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 corroborated 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 its art and technical support, has collaborated with other PlayStation first-party studios, notably on The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 remasters.

LinkedIn posts, as identified by IGN, confirm that multiple developers from Visual Arts and at least one from PS Studios Malaysia have been laid off. 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 two years, following another wave in 2023. The current employee count and ongoing projects at Visual Arts remain unclear. 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, which began in 2023. That year saw over 10,000 game developers laid off, a figure that increased to over 14,000 in 2024. In 2025, the trend has persisted, though exact numbers are harder to come by as more studios choose not to disclose the extent of their layoffs.