Ghost of Yōtei's success couldn't protect its developers from layoffs

Sucker Punch has reportedly laid off 24 employees, weeks after releasing Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition and its Echoes of Sekigahara expansion. In an internal email, studio leadership cited market conditions and a review of staffing needs for its next project.

Ghost of Yōtei sold millions and drew praise from Sony for its financial contribution. Sucker Punch has spent the year since launch building additional content, yet those achievements have not secured continued employment for everyone involved. 

The uncertainty now concerns how the studio plans and funds the years before its next game reaches players.

Ghost of Yōtei sold more than 3.3 million copies worldwide by November 2, 2025, just a month after launch. Sony described the game as a major hit in its investor presentation and later credited it with contributing significantly to its quarterly financial results in February 2026.

Sucker Punch had also managed to keep development costs under control. Before release, co-founder Brian Fleming explained that Yōtei's budget and total development effort were roughly in line with Ghost of Tsushima. For a major PlayStation sequel, avoiding a substantial increase in production costs was an encouraging sign.

Sony has not revealed exactly how profitable Yōtei was after development, marketing and other expenses. However, its strong sales and relatively controlled budget suggest the game performed well commercially.

Yet even those results could not protect every job at Sucker Punch. With Yōtei finished, Sony could reduce the team as development shifted to its next project.

Sucker Punch continued developing Ghost of Yōtei well beyond its original release. The studio worked on the cooperative Legends mode, while the October 1 Complete Edition introduced a story expansion and Most Wanted, a single-player survival mode. Artists, designers and engineers remained busy creating new environments, missions and combat encounters.

With that additional content finished, the studio may be preparing for a smaller workload. Early development on a new game generally requires fewer people, as developers experiment with gameplay ideas and establish the project's direction. Larger teams become necessary once production moves toward building levels, characters and missions.

CD Projekt faced a similar situation in July 2023, when it announced around 100 layoffs. The studio explained that some developers had finished their assignments, with no suitable work planned for them over the following year.

Sucker Punch's reported internal email also referred to its future staffing needs, suggesting that upcoming projects may require a different team size. However, the studio has not revealed which departments were affected or how far development on its next game has progressed.

The timing suggests that completing Yōtei's additional content may have played a role in the layoffs. There is no confirmation, however, that the affected developers had finished their assignments or that a lack of available work was the reason they lost their jobs.

Finding new work for developers can be difficult at a studio that concentrates on one major game at a time. Sucker Punch has followed that approach for years. In 2025, former studio head Brian Fleming described how the team typically chooses one game to develop over roughly five years, rather than splitting its attention across several projects.

That philosophy goes back to the original inFamous. Fleming recalled choosing to spend three years developing the game with the existing team instead of hiring more people to finish it in two. Keeping the studio smaller gave developers more time to refine their work without substantially increasing costs.

However, the approach becomes more complicated when a major project wraps up. Studios developing several games can sometimes move artists, designers and engineers between teams. At Sucker Punch, the next game may still be in early development, with little work available for people who spent years building Ghost of Yōtei.

Sony could potentially move developers to other PlayStation studios, but suitable positions would need to be available. Some transfers might also require employees to relocate. It remains unclear whether those opportunities were offered to the people affected by the layoffs.

Sucker Punch's approach helps explain why its staffing needs might change after a major release. Whether layoffs were necessary is another question. That depends on what other opportunities Sony considered and how much it was willing to invest in keeping those developers employed between projects.

Sucker Punch has spent years building games with a relatively small, experienced team. Former studio head Brian Fleming previously highlighted how long employees tended to stay, allowing developers to work together across several projects.

Losing those developers could make the next game harder to build. The people behind Ghost of Yōtei know the studio's tools, how its combat and animation systems were developed and which problems took the most time to solve. New employees would need time to learn those systems, potentially repeating work their predecessors had already figured out.

Sony can reduce costs by cutting positions now, but Sucker Punch may need to hire again when its next game enters full production. Recruiting and training replacements takes time, particularly when experienced developers are needed. The reported internal email does not explain whether Sony considered those future costs.

The layoffs also come during a difficult period for game developers. GDC's 2026 industry survey found that 28% of respondents had lost their jobs within the previous two years, leaving experienced workers competing for fewer opportunities.

Sucker Punch may have fewer employees to pay between projects, but it also risks losing people whose experience could help finish its next game. For those affected, the immediate reality is finding another job after helping deliver one of Sony's successful PlayStation releases.

Sucker Punch's layoffs appear closely connected to how the studio develops games. With Ghost of Yōtei and its additional content finished, the next project may not yet require the same number of artists, designers and engineers. For a studio that concentrates on one major game at a time, finding work for everyone between productions can be difficult.

That helps explain why 26 employees could lose their jobs despite Yōtei's commercial success. Sony has not confirmed which positions became unnecessary or whether affected developers could have moved elsewhere within PlayStation Studios.

The layoffs therefore appear to reflect Sucker Punch's changing development needs rather than the performance of Ghost of Yōtei. The remaining question is whether Sony could have retained more of the experienced team until production on the next game picked up.