Insomniac Games Calls Layoffs an 'Unprecedented Moment' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2024 / 3,735 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment this week announced it it is laying off eight percent of its staff or about 900 employees. Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and more have been confirmed to have been hit with layoffs.
Insomniac Games has now released a statement on the layoffs at the studio, calling it an "unprecedented moment."
"Like several other teams across SIE and PlayStation Studios, Insomniac Games was impacted by yesterday's layoffs," reads the statement from Insomniac Games. "There are no sufficient words to express our feelings about it. This is a solemn and unprecedented moment for our studio.
"We are focusing our energy on helping everyone affected through this challenging time. For those who are hiring, there are great people seeking new roles who made important contributions to Insomniac's history. We're extremely grateful for them and they will be missed."
Insomniac Games was founded in 1994 and acquired by PlayStation Studios in 2019.The studio is best known for developing the recent Marvel's Spider-Man games, the original PlayStation Spyro the Dragon games, the Ratchet & Clank series, and more.
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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Imagine doing a lot of heavy lifting at the start of a console generation, only to then be hacked and having your personal information out in the public, to then be fired shortly after the biggest launch in the studios history.
What a sad way to celebrate Insomniac’s 30th anniversary.
They still have the vast majority of their workforce. It's not like the entire studio getting closed like PlayStation London did.
Pretty Corporate way to look at it, but sucks either way.
I am interested to see if this means the end of the AAA blockbuster style of games.
Probably not, but they will take even longer to develop now
It definitely doesn't mean that. What it likely means is more of the same games that they know will be successful. Most everything being cancelled are the less-sure things
Motherfuckers doing this to this studio ? Fucking suits this gen on sony are morons ,bring back ps4 leads.
Or, bring back the PS3 leads. Those guys knew how to aim big and take risks.
Or PS2/PS1. Now THEY knew how to take risks lol.
3 great games released for the ps5 since 2020, and this is what they get.
So Nintendo kept employees when they were on the down, and Sony sheds them when they are on the up.
...PS6 is going to be a tricky thing, isn't it?
Remember when they launched the WiiU and Iwata cut his salary and reportedly said “If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.”
Cooperate greed causing all these layoffs. thanks for all the hard work but the money is ours, we will let you know when we need you again
I think it's because were just entering into another financial crisis and great depression.
the systems and games seem to be selling very well
Well...the Xbox series S was as low as 140$ during holiday season. So when you actually look at sales relative to the prices they're sold at. The sales this generation are quite a bit worse than last generation
Uhhhhh... that's quite a leap.
The XBox Series S and X account combined for at most 1/5 of the market. And Series The PS5 and Switch are still at launch price. Assuming Series S represents 75% of XBox sales, Series S accounts for about 1/7 of the market.
Total sales of all systems in 2023 (third full year after PS5 launch) are up by around 8 million over the 2017 (the third full year after PS4 launch) including Vita and 3DS. I obviously don't know the actual price of everything sold but it seems rather that sales are down in terms of revenue. Maybe if you adjust for inflation, but even then it's doubtful.
Either way though, this is about Sony and Insomniac. PS5 sales are trending the same or above the PS4. Insomniac's games are selling especially well and better than past games. Considering that, it seems hard to justify this action.
It's very easy to explain. The big success of their Spiderman games resulted in a very rapid expansion of their workforce. They've just overestimated their future success a little and expanded slightly too much. It's easy to explain and these things don't need to be justified because it's not like they got murdered or anything. Job losses are just part of life
... so decisions that impact people's livelihoods should not be justified? Ok then...
Any business has the right the let go of people if they have to. It's part of life get over it
It's funny to watch these sharp turns whenever your flawed logic is called out.
The question wasn't if they should be able to fire people if they have to. The question is if these decisions should be justified. Apparently you think not. If your argument is the boss gets to do whatever they like then there's really no conversation to be had. But I'm quite skeptical that you'd feel that way if it was your job.
Justified is the adjective of the word justice (noun). Laying people off is not considered an injustice by society so if it is not an injustice then it does not need to be justified
It's funny to watch these sharp turns whenever your flawed logic is called out.
The question wasn't if they should be able to fire people if they have to. The question is if these decisions should be justified. Apparently you think not. If your argument is the boss gets to do whatever they like then there's really no conversation to be had. But I'm quite skeptical that you'd feel that way if it was your job.
Seems very much precedented to me. There's a ton of precedent for layoffs at this point.
Not even the biggest game companies can hide away from layoffs
Bleak time in general all around..
Seems like Insomniac should have stayed independent, its not like they would not have made the Spiderman games and would have profited enough on there own, to not have lay-off a large amount of people. Granted the studio grew from 350 to over 500 people since 2019. Still having to fire a lot after growing by quite a bit must sting.
What makes you so sure they would have made the Spiderman games? From what I understand Marvel went to MS first who declined. Then they went to Sony who accepted. Are you saying if Insomnianc stayed independent that Sony would have declined and then Marvel would have went to Insomniac to see about making Spiderman?
Insomniac made the first Spiderman whilst being independent, I am pretty sure they could have made the sequel and Miles too without being owned by Sony. The latter simply holds the rights, it is Insomniac that actually made the game and would have been the studio Sony would have gone towards to make the sequel regardless. Insomniac has made Resistance and Ratchet and Clank games too for Sony, without being owned by them.
Maybe but from what I remember they weren't doing so well independently. On top of that I could see part of the negotiations for the Spiderman game being that if it does well they agree to join Sony for XX amount beforehand. Who knows you could be right but it would be such a huge turn of events that there's no guarantee it would have worked out better for them. They are much bigger now then they were before joining Sony and no one can argue the success they've had since joining Sony.
It might be that such agreements where made, when Sony let Insomniac develop Spiderman. However when Spiderman was announced, pretty much everyone and their mother knew this release was going to be huge. Also in large part due to Sony's advertising and track record by that time of course. But I believe the game sold like 5 million around it's launch period. By simply launching the game Insomniac basically turned from a financially troubled company into a healthy one again. Anyways I wondered how many laid off, I hope it's closer to 10% like Guerilla than 20%.
They were bought for 250 million I think. They'd be worth at least a 1-2 billion now I think, so how can we seriously argue that they'd have been better of independent
Could have sold their hide for a lot more if they stayed independent for longer. It's not like Sony would not have Insomniac let develop Spiderman 2, if they didn't agreed by being bought. Also the studio doesn't have a set value, since you can't buy it. It's a part of Sony, not an entity another company could buy.
I recall something in the hacked documents that Insomniac wasn't in a great position being independent.
Sony probably doesn't give the same amount of support to external studios, even if they're good partners.
I think Insomniac had been struggling, they were making a lot of smaller titles on mobile and VR, that weren't doing well. Their Xbox game didn't make a lot of money.
That's why they were so cheap when Sony bought them. Sunset Overdrive only just broke even. People need to stay in perspective and not overreact. Yes, their laying off people now but overall ever since Sony acquired them the studio has grown massively in personnel. Same with bungie.
Corporate greed is the number one sin
Ozzy Osbourne's 'The Ultimate Sin' is playing in my head now...
