Sony Cuts Jobs at PlayStation Visual Arts Studio

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 included 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 to PlayStation's first-party studios, notably contributed to 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 and at least one from PS Studios Malaysia. A former Visual Arts employee mentioned that these 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 that also affected an unknown number of individuals. It remains unclear how many employees are left at Visual Arts or what projects the studio is currently working on. IGN has sought comment from PlayStation regarding these developments.

These layoffs are part of a broader trend of job cuts and project cancellations within the gaming industry that began in 2023. That year saw over 10,000 game developers laid off, a number that increased to over 14,000 in 2024. In 2025, the trend has continued, though precise figures are harder to come by as more studios have chosen not to disclose the exact numbers of those affected.