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[Tiago Rodrigues]

Layoffs were communicated internally at the Santa Monica, California-based studio last week, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Departments ranging from art to production were impacted, but the majority of those laid off worked in quality assurance testing. The sources said at least 25 developers were part of the downsizing. Full-time staff do not appear to have been part of the cuts. Naughty Dog’s headcount was over 400 as of July.

Sources tell Kotaku that no severance is being offered for those currently laid off, and that impacted developers as well as remaining employees are being pressured to keep the news quiet. Their contracts won’t be officially terminated until the end of October and they’ll be expected to work through the rest of the month. Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite hit ratings for the recent HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us, a multiplayer spin-off for the zombie shooter based on the first game’s Factions mode has struggled in development. Bloomberg reported in June that Sony had diverted resources away from the project following a negative internal review by Bungie, the recently acquired live-service powerhouse behind Destiny 2. One source now tells Kotaku that the multiplayer game, while not completely canceled, is basically on ice at this point.

Kotaku

There you go, next Naughty Dog game coming out in 2028, lmao.

 

[Flabagast]

3 years wasted.

Now cancel this shit project and focus on what you do best.

I can’t believe the rabid fanboys were hyping this up without realising that it was a self inflicted cancer for the studio

 

[GHG]

 

[Esppiral]

Please keep it quiet; proceeds to post in online

 

[Mr Moose]

Despite hit ratings for the recent HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us, a multiplayer spin-off for the zombie shooter based

Kotaku? Yeah they don't know what the fuck they are saying. Zombie shooter? What zombies?

 

[Cert.in.Death]

 

[Wooxsvan]

sucks

 

[Raonak]

All hands on TLOU3?

Looks like only QA contractors were let go, so developers likely all redirected to another project.

 

[Roufianos]

Seems like the project's ran out of GaaS

 

[GHG]

sucks

The only thing that sucks is the time they've wasted on this.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Should've just released it with TLOU2.

 

[PeteBull]

So much dev time and money wasted, we would already by now have gameplay trailers of TLoU3 or new Uncharted or even better- brand new AAA IP if not for that multiplayer mtx shit that was pushed for no reason.

 

[KaiserBecks]

3 years wasted.

Now cancel this shit project and focus on what you do best.

I can’t believe the rabid fanboys were hyping this up without realising that it was a self inflicted cancer for the studio

Naughty Dog can do no wrong, the fans are to blame!

 

[BennyBlanco]

Please keep it quiet; proceeds to post in online

“You’re fired and getting no severance, please don’t mention it”

Why would anyone abide by this? Lmao

 

[Raonak]

So much dev time and money wasted, we would already by now have gameplay trailers of TLoU3 or new Uncharted or even better- brand new AAA IP if not for that multiplayer mtx shit that was pushed for no reason.

ND has been big enough to juggle multiple games for a while now, and they made TLOU remake in the meantime.

 

[FunkMiller]

Let's hope this is a the start of the move away from the GaaS shit that Jimbo's been pushing for so many years.

 

[Kilau]

Clearly Sony should fire Druckmann for this.

 

[Thirty7ven]

They are laying off the MP team oh no oh no ND is in BIG trouble!!!

Sign the alarms!!! Next game in 2040!!!

 

[Giallo Corsa]

All hands on TLOU3?

Hopefully !

 

[FUBARx89]

Shouldn't of tried expanding Factions into some live service shit and just released it with Pt 2.

 

[Arun1910]

Naughty Dog can do no wrong, the fans are to blame!

Very true, I am sorry.


I would personally rather them cancel this and just focus on SP experiences. I don't have time these days to put hours into MP games to grind anymore.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Unfortunate. But it seems like it's not as bad the article's headline led me to believe.

They ended contracts of ~25 contractors, when they had more than 400 developers. Full-time employees were not affected. And most of them were from the QA.

Having said that, TLOU Online being delayed sucks because I was most excited about it. Hopefully, we will see it reworked and back soon.

 

[Senua]

So much dev time and money wasted, we would already by now have gameplay trailers of TLoU3 or new Uncharted or even better- brand new AAA IP if not for that multiplayer mtx shit that was pushed for no reason.

Jimbo!

