Unfortunately the layoffs around the gaming industry continue as today PlayStation has laid off workers at their Visual Arts studio.
As first reported by Kotaku the layoffs come from employees who were working on recently canceled games such as Bend's live service game as well as cuts from elsewhere. The current number of people affected is currently unknown. Visual Arts is based out of San Diego. The studio is known for providing internal art and technical support to many PlayStation Studios including The Last Of Us Part 1 & 2 remasters.
Abby LeMaster, a previous project manager at Visual Arts, now with Riot Games, posted a statement on LinkedIn about the layoffs:
"It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning," she said. "The layoffs today hit hard. PSVA let go of developers with decades of subject matter expertise; talent that will be extraordinarily difficult to recoup. This industry can be unpredictable, but the skill, experience, and passion of the people I worked with at PSVA are undeniable."
The layoffs are part of a larger restructuring going on within PlayStation after the recent failure of Concord and many canceled games. In the last few months alone Sony has closed Firewalk Studios and the cancellation of a God Of War live service game in development at Bluepoint.
On top of that there's been a shuffle at the top of Sony and PlayStation. At the beginning of 2025 Hiroki Totoki became the company's new CEO with Hideaki Nishino becoming the sole CEO of PlayStation. Hermen Hulst, who had previously been co-CEO, was shifted to the head of PlayStation Studios.
With any luck these cuts in the industry come to a stop soon enough, however sadly there's no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. We hope all those affected quickly find new work.
