14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Sony Santa Monica, responsible for the God of War series, has been restructured, an unknown number of employees being laid off.
Also known as SCE Santa Monica Studio, the developer has created a total of five games since it was founded in 1999, Kinetica, God of War, God of War II, God of War III and God of War Ascension.
Although Sony Santa Monica is best known for its God of War games, the studio has also collaborated on the development of an impressive number of projects across Sony's platforms, including Thatgamecompany's Journey and Fun Bits' Escape Plan.
The studio became famous for its high quality action-adventure titles, and is part of Sony's network of developers also including SCE Japan Studio, SCE London Studio, Naughty Dog (which became famous after making the Uncharted series and received wide acclaim and numerous awards for last year's hit title The Last of Us), as well as Media Molecule, developers of quirky but hugely popular titles Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet.
The rumors that circulated last year regarding God of War: Ascension's less than stellar sales performance might have been true, and game director Todd Papy jumping ship was another bad omen for the Los Angeles-based game-maker.
Additionally, one of the forces behind the original God of War's development process, Cory Barlog, has also returned to the studio during last year's summer, after departing when God of War II was launched, in 2007.
Sony Santa Monica reported working on an unannounced PlayStation 4 in-house project, as well as supporting development of The Chinese Room's Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Honeyslug's Hohokum and Ready at Dawn's The Order: 1886.
"SCEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio. This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS. We do not take these decisions lightly," Sony told IGN.
"However, sometimes it is necessary to make changes to better serve the future projects of the studio. We have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease transition for those impacted."
IGN has also reported that an unannounced project was canceled, and it might be the PS4 one that many people hoped would have been the first next-gen God of War game.
Sony has yet to announce SCE Santa Monica Studio's next title.