Sources: Media Molecule to lay off 15-20% of staff

The developer of Dreams and LittleBigPlanet announced the news in meetings with staff today
Sources: Media Molecule to lay off 15-20% of staff
Sources: Media Molecule to lay off 15-20% of staff /

Update (October 24, 2023, 17:25 CEST): Media Molecule has officially confirmed plans for layoffs as reported below in a statement on social media, which said that this move was made amidst "significant strategic changes" and the switch of focus from Dreams to the studio's new project.

"We have had to make the difficult decision to begin the consultation process for team members within certain departments of the studio. This is a tough moment for the individuals impacted and the studio overall," the statement said. "Every single role that has been put at risk is delivered by someone who has contributed something special to Media Molecule. We will make sure those impacted receive the best support we can provide during this process."


Original (October 24, 2023, 13:40 CEST): GLHF sources say UK game developer Media Molecule plans a round of layoffs with around 20 jobs being on the chopping block. Targeting a headcount of 115 employees, this is a significant reduction from the roughly 135-strong workforce. Employees were informed about this in an internal meeting today, on October 24, 2023.

Founded in 2006, Media Molecule was acquired by Sony in 2010, becoming part of PlayStation Studios. It’s best known for developing the LittleBigPlanet series, a puzzle platformer with a big emphasis on content created by its users. The original LittleBigPlanet, released in 2008, won several awards and was likely the catalyst for Sony seeking to integrate the studio fully into its own operations. The company had already helped kickstart Media Molecule with initial funding after being presented with a prototype of its first game.

LittleBigPlanet's Sackboy with a sad expression on his face.
Sackboy is one of PlayStation's most recognizable characters / Sony

Due to the popularity of the games, their protagonist Sackboy became one of the public faces and a bit of a mascot of PlayStation for a while.

In 2020, the studio released Dreams, a sandbox game with extensive game creation tools for users. Dreams allows players to make some pretty impressive games by themselves, but it seems like this recipe wasn’t leading to financial success. Back in April 2023, Media Molecule announced that it would stop supporting Dreams starting in September 2023.

Media Molecule is currently developing a new game, though other than the project not being in any way related to Dreams nothing certain is known about it.

This bad news comes a day after Sony triumphantly announced that Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was the fastest-selling first-party launch in PlayStation history. Fellow UK studios Frontier and Creative Assembly are currently undergoing restructuring with job losses as well.


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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg