Sony has shut down Manchester Studio before it even had the opportunity to announce a game. The virtual reality-based developer was formed in 2015 and was working on an unannounced project, but the Japanese giant has decided to call time on the team “as part of our efforts to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness”. According to Games Industry.biz, the entire group has been made redundant.
Of course, British developers under the PlayStation umbrella haven’t had much luck in recent years, with Studio Liverpool, Guerrilla Cambridge, Bigbig Studios, and Evolution Studios all closing over the past decade. Blood & Truth creator London Studio and Dreams maker Media Molecule remain, but it’s been a rough period for the UK industry. We can’t help but wonder what today’s news means for PlayStation VR moving forward either.
As always, our thoughts go out to all employees affected by this news.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 34
Oh.
Awful news 😞 hope all those affected find alternative employment soon
You think this is Brexit related and they might open a new studio in Amsterdam or something?
Sad but not surprising, the word was they acted as an external studio on Blood & Truth so it's doubtful they were making a game for a long while.
@3Above Brexit is nothing more then an excuse for companies to relocate. The fact is game development has been too expensive for too long now. The industry was given a tax break at one point till it was taken away in the name of "austerity".
That sucks. Us Brits should be knocking it out of the park. What are we doing.
@AdamNovice Yeah, I imagine they did support work on other games while getting their own project off the ground.
Could of sold the studio to Rebellion or Sumo Digital. They seem to be buying multiple UK studios over the last couple of years.
Never heard of it or anyone ever working there, must be a cover for the mob.
I wonder why. So 5 years on a project for nothing?
I hope people can move to other places..
@Bagshot You would think, but Sony is a business first and as much as we as Playstation fans would like to think they care, it's about making money.
The scariest of them all...Devxit
What Were They Working On Anyway?
@AdamNovice The Video Game Tax Relief program was recently extended into 2023, although I'm not sure if UK based companies are still eligible due to leaving the EU? Rockstar might have to pay some of their own game development costs now!
That's disappointing
Very confusing and afflicted by that.
That could be the results of constantly changing higher-ups executives.
Some executives would have given them time new ones replacing them are different in that sense of execution.
@Panic_Attache Alright, I stand corrected. I thought it was removed sometime ago.
Up yours Sony for making my fellow mancunions redundant, Manchester where I live 😠 how dare you. Seriously oh well it happens unfortunately to bad they didn’t even get a game out so I could of said that from a studio in my city that game.
Too much tea time in that building.
Welcome to Brexit...
@3Above Brexit? Tell that To Rockstar North/Leeds, Playtonic, Hello Games, Rocksteady, Codemasters, Rare, Playground Games and Ninja Theory amongst many others.
This is a Playstation issue not a UK issue, some of Xbox's biggest studios are based here as well as many other successful developers.
@Shirayuki that's all it is. Everything is about money if people don't see that more fool them. Still feel sorry for the people out of a job though. But it's a dog eat dog World for sure.
@Panic_Attache @AdamNovice VGTR is a UK created tax policy and has absolutely nothing to do with the EU. So Brexit will in no way affect it. The only reason the EU were involved was they started an investigation to see if the UK was guilty of trying to create an unfair tax haven for gaming companies.
@Eldritch Thanks for clearing that up, i must of misread something about it, or got the EU investigation mixed in with the tax relief.
“We can’t help but wonder what today’s news means for PlayStation VR moving forward either”
Yeah, this.
I don’t see it as much of a British issue as much as it’s a VR issue. Just a guess, but I’m concerned about the financial viability of VR. I don’t think it’s necessarily going away, but until VR2 gets off the ground, I think the gaming sub-genre is tapped out at this point.
I hope I’m wrong.
@Panic_Attache No worries.
Seems like the cause was that their Game was in Dev hell
https://jackofallcontrollers.com/2020/02/04/sources-manchester-studios-closure-was-due-to-their-game-being-in-development-hell-sony-planning-on-doubling-down-on-vr/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Real shame this - Sony had such a presence in the UK that is slowly drifting.
Ryan and Kodera: how to wreck Playstation. This fly on the wall documentary will be airing on Netflix in 2021.
What was that about Microsoft closing down studios?
;-]
@carlos82 Welp idk then. I guess they had to make up for all the money they spent on Kojima 🤷🏾♂️
More reasons to buy dreams. Media molecule is one of the few British ps4 exclusives.
staff let down by bad management yet poor grunts in front line will suffer. Especially as wasting years your time and nothing to show anyone for it
With only 4 to 5 per cent of PS4 owners having picked up PSVR after just over 3 years, I can't see it being a particularly profitable niche for Sony. Wouldn't be at all surprised if they were to abandon it, just like Vita... which sold a fair bit better.
@AdamNovice @Panic_Attache @Eldritch
Infact, if you were to take a cynical look, leaving the EU only seemed to go from being a trivial issue to the sole most important thing in the United Kingdom once the EU annouced it was going to investigate Tax Havens / Avoidance back in 2016.
As a pure coincidence, Aaron Banks and the owners of the Telegraph were among those named in the Panama Papers.
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