The developer of Days Gone — Bend Studio — has laid off about 30% of its employees. Veterans who have been working in the game industry for more than 30 years are leaving the studio.
Bend Studio is a game studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was working on a game in the live service format, but the project was canceled in January 2025. As a result, the studio laid off 40 employees. This information was first reported by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier in BlueSkyand later confirmed by the studio itself in its account in X. At the same time, Sony canceled another live service — a game in the God of War universe, which was developed by another studio, Bluepoint Games. However, only Bend Studio was laid off.
«Today, we said goodbye to some incredibly talented teammates as we transition to our next Project. We’re deeply thankful for their contributions as they’ve shaped who we are, and their impact will always be a part of our story. This is a difficult moment for our team, but we hold immense respect for everyone who got us here», — Bend Studio said.
pic.twitter.com/DrtxmXol5D
— Bend Studio (@BendStudio) June 10, 2025
Experienced professionals also left the studio. Among them Robert Morrison — an industry veteran from the 90s who worked on projects at Santa Monica Studio and PlayStation Studios Visual Arts. He personally confirmed that he was also fired.
Bend Studio laid off a bunch of people today. I was a part of the layoffs. I did my best. Hopefully I can find a new team to join.
— Robert Morrison (@RobertAnim8er) June 10, 2025
Amid the layoffs, Bend Studio wants to launch a new project, but there are no details about it. Given the large-scale cancelations of live services, it is unlikely that the studio will move in this direction. Some online hopes for a sequel to Days Gone, but don’t do it. One can only guess what ideas the developers are hiding, as they haven’t released a single new game since Days Gone in 2019 We do not consider a remaster as a new project. The rest of the games were either abandoned in the development process or did not make it to release. Therefore, Bend is looking for a new direction, and the layoffs seem to be related to the lack of successful results.
Layoffs in the game industry are no longer something new — in March «The creators of Uncharted, Concord, and The Last of Us were hit by» layoffs at Sony. The studio that developed Until Dawn also suffered. And now Sony has finally recognized the failures of live services, in particular Concord was a spectacular disappointment and decided to reduce the number of such projects. The massive cuts in March were the second after the case of 2024, when about 900 employees left the company.
Source: Games Radar
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: