Days Gone developer Bend Studio has been hit by sweeping layoffs affecting around a third of the company’s staff, parent company Sony has confirmed.
In a statement given to Kotaku, Sony says the layoffs are part of “strategic changes to better position the studio for long-term success”, a pretty standard corporate line. The company goes on to say that the “workforce reduction” was a decision that was “not made lightly”, and that those being laid off made “meaningful contributions” to Bend Studio.
Sony did not, however, confirm the exact scope of the layoffs. That figure comes from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who said on social media platform Bluesky that “around 40 people”, i.e. 30% of Bend Studio’s staff, had been laid off.
These layoffs come after Sony canceled two of its in-development live-service projects back in January, one of which was in the works at Bend Studio. In the statement given to Kotaku, Sony said it made the decision not to proceed with Bend’s game following “careful consideration”.
According to Schreier, Bend Studio is currently working on a new project that it started following the live-service game’s cancellation, and Sony says it remains “confident in [Bend Studio’s] future and creative direction”, so it sounds as though the studio is still working on a game of some sort.
Layoffs at Bend Studio come after a wider wave that has swept across the industry, affecting smaller studios like Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic and Oxenfree outfit Night School, as well as larger companies like EA subsidiary Respawn and tech giant Microsoft.
Bend Studio’s game is also not the only live-service project Sony has canceled in recent months. As well as the other game shut down at the same time as Bend’s, live-service shooter Concord was shut down mere days after its launch last year.
Despite these cancellations and shutdowns, Sony is still putting many of its eggs into the live-service basket. Its next live-service project is Bungie’s Marathon, which is due to launch in September; as far as we know, that’s still the case, despite lukewarm reception to previews and the recent revelation that an artist who previously worked on the game stole artwork from an online artist.
We’ll have to wait and see what kind of game Bend Studio is working on next, but there will be a lot of folks hoping it’s a Days Gone sequel. Stay tuned for more.
