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 corroborated by former employees on LinkedIn.
According to Kotaku, the affected staff were notified earlier this week that their final day would be March 7. The layoffs included developers who had worked on various projects, such as 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, notably on The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 remasters.
IGN has confirmed that several developers from Visual Arts, as well as at least one from PS Studios Malaysia, have publicly shared their layoffs on LinkedIn. A former Visual Arts employee mentioned that these layoffs were a result of "multiple project cancellations."
This marks the second round of layoffs at Visual Arts within two years, following another wave in 2023. The current number of employees at Visual Arts and the studio's ongoing projects remain undisclosed. IGN has sought comment from PlayStation.
These layoffs are part of a broader trend of job cuts and project cancellations within the gaming industry, which began in 2023. That year saw over 10,000 game developers laid off, a figure that increased to over 14,000 in 2024. In 2025, the trend persists, though exact numbers are harder to ascertain as more studios are choosing not to disclose the extent of their layoffs.
