Laid off Sony Employee reveals Cancelled Projects from Santa Monica Studios


Just yesterday, about fifty workers from Sony’s Santa Monica studio was laid off.

The Lead Level Designer Johnathan Hawkins was an employee of the company for over ten years. He was the one who confirmed that the new IP that was in progress, is now called off.

The individuals who were working on the new IP was Hawkins, Andy Puhl, and Rob Davis. Information of the new IP was buzzing around for a while, way before the layoffs, and was rumored to be a science fiction ‘Open World’ title. Even the easter egg in God of War: Ascension, tipped off the latest works of the IP.

Once the news of the layoffs broke out, it was obvious that developments would be ceased and assumptions emerged, but no one was really sure what it was until Hawkins made it known.

A former employee profile on Linkedin, indicated that a new project was supposed to be unveiled in 2013 but happened to be ‘not announced’

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Hawkins confirmation came from twitter, where he responded:

 

 

Microsoft started reaching out to the laid off employees, by offering them jobs with the hashtag #helpdevs.

We hope to see the gaming industry bounce back up on their feet, so we can stop burying our loveable characters and continue our adventures.