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Rumour David Jaffe talks about a potential massive shakeup at Sony (Update: Referring to Connie Booth out at PlayStation)

carbvan

carbvan

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The tweets were sent to me by a friend and then I saw it pop up on reddit afterwards, so I thought I'd ask about y'alls opinions on it here. And I know Jaffe can be kind of a... character at times but I figured we could all still have the conversation about what in the world is going on here. Is some studio shutting down? Massive layoffs instead? Naught Dog might be hit with something since they're rumoured to have had a lot of troubling developing TLOU Factions 2, or maybe Media Molecule is about to kick the bucket seeing as how they no longer support any of their own games?

Tweet 1, Tweet 2.

I guess we'll see later tomorrow today (if it's the 23rd for you).

Update: It seems like Connie Booth, an executive in Sony of over 30 years, will be leaving the company. Seems like Jaffe was overblowing the situation, unless some other layoffs happen alongside her departure.
 
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probably bend or Media Molecule closing down, or mass layoff at naughty dog since apparently the TLOU multiplayer game is going poorly
 
Visual Art Group or Media Molecule seem like the likeliest candidates for layoffs/closure.

If it's a big-name individual that's leaving, my best guess would be either Cory Barlog or Shuhei Yoshida
 
While there might be some truth to this I’d take anything he says with a grain of salt because of the kind of person he is.
BowserIsMyFather said:
Probably mass layoffs across the board, perhaps a studio closing/sold off.

It's tough times for everyone out there (apart from Micro$oft it would seem).
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Microsoft has had a lot of layoffs over the last few years, some very recent, though the recent ones aren’t gaming focused.
 
BlackthornOrion said:
Visual Art Group or Media Molecule seem like the likeliest candidates for layoffs/closure.

If it's a big-name individual that's leaving, my best guess would be either Cory Barlog or Shuhei Yoshida
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Why on earth would they lay off Cory?

Edit: Sorry, you didn't exactly state that. That would be a huge bummer if he chose to leave, but the way Jaffe's tweet sounded like this wasn't just someone choosing to leave.
 
TheSpaceBetween said:
Why on earth would they lay off Cory?

Edit: Sorry, you didn't exactly state that. That would be a huge bummer if he chose to leave, but the way Jaffe's tweet sounded like this wasn't just someone choosing to leave.
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He's been working on a sci-fi game and it's supposedly been in development hell for awhile. Maybe he wants to leave sony over it/sony wants to get rid of him for it. If he does leave, I don't know if there's anything left on PlayStation for me to be excited over. God of War is the only series I still care about on that platform and to see the guy who revived it get let go would be terrible.
 
carbvan said:
He's been working on a sci-fi game and it's supposedly been in development hell for awhile. Maybe he wants to leave sony over it/sony wants to get rid of him for it. If he does leave, I don't know if there's anything left on PlayStation for me to be excited over. God of War is the only series I still care about on that platform and to see the guy who revived it get let go would be terrible.
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Development hell? I hadn't heard that. I figured all hands were on deck for Ragnarok, with Cory's game in preproduction with a smaller team until they finished GoWR.
 
SpaceGodzilla said:
tom henderson of Inside Gaming reported on it who has 90% track record
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Interesting, I didn't know that. I would be down for a smaller game after the bloated Ragnarok.

Well, I still think it isn't yet fair to assume anything about the state of Cory's project. A few months I saw a SMS facebook post hiring specifically for Cory's game. Also, my gut feeling is that Jaffe would not hint at anything involving Cory, with their history, friendship, and mutual respect.
 
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Please refrain from using derogatory remarks with sexist roots – Party Sklar, xghost777, MissingNo.
It's one of two things I think

  1. Jaffe doesn't know shit and he is being the attention whore he is
  2. Jaffe exaggerating the proportion of the news because he is an attention whore
 
Perhaps Neil Druckmann is stepping down as president of Naughty Dog.

Or maybe they decide go with Kotick as their new CEO.
 
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ArchedThunder said:
While there might be some truth to this I’d take anything he says with a grain of salt because of the kind of person he is.

Microsoft has had a lot of layoffs over the last few years, some very recent, though the recent ones aren’t gaming focused.
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Gotta justify spending obscene amounts of money on massive publishers somehow I guess.
 
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Porygon said:
It's one of two things I think

  1. Jaffe doesn't know shit and he is being the attention whore he is
  2. Jaffe exaggerating the proportion of the news because he is an attention whore
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All Jaffe is implying is an entity with a long history with the company has unceremoniously been curtailed, which I guess could be either a person or a studio.

