Report: PlayStation's Media Molecule to Layoff 15-20% of Employees - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 November 2023 / 3,665 Views
LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is reportedly looking to layoff around 15 to 20 percent of its employees, according to GLHF who spoke with sources.
Employees were reportedly informed about the layoffs in an internal meeting held today, October 24. Around 20 staff will be laid off reducing the number of employees from 135 to a target of 115.
Media Molecule was founded in 2006 and acquired by PlayStation in 2010. The studio is best known for developing the LittleBigPlanet series, Dreams, and Tearaway.
The studio announced in April of this year it will end live support for Dreams on September 1 as the team is shifting its focus on "an exciting new project."
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This is very sad, but considering poor sales of Dreams, no port for PC and no project announced it kinda makes sense. And from their twitter post they are in the middle of some transition to work differently.
They are high on the list if becoming obsolete and I expect them to be closed by the end of this gen.
Agree, it's a sad reality of an industry who sell products of art, sometime you hit, sometime you miss and given the current dev cycle time the misses have lingering effect that's often too hard in one way or another to simply power through to the next hit.
Actually this just could be a case where they have to much staff for the amount of success that their games produce. Meaning that Dreams probably would have been a better success on the PC then console. I just believe creative games like this thrive more with the PC community then console and making it PS exclusive actually might have been a poor decision. The fact that they are still with Sony and making a new game probably means its going to be a smaller more focused project. Personally I believe if Sony would open them up to putting their games on PC and PS, they would see better success.
Yes I think there is still value to port this game to PC. For me makes more sense to have this on PC than TLOU due to it not bringing console sales and perhaps finding a platform for success. And as I saw a GAAS "sequel" for Dreams would make sense.
And if depended on me I would keep several smaller devs/studios to put niche titles on the system, just budget it properly to ensure it at least doesn't have losses.
Dreams was a good idea but without PC it is going to struggle. While LBP players are creative most played the campaign with their family/friends and move on while a certain group use the tools. It has more luck then Xbox One's Project Spark. Game Builder Garage who knows over Mario Maker.
I love the idea of Dreams but am not in a creative mood anymore/want to use the tools right now. They can support it but layoffs is disappointing. If QA then understandable I guess but if not then hmm I am questioning it. Or whatever layoffs to look good in financial reports just for the sake of it to investors hmm.
What can they make next though I wonder. Dreams is a fair live service/platform but enough support and their own mini games inside it hmm.
Asobi/MM are the last studios I cared about as Japan Studio umbrella got downsized RIP even if probably in a better place now Claphands golf game on Switch, Bokeh with a horror game Splitterhead which last Team Gravity did was Siren or Silent Hills of the past. Team Ico who knows what they had planned or where they went. Other studios that did the PSP Locoroco, Echoshift/chrome and more.
(Last Guardian and GT 5 cost a lot and while fair assistance with Deracine with From Software or others Gravity Rush 2 barely got advertising and others I could say similar. Gravity Rush isn't even an anime game but like anyone can tell the difference besides it's interesting french city from a story/comic inspirations).
While the current IPs are fine they aren't my thing personally in the directions they have gone even the long running IPs changes.
They haven't had much success as of late so again this is no new news there is layoff everywhere
Sony really be...
Increase the price of the ps5
Increase the price of ps plus
Increase the average price of their games to $70
Increase the price of their PC offerings after launch
All their games are going from strength to strength with multiple new releases smashing record for playstation sales wise, with god of war, ff16 (yes square enix) and now spider man all setting record for either the ps5 console itself, or playstation IP as a whole
As well as the ps5 set to be one of the fastest/ top 5 best selling systems of all time minimum.
Also Sony...
" we need to lay off staff"
Like, bruh, if I hear you spending more money to acquire studios like the rumor suggests
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/458754/analyst-claims-sony-is-under-pressure-to-react-to-microsoft-acquiring-activision-blizzard/
Then, like ... Really guys?
Companies have legal obligation of maximizing profits. So they making more money due to the first portion of your post don't preclude they cutting costs on the other end if it isn't expect to hit ROI targets.
Have they done anything after Dreams or are they still updating that at least?
Always sad to hear about lay offs. And extra sad to see a company like MM going downhill financially! They are a great company with some amazing games!
