upcoming game will be impacted by Sony’s announced layoffs, one way or another.
Perhaps more importantly, the layoffs will likely also have an impact on staff morale and feelings of security. As Insomniac states, these sweeping industry changes are fairly unprecedented, and their impact goes far beyond job losses. Our thoughts are with those laid off at Insomniac Games, Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, Firesprite, London Studio, and the wider PlayStation team.
