Report: Sony lays off employees at Visual Arts and PS Studios Malaysia

First-party PlayStation support studio Visual Arts and PS Studios Malaysia have reportedly been affected by staff cuts.

As reported by Kotaku, an “unknown number of staff” were allegedly laid off at Visual Arts and informed that “their last day at Sony would be March 7.”

These layoffs are allegedly “widespread” and said to include developers who were working on the recently cancelled live-service game from Bend Studios.

PS Studios Malaysia seems to have also faced layoffs, according to a LinkedIn post from former senior project manager Johann Affendy Mahfoor.

“There was a wave of workforce reduction and unfortunately I’m no longer part of the PS brand,” Mahfoor wrote. “[The] saddest, most devastating part for me was seeing high performers and key individuals who were actively working on projects being laid off.”

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Sony for further comment and clarification.

PS Studios Malaysia was founded in 2020 to work alongside Visual Arts, which itself provides art and technical support to first-party PS studios. Most recently, it worked with Naughty Dog on The Last Of Us Part 1 and 2 remasters.

Former employees Chris Clyde and Lewis Labram also shared that they were part of the layoffs on LinkedIn.

Riot Games R&D senior lead producer Abby LeMaster, who previously worked at Visual Arts as project manager, shared her thoughts about the situation on Monday (March 3).

“It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning,” LeMaster wrote. “The layoffs today hit hard. PSVA let go of developers with decades of subject matter expertise; talent that will be extraordinarily difficult to recoup.

“This industry can be unpredictable, but the skill, experience, and passion of the people I worked with at PSVA are undeniable.”