A Kotaku report says Naughty Canine, the developer of The Final of Us and Uncharted video games, is the most recent studio to put off workers, with at the very least 25 contract employees being advised that they will be let go on the finish of October. The report additionally says that The Final of Us multiplayer shooter spinoff introduced in 2022 is in hassle, and whereas it hasn’t been cancelled at this level, its destiny stays unsure.
The layoffs have been revealed to workers final week, in response to the report, and impacted a number of departments however have been centered totally on high quality assurance. No severance pay is being provided, presumably as a result of the staff being terminated have been on contract relatively than full-time; no full-time workers have been impacted by the cuts.
It is a shocking consequence at Naughty Canine for a few causes. Naughty Canine is owned by Sony, which suggests it has entry to nearly limitless sources and, in precept at the very least, would not want to fret about how it’ll finance its subsequent challenge. And people tasks can be sure-fire hits: Uncharted and The Final of Us are each massively profitable sport sequence, and The Final of Us is driving a wave of massively heightened mainstream recognition because of the hit HBO sequence of the identical title.
Naughty Canine has reportedly struggled with its deliberate Final of Us multiplayer shooter spinoff, nonetheless. Initially meant as an growth for The Final of Us 2, Naughty Canine co-president Neil Druckmann mentioned when the sport was introduced that it had “developed past the crew’s ambition,” and was thus made right into a standalone challenge as a substitute. A PC model wasn’t confirmed, though we anticipated that it might be finally, however in Could 2023 Naughty Canine tapped the brakes, saying that it wanted “extra time” to get it proper. That call apparently got here after Future 2 developer Bungie—one other Sony studio—had a take a look at Naughty Canine’s shooter at Sony’s request, and was unimpressed by what it noticed. Following that, Sony reportedly lowered the variety of individuals engaged on the sport whereas it reassessed its viability.
2023 has been an enormous yr for brand spanking new sport releases, nevertheless it’s additionally been a really unhealthy one for sport builders. The reported layoffs at Naughty Canine observe cuts at different studios together with Epic Video games, Beamdog, Activision, BioWare, CD Projekt, Firaxis, Relic, Embracer Group, and others; in March of this yr, each Digital Arts and Take-Two Interactive introduced that after years of success, progress, and a number of billions of {dollars} earned, they’d haven’t any selection however to place individuals out of labor.
Bigger tech corporations have made even deeper cuts: Fb mum or dad firm Meta introduced the deliberate layoff of 10,000 workers in March, simply 4 months after letting greater than 11,000 workers go close to the tip of 2022. Microsoft additionally began off 2023 by letting 10,000 individuals, whereas Google minimize 12,000 individuals at nearly the identical time.
I’ve reached out to Sony for touch upon the reported Naughty Canine layoffs, and can replace if I obtain a reply.