More layoffs reported at The Last of Us studio, Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog, the developer of The Last of Us, is experiencing the downsizes many companies in the industry are facing. The HBO show of the same name is doing well, but that is obviously no indication that the developer would be doing well.

As reported by Kotaku, an email went out about departments from art to production have been hit with layoffs. It is mostly contractors for QA testing, but at least 25 were developers. Full-time staff don’t seem to have been affected by the layoffs, so the headcount of 400 in July likely won’t change. As these are not employees of the company, they are not being offered severance.

According to Kotaku’s sources, staff at the Santa Monica studio are being pressured not to speak up about the company cutting contracts short. The contractors are also apparently feeling the same pressure but will work the rest of the month to finish their month.

This sounds like the contract was just shortened a few months, but worked in a way that would allow the contractors to at least get a full month’s wages before they need to leave.

This does not bode well for anyone excited about the multiplayer spinoff of The Last of Us, known as Factions. For those who don’t know, Factions is based in the world of The Last of Us, and started as just a gameplay mode for the remake. Sony had already taken resources from the project after a negative internal review by Bungie in June (via Bloomberg), so losing contractors won’t help the development of this shooter.

In fact, there are some fans who say the multiplayer standalone game should be canceled entirely. It’s losing staff quickly, and the quality of the game may suffer due to the lack of hands on the project.

We’ll have to wait and see an official statement from Naughty Dog or any kind of announcement on the future of their next game, Factions.