Another day, another video game company making cuts. According to a new report, Naughty Dog layoffs have begun recently as the studio has let go of “at least 25 developers.” What’s more, these layoffs are directly affecting the development of the currently untitled The Last of Us 2 multiplayer game, which the studio has been quietly working on since they announced it in June of 2022.
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The report from Kotaku has claimed that all of the developers who were laid off were contract workers and that the majority of them were quality assurance testers. Additionally, these workers and those still employed by Naughty Dog have been asked to keep the layoffs under wraps. It’s unclear whether this pressure comes from Naughty Dog themselves or higher up, but either way, it seems shady.
What’s more, these employees reportedly received no severance pay of any kind. Instead, they are expected to continue their work through October and keep their heads down. If all of this is true, then it isn’t a great look for Naughty Dog.
All of these cuts have also resulted in a near halting of the development of the The Last of Us 2 multiplayer game. A source of Kotaku’s reportedly claimed that the game is “basically on ice” at this point, meaning it’s not being actively developed. After Bungie was called in to give an internal review of the game back in June, they had pretty negative feedback. This latest slew of layoffs might have been the nail in the coffin for the time being.
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We say this every time, but layoffs are not surprising given the current state of the gaming industry. We just saw Epic Games lay off nearly 900 employees. That was hot on the heels of a whole heap of Embracer Group restructuring that resulted in the death of beloved studio Volition and major cuts to Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. Letting people go seems especially prevalent right now. We hope that the trend slows soon and game devs can feel more job security in what they do.
At this rate, it’s unlikely that we’ll hear about the Last of Us multiplayer game any time soon. If you’re interested in seeing Naughty Dog’s last statement about the game, click here.
We’ll update this post if Naughty Dog or Sony end up commenting on the layoffs. Until then, stay tuned in to us here at MP1st.
Source: Kotaku