It appears among the most well-known PlayStation first-party studios isn’t exempt from the industry-shaking layoffs that are occurring lately. Creative Assembly, Crystal Dynamics, Mediatonic, Team17, and more have all faced layoffs to varying degrees.
As reported by Kotaku, the Cali-based studio behind beloved PlayStation IPs like The Last of Us, Uncharted, and Jak and Daxter, has started slashing jobs. Supposedly, while some are expected to keep contracts until the end of the month, others are just being dropped.
Similarly to Team17, it appears most of the impacted employees were part of the studio’s QA team. At least 25 people have been laid off out of Naughty Dog’s circa 400-person workforce. This comes as leadership shifts as Evan Wells is retiring from his co-president position. Further confirmation came from industry insider Timur222.
Looks like the Naughty Dog layoffs are true pic.twitter.com/mdjStIqo3U
— Timur222 (@bogorad222) October 3, 2023
