Sony has reportedly laid off an unspecified number of employees from its San Diego-based Visual Arts studio and PS Studios Malaysia. This news, initially reported by Kotaku and corroborated by former employees' LinkedIn posts, reveals that affected staff were informed their last day would be March 7th. The layoffs impacted developers who contributed to various projects, including a recently canceled live-service game at Bend Studio.
Visual Arts, a support studio providing art and technical assistance to PlayStation's first-party studios, notably worked on the recent The Last of Us Part I and II remasters. IGN has independently verified LinkedIn posts from several laid-off Visual Arts employees, along with at least one from PS Studios Malaysia. One former Visual Arts employee attributed the layoffs to "multiple project cancellations."
This marks the second round of layoffs at Visual Arts in two years, following an earlier, undisclosed reduction in staff in 2023. The current size of Visual Arts' remaining workforce and its ongoing projects remain unclear. IGN has contacted PlayStation for comment.
These layoffs are part of a broader trend of job cuts and project cancellations within the games industry. While over 10,000 game developer layoffs were estimated in 2023, rising to over 14,000 in 2024, precise figures for 2025 are less readily available due to decreased transparency from many studios.
