Sony lays off staff in London and San Diego — MLB: The Show team is unaffected

PlayStation Worldwide Studios is shrinking.

Sony has cut jobs in its studios in London and San Diego. PlayStation VR is going to launch next month, and London Studio’s virtual reality game The London Heist is nearing completion. Sony explained that it is enacting layoffs at that developer to scale down as part of the normal release cycle. For the San Diego team, however, the developer is making more drastic cuts. It is laying off staff working on projects like the multiplayer action adventure Kill Strain. San Diego Studio’ development on the MLB: The Show series and its involvement with heavy-metal shooter Drawn To Death will continue.

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Sony confirmed it has made layoffs.

“The teams working on MLB The Show, Drawn to Death, and Guns Up have not been affected,” a Sony spokesperson explained to GamesBeat in a statement. “We continually evaluate teams and programs at SIE Worldwide Studios to ensure we have the proper resources in place to deliver innovative products within a competitive landscape. As projects are completed, it is natural to review and restructure teams around current and future needs. We wish our departing team members success as they pursue new opportunities and we have nothing but heart-felt thanks for their contributions to PlayStation.”

San Diego Studio has operated as one of Sony’s core team in the United States since debuting with the action battler The Mark of Kri for PlayStation 2 in 2002. Since then, the company has worked on Sony’s sports games before and spinoffs like LittleBigPlanet Karting.

Sony still has more first-party developers working on games for its games than either Microsoft or Nintendo. As it cuts jobs, it is simultaneously looking to bring on new staff to help continue supporting the PlayStation 4 with Sony Interactive Entertainment games.