PlayStation has announced around 900 layoffs across its console and VR studios, but appears to have left its mobile arm Neon Koi mostly intact.
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today that it would be cutting around 900 jobs, mostly at Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite and London Studio, which will close entirely. The cuts represent around 8% of SIE’s global workforce.
Neon Koi was not mentioned as suffering any significant cuts, though PlayStation did say there would be “smaller reductions in other teams across PlayStation Studios.” We will update this story if we get any concrete info on cuts at the outfit, which has offices in Helsinki and Berlin.
PlayStation’s mobile studio is currently making a “new unannounced AAA mobile live service action game”, and actively hiring, with 10 open roles on its jobs site at the time of writing.
“Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences – allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways – as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and Mobile, requires a different approach and different resources,” said PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst as part of the announcement.
Neon Koi was formerly known as Savage Game Studios before being acquired by PlayStation in August 2022. It was rebranded as Neon Koi in November 2023.
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan told investors in May 2022 that 10% of its first party releases would be on mobile by March 2023, as part of what it termed as “aggressive growth plans” on iOS and Android.
PlayStation spent much of 2022 hiring a flurry of top mobile game talent, but as yet nothing major has materialised from its proposed push into mobile.
