PS3 News: Report: Sony Liverpool May Lose 50% Of Its Staff - PS3 News

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Report: Sony Liverpool May Lose 50% Of Its Staff

Unfortunately, the rumor around the office is that Sony Liverpool may be facing a 50% reduction in staff.

As reported by Develop, sources at the UK studio say half of the development team will be left without jobs due to "restructuring" caused by project cancellations. On Friday, it was revealed that several projects currently in development at Liverpool, Sony's second largest studio in Europe, will "cease immediately," which can't be good news. This doesn't mean the studio will disappear entirely, though, as a Sony statement read:

"Our North West Studio Group has been, and will continue to be, a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC."

Liverpool started off as publisher Psygnosis way back in 1984 and has since delivered over 100 titles to the market, including the aforementioned franchises that are easily recognizable by most gamers. Wipeout HD remains one of the most impressive downloadable titles of the generation, too. On the plus side, early predictions are that Sony's profits could hit $1 billion for the third fiscal quarter (the October - December period), which is way above original analyst expectations. But we're sad to see Liverpool hit so hard; we have no idea what they were working on, but we're willing to bet the projects were promising. ...or maybe they weren't, and that's why this happened.

2/1/2010 12:32:29 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (24 posts)

tlpn99
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 1:01:33 PM
Reply

My home town in the news on here *shock* I remember when they started as Sony Psygnosis. They moved to Wavertree Technology Park by us years ago. My mates mate from school used to work for them. He moved to Rare too.
Damn shame if they lose their jobs :(

Last edited by tlpn99 on 2/1/2010 1:02:36 PM

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to_far_apart
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:34:56 PM

Nothing worse then being forced out of a job. I wish the best for those who are jobless now and hopefully, with their talents, can land a job somewhere else.

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Thrill Kill
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 1:01:41 PM
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f1 was so awesome...this sucks

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vicious54
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 1:02:36 PM
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Sorry to hear so many could loose their jobs, I wish them the best.

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Alienange
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 1:52:24 PM
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Didn't know they had anything to do with the development of Motorstorm ... If they did then it's the best thing they've ever done. Wipeout HD was pretty good but they were obviously having problems when they decided to destroy that game with in-game advertising. Way to use your lack of money to gimp your best game AFTER release.

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Temjin001
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 6:40:27 PM

Yah, I didn't think they had anything to do with Motorstorm. I'm still waiting for a real WipEout sequel and not a PSP game with slicker visuals. Online, 60fps, and near 1080p is great of course.

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Alienange
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:48:47 PM

It turns out they published Motorstorm. Evolution Studios developed it.

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shaydey77
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 2:39:41 PM
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This seriously sucks. I want another WRC game!! Since the Colin McCrae series went all American its just become pure crap.

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Scarecrow
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 2:50:25 PM
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Man, I hope the Motorstorm guys are ok...love that series

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Mr Bitey
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 3:05:41 PM
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WipeOut HD is the best game I've purchased from PSN. This is not good news.

I thought that game sold pretty well?

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Shams
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:06:04 PM

Mine, too. The Motorstorms rock, too. Just got my copy of Pacific Rift last week.

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www
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 3:35:49 PM
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I hate hearing people getting laid off.

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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 4:02:15 PM
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Nothin worse than getting restructured out of a job.

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BikerSaint
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 5:51:42 PM
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Damn, bad news for gamers.
I hope those laid that are off, can find use for their talents with other studios quickly.
("but not with any MS" related ones)

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Naztycuts
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 6:59:30 PM

Wow Biker went from psxextreme to xxxextreme eh? haha a very funny mistake indeed.

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BikerSaint
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 6:40:30 PM
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OOPS, that above sentence isn't as cryptic as I made it, seems I changed the wording in mid-sentence & forgot to omit a few words, LOL


Oh well, guess it's back to more language arts training for me

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Naztycuts
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:10:26 PM
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wonder what they were working on? I hope it wasn't awesome I mean it sucks they lose their jobs, but with all that ps3 experience you would think they could get jobs at companies that are in high demand of their talents, the ps3 is finally getting big, maybe these will be the people we can thank for a decent ps3 port of a multiplat title.

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Craigo
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:23:05 PM
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Yeah, I live 10 mins away from Studio Liverpool. They call me up to do testing. I worked with them on Wipeout HD. I had to do a Epileptic test also. I was also their when the MotorStorm guys turned up lol.

But for the past 2 months... No call.

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to_far_apart
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 7:37:24 PM

Oh wow, that must've been a great time for you. I would love to do some testing myself! I loved Wipeout HD and MotorStorm, both great games.

Have to love this wounded economy huh?

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Qubex
Monday, February 01, 2010 @ 8:37:04 PM

Did they pay fairly; in other words, was this the only thing you had to do every so often to make a comfortable living?

Q!

"i am home"

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Craigo
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 @ 11:18:19 AM

Did they pay well lol? It wasnt bad pay, but it was only night and weekend work when I was in college. Somtimes around 20 people played and early build of the game so the developers got an average review.
All I done was apply on their website. And I also new about MotorStorm PSP. I had to sign a contract not to tell lol. (really)

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___________
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 @ 1:30:00 AM
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exactly what i was saying yesterday.
its a discrase hard working developers who strive for the best game they can make and always give us nothing but pure gold get laid off and lazy a$$es like $E get paid millions.
this proves there is no god!
i was always taught good things come to nice people, work hard and you will be rewarded.
thats certainly not what im seeing.
no wonder theres so many lazy a$$ developers out there.
thats why i hate this industry back in the day you made games because you had a passion.
now developers make games for a cash cow!

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Imagi
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 @ 4:47:15 PM
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It is sad news, allot of talent there, have fond memories of the Psygnosis days.

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tanner1
Wednesday, February 03, 2010 @ 6:38:09 AM
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Why dont Ps3 owners help them out and buy Wipeout HD and F1, 2 awesome looking and playing games

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