Its funny. I’ve read that leak on reddit, resetera and gamefaqs and Media Molecule is the first to be mentioned. Everytime.
Im going to say it. If Insomniacs comments are representitive of Playstation studios as a whole, then I expect Sony to follow Nintendo into the low end console tier.
Their model, their layoffs, their refusal to make next gen engines is very much like nintendo in 2005 with the Wii. Unable to compete on fidelity.
Unfortunately they are the one that stands out the most
Not a huge studio but big enough to save a lot of money if they were closed and their last game not only took years upon years of dev time but seemed to be a complete failure
It’s obvious the first studio that comes to mind is Media Molecule. This team doesn’t seem to fit with Sony’s strategy of developing cinematic games or GaaS. It’s the same reason they shut down Pixelopus. At this point I also fear for Team Asobi.
Media Molecule especially something like Dreams would fit well with MS now to be honest
It’s absolutely the sort of thing Xbox would push hard in GP and continue to invest in as a GaaS type thing
Sony failed this game hard
They treated it like a $60 premium game 
Yea Xbox found a better business model in Gamepass just in time to not be brought down by AAA budgets. Also add in the ABK stuff and the mobile profits alone should be able to fund many AAA titles.
Sony not only is behind the time on services but they have pretty much no foot print in mobile.
They have no real diversity setup to bring in extra revenue to help support their AAA efforts and having it depend on stand alone 70$ game sales is a dead end.
What was info about next gen engines?
Imagine being a PS studio and hearing about this leak of studio closure, and not knowing if it’s you. Media Molecule is probably thinking it’s them.
Project Dreamsparks, maybe?
Minecraft Update: Dreamspark, all the creation of tools of Dreams(maybe even look into Project Sparks of course) brought to a game that’s everywhere and has a market place in game to allow people to sell their creations.
It makes sense with everything that has already happened at the studio. The one other studio that I haven’t seen mentioned that it could be is bend studio. Days gone wasn’t a success and if their next project isn’t looking like a step up I could see them closing that studio
Either them (Media Molecule) or London Studio imo.
London Studio has been making VR titles recently, and I fully expect Sony to drop the VR initiative after reporting disappointing sale figures.
Team Asobo is another to watch out for.
In fact any studio is in danger of being “retired” if you consider their desperate curve of inflation
If you’re looking to drop 50-75 people from the studio that’s consistently put out your highest selling games, I guess it would be pretty much anyone
Any team that isn’t one of the major ones like ND, SMS, Guerrila etc is probably very nervous right now
Grubb made a good point in that Sony has a lot of first party studios stationed in the most expensive places to live in America (Californian studios being ND, SSM, and Insomniac) and the America economy and completely inflated housing market just makes those studios more and more expensive and their games’ budgets more and more inflated. Those teams make great games but how much profit are they going to really make given the realities of their local economy and the impact it has on their viability.
Naughty Dog cannot survive with only TLOU Pt. 1 and 2 remasters and their next new game being at least three years away.
I could be wrong, but I can easily see with higher prices for cost of living , commute, you name it, we’ll see more game companions start doing more work from home jobs. Why hire someone in California, while you can pay less for the same job in like Montana or somewhere else.
Covid showed that Game Development doesn’t go smoothly working from home when hundreds of people need to work together like a well oiled machine.
I disagree. I think it depends on your leads of the team to set up a smooth system that eliminates those issues.
There’s been plenty of studios from indie to AAA that delivered a finished product to great reviews with the majority of their staff working from home. We also know objectively that a ton of AAA studios that work at office are still a complete mess and far from a well oiled machine despite them working near each other.
I think it’s more so a just a case by case basis.
I think with the right set up it would work fine
Although i’d imagine some dev jobs it’s much easier to be wfh than others