Following PlayStation’s cancellation of Bend Studio’s unannounced live-service game, the publisher has reportedly laid off an unknown number of staff at first-party studio Visual Arts.
PlayStation Studios Visual Arts (PSVA) has reportedly been hit with layoffs.
According to a report from Kotaku, the first-party developer – which helped Naughty Dog on its ‘The Last of Us: Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’ – has seen a cut to its staff as publisher Sony restructures its game development.
The outlet claims an unknown number of employees at Visual Arts based in San Diego were informed they would be exiting the studio with immediate effect earlier this week, with their last day working at the company supposedly being 7 March 2025.
On LinkedIn, former PSVA project manager Abby LeMaster – who is now at Riot Games – wrote: “It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning.
“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.”
While Sony is yet to officially respond to these layoff reports, the studio had also recently cancelled one of ‘Days Gone’ developer Bend Studio’s unannounced live-service games following ‘Concord’s failure last year.
Even so, Bend insisted it “still plans on creating cool s***” in the future.
PlayStation studio Visual Arts ‘hit with layoffs’
