Those are usually marked as contractual(temp) employees and are not really considered being laid off since their contract ended with the project.

did everyone already forget sony is reviewing every part of sony looking for layoff opportunities,.. even from successful departments? the ND and SM layoffs were only like 2 months ago...

/thread

Don't you ruin our image of perfect sony..

The problem with reasoning that they let off the people that they brought on the finish the project, is that usually they are temps or contractual workers who don't fall under the lay off tag since their job is finished once the game, project or the contract expires. "Laying off" people are letting people go who were usually there for years through different projects who where hired by Sony to be Sony employees and not just temps. (Temps and Contractual works either work for a different company or work for themselves) So either these workers are being labeled incorrectly by the media or Sony is cutting its own work force because it isn't bring in enough money to keep these long term employees. Out of the two the latter may point to trouble, not just for Sony.

I think it is the latter. Some of these companies need a totally overhaul of their studios structure, because hacking and slashing after each cycle isn't the answers, slimmer better manages studio's who share resources (labor) between each other is. Because if they keep up this cycle of make AAA title, it doesn't sell as well as expectation or slash some jobs of people who where hired as long term employees, close down studios, rinse and repeat will give the industry a bad rep as a solid employer, and people may think twice about even working for them temporarily. (Not just talking about Sony here, this seems to a big tend in the West.) Not to mention put undue strain and stress on the employees that are left behind.

This is also part of a normal dev cycle. Also if a project has finished sooner than expected than the employer has the right to terminate the contracts. This can be interpreted as layoffs.

Also we dont really have enough information to say whats happening either way. Sucks to be them i guess.

I thought that was Sanzaru?

Happens all the time after games finish.

Safest guess is that development on First Light is likely largely over. Moving on to a new project means you have a lot of redundant staff until that project picks up into heavy development.

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=126234857&postcount=165

Educated guess from my Facebook and Twitter:
Around 30% to 40% of the staff were laid off.
Majority of these are full time exempt employees (salary positions).
Some have been at Sucker Punch over 10 years.
All areas effected including design, programming, art, marketing, production, and test.