Sony Closes First-Party VR Studio in Manchester - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 February 2020 / 2,247 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it has shut down its first-party virtual reality studio in Manchester.
Sony told GamesIndustry that it plans "to close it as part of our efforts to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness." Everyone at the studio has been let go.
Sony's Manchester developer was created in 2015 to develop virtual reality games for the PlayStation VR. The studio was working on an unannounced VR game.
The Manchester studio is the third Sony has closed this generation. Sony shut down Guerrilla Cambridge in 2017 and Evolution in 2016. Both of those developers had also worked on PSVR titles before being shut down.
Sony still runs two-party studios in the UK, Dreams developer Media Molecule and Blood & Truth developer London Studio.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If you work for a Sony studio in Europa aside from Guerrilla or Media Molecule I would suggest putting your resumé online in advance.
That's a shame to hear. Hopefully those affected will find new jobs soon. Sony has been on a spree of killing UK studios and hopefully this isn't a sign that they'll reduce support for PSVR.
They likely have games being developed for VR on PS5 and can't talk about them yet. Although, this studio has been working on a VR title since 2015 and hasn't release anything. So that's probably another reason for the closure
That is sad, jobs lost, games not done... but probably their results weren't satisfying to corporate.
Driveclub sold pretty well and still got closed. Pretty sure Sony wants to focus more on their American and Japanese studio's. They probably have a better environment for creating games. Although Guerrilla Amsterdam and Media Molecule should be relatively safe for now. Closing Guerrilla would probably be a huge mistake. Media Molecule however doesn't make that much money, but is very creative. Next gen they need a succes as big as LBP to not be closed I think.
Don`t think that is the result of them wanting to focus on these two countries. They make most of their revenue in Europe, and although DC sold well it got tarnished reputation and possibly was very far from meeting the target.
Driveclub was hyped way up there, one of the first PS4 titles shown and then the market got crowded. Plus Driveclub wasn't received very well.
Only 2 now in the UK? They are missing out on some great developers here.
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