I'm not Jaffe's biggest fan either but him still having sources at Sony seems totally plausible to me, and I can see where the hyperbole might be inferred, but in the second tweet he clarifies it's not like Sony is falling apart. If someone has been let go or a studio has been closed, it will have been accurate. We'll see.
 
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SpaceGodzilla said:
probably bend or Media Molecule closing down, or mass layoff at naughty dog since apparently the TLOU multiplayer game is going poorly
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If it's going poorly, the solution sure isn't to lay a ton of people off. They are a crazy talented studio, development hell can happen to anyone.

Nintendo didn't fire most of retro because whatever they worked on didn't work out.
 
Sony are pivoting, shifting towards GaaS and bleeding talent.

I thought they had a good thing going with the cinematic single player gaming focus (even though I'm not the biggest fan of those games) during the PS4 generation but they are betting on trends instead of what got them here. This has bad news written all over it.
 
Hermii said:
If it's going poorly, the solution sure isn't to lay a ton of people off. They are a crazy talented studio, development hell can happen to anyone.

Nintendo didn't fire most of retro because whatever they worked on didn't work out.
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will Sony has closed off a few studios back in the day, namely those in Japan and in Cambridge (I think) so it’s not entirely possible that there is some truth to this
 
Mr Swine said:
will Sony has closed off a few studios back in the day, namely those in Japan and in Cambridge (I think) so it’s not entirely possible that there is some truth to this
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Might be, just saying Sony would be incredibly dumb to lay off people at Noughty Dog because of one failed project.
 
Hermii said:
Might be, just saying Sony would be incredibly dumb to lay off people at Noughty Dog because of one failed project.
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I agree with you that it would be dumb of Sony to lay off people. But at the same time they are releasing fewer new games and doing remasters.

But then again I’m not Sony so I don’t know why they are doing this (if this turns out to be true)
 
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If they're closing a studio or having mass lay offs, it'll come back to bite them in the ass one day or another. Stupid move, especially coming from a company making record profits. Like Iwata said :

If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease. I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.
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NateDrake said:
Connie Booth is out from PlayStation.
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justice-league-unlimited.gif
 
NateDrake said:
Connie Booth is out from PlayStation.
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I'll take this as a serious reply of what's happening tomorrow? Not to understate Booth leaving, but if its just her it seems like Jaffe is overblowing the situation. Imo it seemed like he was alluding to an entire studio getting blown up.
 
Thank god it's not a lay off or the closure of MM. Jaffe's tweet made it seem more earth-shattering than it actually is (with all due respect to Connie Booth, of course).
 
BowserIsMyFather said:
Probably mass layoffs across the board, perhaps a studio closing/sold off.

It's tough times for everyone out there (apart from Micro$oft it would seem).
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Not surprised by this. We only need to take a look at the financial reports for CY2023 to get an idea that SIE's profits are pitifully low in comparison to Nintendo and Activision Blizzard(Microsoft). High revenues but low profits are very unhealthy business strategy.

Nintendo - $2.05bn
Activision blizzard - $1.38bn
SIE - $0.65bn
 
carbvan said:
I'll take this as a serious reply of what's happening tomorrow? Not to understate Booth leaving, but if its just her it seems like Jaffe is overblowing the situation. Imo it seemed like he was alluding to an entire studio getting blown up.
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It's what he was referring to. She has a long, decorated history at PlayStation and has long been a pivotal producer at PlayStation. She aided in bringing Crash Bandicoot to market, worked closely with Sony Bend and Naughty Dog in the early years. Pushed to incubate young talent and aided in the creation of Pixelopus. Her time at PlayStation is now at an end.

Her name is not one many will recognize; but her impact on the industry was substantial.
 
@carbvan hey just wanted to let you know we updated the title to reflect where the story has gone. Jaffe did have a follow up tweet and video explicitly talking about Connie Booth being out from PlayStation, but the tweet seems to be deleted at this point. I saw it before it was taken down. -xghost777, MissingNo, Party Sklar
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
He might be referring to Sony Visual Arts getting tons of layoffs/maybe closed.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

"Wave of layoffs" at PlayStation reported by developer of unannounced game

2023's mass eradication of the games industry continues with reports of layoffs at Sony Interactive Entertainment and P…
www.rockpapershotgun.com www.rockpapershotgun.com

(this isn't too surprising after ND had to take over TLOU1 Remastered from them, but it is sad)
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Sony has had so much success with ps4 and ps5 and is still doing layoffs......
 
Lugia667 said:
Sony has had so much success with ps4 and ps5 and is still doing layoffs......
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Sony is very much on a "one failure equals death" thing right now outside of Naughty Dog.

Closed

Pixelopus

Maybe closed

Deviation
Visual Arts

Strong chance of being closed in future

Media Molecule
Haven
Firewalk
London Studio
 
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