PlayStations’ studio Visual Arts has facing a fresh round of layoffs as owner Sony undergoes a period of continued restructuring.

While some of the staff which faced cuts were working on cancelled projects, layoffs were reportedly more widespread than initually thought, according to Kotaku.

A number of staff at the Visual Arts studio were told that their last day would be 7 March. The studio, based in San Diego, California, provides art and technical support to PlayStation’s studios, and has worked on a number of projects, including the Last of Us video game franchise.

The latest round of layoffs follows a reorganisation a the top of Sony, with Hiroki Totoki becoming the company’s new CEO in January, with Hideaki Nishino serving as the CEO of Playstation, while previous co-CEO Hermen Hulst moving to be the head of PlayStation Studios.

Sony has faced pressure to cut costs, Hulst said last year, as budgets for game developments spiraled.

2024 saw a number of job cuts across large game developers, inclduing cuts at EA, and cuts at Microsoft’s games department.

“It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning,” former PSVA project manager Abby LeMaster, now at Riot Games, posted on LinkedIn on Monday.

“The layoffs today hit hard. PSVA let go of developers with decades of subject matter expertise; talent that will be extraordinarily difficult to recoup. This industry can be unpredictable, but the skill, experience, and passion of the people I worked with at PSVA are undeniable.”

Work from home orders and isolation brought on by the pandemic saw the gaming industry leap in popularity, but as students and workers return to the office, the games industry has struggled to keep demand for their entertianment offerings as high.