 

[nosoynadie22]

It seems that Naughty Dog is falling victim to its own ambition and Sony's urgency for a successful Gaa$. They should have simply released The Last Of Us Part II with a revamped Faction mode and then expanded the experience from that base.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I get a distinct feeling that Naughty Dog as a game developer is pretty much done. I don't expect them to make another good game ever again. Uncharted 4 was the last one. RIP.

 

[kruis]

3 years wasted.

Now cancel this shit project and focus on what you do best.

I can’t believe the rabid fanboys were hyping this up without realising that it was a self inflicted cancer for the studio

Every GAAS project is a self-inflicted cancer. Take Rocksteady Studios ... they have been working for more than eight years on a Suicide Squad GAAS game, every showing has been a bust, it keeps getting delayed and when it finally comes out it's going to be a extremely expensive, dismal failure.

 

[nial]

I want pre-2021 Naughty Dog back.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

These free to play projects are usually shit. Just add a multiplayer option in the next game and grow it out if it finds reasonable success.

 

[Reckheim]

I think the industry is finally realizing that GAAS might not be the way to go. Hopefully this wasn't the only thing Naughty Dog was working on.

 

[Sanepar]

What a mess. Gaas initiative harmed one of the best studios in the world.

 

[Perrott]

All hands on TLOU3?

That's what I'm thinking, and probably all the work they had done on Factions up until this point will now be repurposed into a more traditional multiplayer experience for TLOU3.

Now they better get that game out by March 2026 if they want to make up for this shitshow.

 

[Nankatsu]

Man people these days, can't keep a fucking secret. Unbelievable.

 

[Three]

“You’re fired and getting no severance, please don’t mention it”

Why would anyone abide by this? Lmao

Independent contract workers aren't entitled to severance pay like employees are and the independent contract worker has no obligation to not mention their termination. I don't know what each party is thinking here.

 

[Gaiff]

Really trying to make ND sound like the villains. "No severance pay."

I worked for 3 companies over the last 15 years and saw hundreds of contractors come and go and not once saw one get a severance package/pay.

 

[TheRedRiders]

I'm not a fan of Naughty Dog these days as I would prefer them to push their talents in something which is not TLOU, but this article is worded in a way to make it sound more worse than it is, for clicks of course.

 

[lh032]

Luckily I'm not into gaas but sorry for the devs who got laid off

 

[Masterri]

Clearly Sony should fire Druckmann for this.

If only.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Since buying a Playstation a week or so ago, the CEO has quit and their most celebrated developer is now laying people off.

You can thank me at your leisure.

 

[TVexperto]

Druckmann too busy parading around award shows getting awards for a story he didnt even write

 

[Ic3man]

Their next game is most likely coming in 10 years

 

[qbxwhi]

uncharted 3 co-op was great. all they need to do is expand on that

 

[Liamario]

'Keep it quiet'. But why would they? What's the incentive.

 

[Hudo]

Can they cancel this shit already? It was a bad idea to begin. Move on to something that's actually interesting.

 

[Luipadre]

New ND game by PS6 launch letsgoooo

 

[SlimySnake]

What is more troubling is them laying off QA people who couldve helped them test their next game. But its very likely that their next game is in pre-production over 3.5 years after they released TLOU2. Its entirely possible that their next game is a 2026-2028 release.

Whoever is running that studio needs to be fired asap. Your premiere first party studio cant be making cancelled gaas games and 2nd tier remakes. 3.5 fucking years is how long it took them to make TLOU2 after shipping lost legacy.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Just re-release the multiplayer that was in TLOU and load it with microtransactions.

Then quit wasting money on the GAAS crap.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Naughty Dog really turned into an incompetent studio this generation.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Can they cancel this shit already? It was a bad idea to begin. Move on to something that's actually interesting.

Factions was a great multiplayer portion for TLOU.

ND's mistake was thinking they could turn it into a stand-alone game.
I don't even think it was Jim Ryan's decision, but rather Druckmann being overly optimistic.

 

[harry mason 1989]

Jim wasted sony time with his gas shit

 

[ComputerBlue]

What a fucking waste, all they needed to do was remake the original factions for the remake.

How long until we see a new game from naughty dog now? PS3 had 4 new games. PS4 had 2, I’m guessing PS5 will only see one and it’ll be cross gen with the PS6.

They went from one of my favorite developers to essentially nonexistent, like Rockstar.