Late last week rumors started circulating that Sony may be cutting it’s Liverpool UK studio staff by half. Exact numbers are not official, but Sony has confirmed that the Liverpool studio will be ‘restructured’ as part of a ‘project prioritization’. Over the weekend inside information started to leak that the ‘restructuring’ could compromise up to half of the studio’s numbers. A staff member, speaking under condition of anonymity, said that the layoff restructuring process was “looking heavy,” estimating that “around half us may be gone.”
As of today, Sony has declined to comment on the Liverpool studio status, and the numbers remain an estimate/rumor. However, on Friday Sony did say that a number of active projects at the firm’s second largest development studio in Europe, will “cease immediately”.
“Our North West Studio Group has been, and will continue to be, a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC,” read a Sony statement released on Friday.
As you’ll remember, WipEout HD recently suffered a setback when Double Fusion’s in-game advertising (served at 1080p resolution) caused massive load times, thereby upsetting more than a few gamers. While this fiasco certainly didn’t help things, there’s no apparent direct connection to Sony’s decision to slash jobs at the Liverpool studios.
The restructuring rumors started surfacing just on the heels of a recent media report that indicated that Sony’s third fiscal quarter (October – December) could run as high as $1 Billion. If accurate, this projection could outdo even the most optimistic of all analysts’ predictions. Japanese news source Nikkei reports that the skyrocketing profits could have to do with “strong sales of LCD TVs and payroll cuts and consolidation of facilities.”
Tags: double fusion, IGA, in-game advertising, liverpool uk, nikkei, Sony, wipeout hd
