It seems all is not well at Sony studio Firesprite, which was acquired by the company that owns the platform in 2021. Despite moving to expensive new digs in its home city of Liverpool, a Eurogamer report paints a very bleak picture of the outfit, which is allegedly burning through staff It lost its managing director Graeme Ankers suddenly last May.
The UK-based team that worked on Horizon Call of the Mountain for PSVR2, was hit with a round of layoffs earlier this week, and the Twisted Metal reboot in development was allegedly canceled as a result. But while she's supposed to be working on the PlayStation franchise, which is rumored to be a sequel to Until Dawn, the crew say she's suffering from “death by a thousand cuts”.
A Eurogamer report claims that a “worrying” number of staff have left the studio in recent months, following a bonus payout from Sony last year that was designed to retain staff following the organisation's takeover. With the departure of several previous managers, the Japanese giant appears to have pulled staff from XDev to lead the team, something that has been criticized as “nepotism”.
These new leaders were allegedly arrested in a recent internal investigation and accused of ageism and sexism. Sources claim Sony dismissed the claims as a misunderstanding, though some apparently sought outside legal guidance to explore the matter further, and allegedly received payouts in return.
The biggest problem, according to those who spoke to Eurogamer, seems to be the gradual erosion of the studio's culture. “Sony has made the worst possible mistake by buying a studio and interfering to the point where it may end up in a death spiral and not be able to complete any of the projects it is working on,” one source said.
The platform owner has yet to comment on these claims, and it's worth noting that not all of the people quoted are as critical, with one claiming that there is a “strong push towards inclusivity” with “valuing people from a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities and gender identities”. And work together.” As such, it is difficult to determine how serious the situation really is.
However, Sony has, historically, been harsh with its UK-based developers. Earlier this week, it closed its long-running London studio, the latest in a graveyard of British bands, which includes Evolution Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge, BigBig Studios, Liverpool Studio, and more. Let's hope Firesprite can get back on track before it's too late.
