14 DAY TRIAL // A number of Sony-owned development studios have been hit by layoffs, with some developers at Evolutions Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge and Sony Computer Entertainment London Studio laid off just as the publisher claims that the game creation process is not affected at any of them.
The total number of people who are no longer working at the three companies has not been confirmed at the moment.
A spokesperson from Sony is quoted by NeoGAF as saying that, “Regular reviews take place throughout SCE Worldwide Studios, ensuring that the resources that we have in such a competitive business can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects.”
He adds, “As part of this process, we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and have decided to make some changes to some of our European Studios. As a result of this, there will be a focused restructure within London Studio, Guerrilla Cambridge Studio and Evolution Studio to ensure that the SCE WWS is in the best position to achieve their goals going forward.”
Sony also makes it clear that it has no plans to completely disband Evolutions Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge and Sony Computer Entertainment London Studio and that all of them are working on interesting projects.
DriveClub, the much delayed racing title from Sony, is being created at Evolution Studios, and the game is currently set to be released on the PlayStation 4 before the end of the year.
The experience was supposed to be a launch title for the next-gen hardware, but it was delayed in order to give the development team more time to polish the experience and make sure that gamers got access to a quality racing title.
It’s unclear whether DriveClub is at the moment content complete, which would justify the layoffs to some degree, or if the game is getting an even longer delay.
One executive from Sony stated that the game was being taken back to the drawing board, which suggests that it might not arrive this year.
Guerrilla Cambridge worked on the PlayStation Vita based shooter Killzone Mercenary and does not currently have an announced project.
SCE London Studio created The Playroom for the PlayStation 4 and the company apparently has another game in development for the same platform.
Sony has promised a steady flow of first-party games for its next-gen console and the layoffs will be a bad sign for all fans of the new platform.