At present, Sony introduced they’re shutting down two of the studios that they’ve acquired over the previous couple of years.
In an e-mail that was initially distributed internally to Sony owned firms, Hermen Hulst (the CEO of the Sony Studio enterprise group) shared that that they had determined to close down Neon Koi, and Firewalk Studios. Each of those studios have been acquired by Sony over the previous couple of years, with Neon Koi (then going by Savage Video games) acquired in 2022, and Firewalk Studios being acquired in 2023.
Firewalk Studios acquisition was a part of a push in the direction of reside service video games, with the corporate working to create Harmony, which launched this 12 months to dismal reception. Infamously, Harmony‘s reception was so unhealthy that inside weeks Sony was providing refunds to everybody for the sport, and taking it off cabinets whereas they contemplated what to do. The choice appears to be to shutter the doorways on Harmony, and the individuals who made it utterly.
The PvP first individual shooter style is a aggressive house that’s constantly evolving, and sadly, we didn’t hit our targets with this title. We are going to take the teachings discovered from Harmony and proceed to advance our reside service capabilities to ship future development on this space. – Herman Hulst
Whereas Hulst’s letter mentions taking classes from Harmony, it’s notably removed from PlayStation’s first challenge with the tried push in the direction of reside service. There’s been quite a lot of points with Bungie resulting in repeated layoffs together with only some months in the past, and them lowering the variety of reside service video games that they purpose to launch within the subsequent whereas.
Firewalk Studios launched an announcement on the social media outlet previously often known as Twitter in regards to the closure, saying partly,
We took some dangers alongside the way in which – marrying elements of card battlers and preventing video games with first-person-shooters – and though a few of these and different elements of the IP didn’t land as we hoped, the thought of placing new issues into the world is vital to pushing the medium ahead.
The expertise at Firewalk and the extent of particular person craft is really world-class, and groups inside Sony Interactive Leisure and throughout the business will probably be lucky to work with them. Please attain out to Recruiting at PlayStation for inquiries, and thanks to all of the very many groups, companions and followers who supported us alongside the way in which.
Neon Koi’s acquisition was aimed toward serving to develop their cell video games enterprise, an space that the corporate has been struggling to interrupt into for a very long time now. Constantly outshined by the Sony Music division in cell video games, which famously publishes Destiny/Grand Order and arrange it is personal publishing label referred to as Unties. In the meantime, Sony Interactive Leisure had points with Forwardworks, and with the shutting down of Neon Koi, plainly the PlayStation Studios Cellular effort is off to comparable points. Sadly, Neon Koi by no means obtained to ship a recreation both underneath it is unique title or rebranding.
Whereas cell stays a precedence development space for the Studio Enterprise, we’re within the very early stage of our cell efforts. To attain success on this space we have to consider titles which can be in-line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to achieve extra gamers globally. – Herman Hulst
Even whereas Sony has offered report numbers of video games, we’re seeing them proceed a disturbing pattern of online game layoffs. By Might we have been already over 10k layoffs, and the hits have solely stored coming. Following the sooner shutdowns by Microsoft of Arkane Austin, and Tango Gameworks (amongst others), it serves as a reminder that an acquisition does not imply the staff is secure.
