Sony Cuts Jobs at PlayStation Visual Arts Studio

Sony has recently laid off an unspecified number of employees from its Visual Arts studio in San Diego and PS Studios Malaysia, as reported by Kotaku and confirmed by former employees on LinkedIn.

According to Kotaku, the affected staff were notified earlier this week that their last day would be March 7. The layoffs impacted developers who had worked on various projects, including a recently canceled live-service game at Bend Studio. Visual Arts, known for providing art and technical support, has collaborated with other PlayStation first-party studios, contributing significantly to projects like The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 remasters.

IGN identified multiple developers on LinkedIn who confirmed their layoffs from Visual Arts, along with at least one from PS Studios Malaysia. A former Visual Arts employee attributed the layoffs to "multiple project cancellations."

This marks the second round of layoffs at Visual Arts within the last two years, following another wave in 2023. The current number of employees at Visual Arts and the studio's ongoing projects remain unclear. IGN has sought comment from PlayStation.

These layoffs add to the ongoing trend of layoffs and project cancellations in the games industry, which began in 2023 with over 10,000 game developers affected. By 2024, this figure had risen to over 14,000, and the trend persists into 2025, though exact numbers are harder to come by as more studios refrain from disclosing the full extent of their layoffs.