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 confirmed by former employees on LinkedIn. According to Kotaku, the affected staff were notified earlier this week that their last day would be March 7. These layoffs impacted developers who had worked on various projects, including 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 remasters of The Last of Us Part 1 and 2.
IGN has identified several developers on LinkedIn who confirmed their layoffs from Visual Arts, along with at least one from PS Studios Malaysia. A former Visual Arts employee mentioned that the layoffs resulted from "multiple project cancellations."
This marks the second round of layoffs at Visual Arts within the last two years, following another wave in 2023. The current number of employees at Visual Arts and the studio's ongoing projects remain unclear. IGN has sought comment from PlayStation.
These layoffs are part of a broader trend of job cuts and project cancellations in the gaming industry that began in 2023. That year, over 10,000 game developers were estimated to have been laid off, a number that increased to over 14,000 in 2024. In 2025, the trend has persisted, though exact figures are harder to come by as more studios are reluctant to disclose the number of affected employees.
