Confirming to GameIndustry.biz, PlayStation’s Manchester studio is set “to close it as part of our efforts to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness”. Unfortunately, the entire team has been made redundant.
Put together five years ago in 2015, the team was tasked with creating VR titles, including one particular unannounced project. Sadly, it appears we’ll never get to see what this now-out of work team were working on for half a decade.
This is now PlayStation UK’s third closure in four years. In 2017, developers of the original MediEvil, Guerilla Cambridge was closed due to poor sales. In 2016, developers of Driveclub, Evolution Studios, was closed for ultimately same reason.
Driveclub
PlayStation now has just two first-party studios left in the UK, but not all is bleak and dreary for those left standing. Media Molecule, it’s Guildford studio, is finally set to release Dreams after long anticipation on the 11th of February to Early Access and fully launch on the 14th.
PlayStation’s London Studio has had by far the most recent success for the platform’s first-part development in the UK. Their latest title, Blood & Truth, topped sales charts on the week of its release, being the first VR game ever to claim to top spot.
