Sucker Punch Productions, the Sony-owned studio behind Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei, has laid off staff a year after its latest game became one of PlayStation’s fastest sellers. Aftermath reported the cuts on October 26, citing a former Sucker Punch employee who put the number at 26 people. The studio has fewer than 200 employees, so that is roughly one in eight.
In an email to staff that Aftermath viewed, studio leadership said “we’ve decided to make some staffing reductions” and that “several positions across Sucker Punch” would be eliminated. The email pointed to market conditions and the needs of the studio’s next project, acknowledged the difficulty of the decision, said the studio had worked to support the people affected, and promised more detail about the future next week. Sony has not issued a public statement, and the 26 figure comes from the ex-employee rather than the company.
Ghost of Yotei sold 3.3 million copies in 32 days
The layoffs land at a studio that, by Sony’s own account, just delivered a hit. Ghost of Yotei launched on PlayStation 5 on October 2, 2025, and Sony’s second-quarter earnings report a month later said it had passed 3.3 million copies sold by November 2. Sony described it as “a major hit like its predecessor,” and its chief financial officer said the game outsold Ghost of Tsushima over the same 32-day window, though Tsushima launched late in the PlayStation 4’s life on a much larger installed base.
Aftermath notes that Yotei was reported earlier this year to be Sony’s best-selling PS5 game of 2026 to that point, that it has sold fewer units than Tsushima overall but brought in more revenue, and that its expansion, Echoes of Sekigahara, reviewed well. Sucker Punch’s next game has not been announced.
The cuts follow a week in which EA closed BioWare
Sucker Punch is a small studio by first-party standards, and 26 people is a small number next to the industry’s recent rounds. It is the second time in three years that Sony has cut staff at a studio coming off a critical and commercial success, after Insomniac in early 2024, and it comes five days after Electronic Arts shut down BioWare. The pattern players keep pointing to is the same one: a studio ships, the game sells, and the headcount still goes down while the next project is early in development.
Sony had not commented publicly at the time of writing. We will update this story if the company responds or if Sucker Punch shares the details it has promised staff next week.
