Sony studio Firesprite has been shedding talent amidst accusations of toxic culture, staff say

[Gamernyc78]

Sony studio Firesprite has been shedding talent amidst accusations of toxic culture, staff say

Sony-acquired studio Firesprite has recently suffered high profile exits amid accusations of a toxic workplace culture,…

www.eurogamer.net

Sony-acquired studio Firesprite has recently suffered high profile exits amid accusations of a toxic workplace culture, Eurogamer has been told, as part of an investigation into the studio begun ahead of the layoffs announced by Sony this week.

The Liverpool-based developer released PlayStation VR2 launch title Horizon Call of the Mountain last year, after being acquired by Sony in 2021. But the impact of crunch for that game's release and changes in the company's senior leadership have subsequently led to discontent within the studio, staff have told Eurogamer - something one source described as "death by a thousand cuts".

Most concerning are reports from sources that two senior leaders from Sony support studio XDev, brought in to help lead Firesprite, have since been accused of sexual discrimination and ageism. A subsequent internal investigation by Sony is said to have resulted in the claims being dismissed as a "misunderstanding".

Job cuts at Firesprite were announced earlier this week as part of mass layoffs across Sony Interactive Entertainment. Around 900 SIE employees (equating to eight percent) will lose their jobs, though it's unclear how many at Firesprite are impacted. Bloomberg reported that the studio's live service Twisted Metal project was cancelled as a result of the job losses. Eurogamer understands the studio was also separately working on another high profile game in a Sony franchise.

Ahead of these layoffs, sources say an "alarming" number of employees had left the studio in recent months following a retention bonus payout in October, designed to reward staff for remaining on at the developer after the Sony acquisition for a further period of time.

Public employee reviews of Firesprite on company review site Glassdoor describe "horrendous" studio heads who are "way out of their depth" and "just care about their money", leading to a "toxic, bullying culture" and "culture of fear". One recent review takes a more sympathetic view, though, stating Firesprite's "old way" was disorganised and Sony has re-moulded the studio, which has "ruffled many feathers".

Eurogamer has spoken to a number of sources close to the company to understand the causes of this discontent, all of whom wished to remain anonymous for the sake of their careers. Others told us they did not wish to take part in this investigation for fear of reprisal.

While some staff say they believed change was needed at the studio after PlayStation's takeover, others suggested Sony's corporate view had altered company culture. The overall picture they painted was of a very different Firesprite to the studio that existed before the buyout.

Sony has long held a close relationship with Firesprite, which was born from the ashes of PlayStation's sadly-shuttered Studio Liverpool. The studio developed PlayStation 4 exclusive The Playroom and its later expansion, and was also behind LittleBigPlanet spin-off Run Sackboy Run. After work on several other PlayStation VR projects, Firesprite's buyout by Sony did not spark surprise.

 

[Jim Ryan]

 

[gokuss4]

Another studio will bite the dust by sony

 

[Gamernyc78]

Sounds like maybe there were a bunch of cry babies and Sony came in and tried to organize, out things in order and some didn't like it. Who knows.

 

[Dabaus]

All sony had to do this generation was acquire small studios they worked with that actually have something to show for and like invest in SE and Capcom. Instead they wasted billions on bungie and are having trouble managing their no name, no IP, garage band start ups.

Id say a perfect generation would've looked like:

Acquired Bluepoint, House Marque, arrowhead, and the kena studio.

Invested in: Fromsoft, Square Enix, Capcom, and probably EA or take 2.

 

[Gamernyc78]

All sony had to do this generation was acquire small studios they worked with that actually have something to show for and like invest in SE and Capcom. Instead they was billions on bungie and are having trouble managing their no name, no IP, garage band start ups.

So much shit going on, it's crazy.

 

[Puff]

All sony had to do this generation was acquire small studios they worked with that actually have something to show for and like invest in SE and Capcom. Instead they wasted billions on bungie and are having trouble managing their no name, no IP, garage band start ups.

Id say a perfect generation would've looked like:

Acquired Bluepoint, House Marque, arrowhead, and the kena studio.

Invested in: Fromsoft, Square Enix, Capcom, and probably EA or take 2.

You forgot the wasted bilion on Epic games

 

[Yurinka]

Regarding the Glassdoors reviews, they are as credible as annonymous 4chan posts: anyone can post annonymously there and post a review falsely claiming in any postition of any company.

There's absolutely no double checking to verify that you really worked there. When months ago these Firesprite reviews appeared, we checked some of them and saw that some of them don't know how basic gamedev works, so very likely weren't made by Firesprite staff but instead by some random internet user who wanted to hurt them.

I assume it may be true that likely in any company some workers may not be happy, and it's true and normal that to meet milestones is hard and even more for a great game in any team. It's also common that when a studio gets bought some workers may not like it, or to get angry or frustrated when someone else gets promoted or hired for a specific position they were hoping to be promoted, or when getting fired instead of someone else (sometimes "ageism" and "sexual discrimination" complaints comes from this).

I think most of the issues listed in the article are the typical FUD yellow press like sensationalistic anti Sony hit piece often seen at Bloomberg, trying to focus on angry fired pink haired junior testers who don't know what they are talking about while complaining about non-issues mixed with focusing too much on the opinion of a few unhappy workers that may be in any company, who normally are a very small part of the workforce.

Other than that, I think there may be some at least partial truth in some issues mentioned.

 

[Dabaus]

Regarding the Glassdoors reviews, they are as credible as annonymous 4chan posts: anyone can post annonymously there and post a review falsely claiming in any postition of any company.

There's absolutely no double checking to verify that you really worked there. When months ago these Firesprite reviews appeared, we checked some of them and saw that some of them don't know how basic gamedev works, so very likely weren't made by Firesprite staff but instead by some random internet user who wanted to hurt them.

Seeing as how Unreal Engine will probably be the standard moving forward with how expensive budgets are, i dont actually think that was a bad investment.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Al these small no name studios are worthless. Get Square, From and Arrowhead.

License your stuff to outside studios for VR.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Another day, more drama.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Sounds like maybe there were a bunch of cry babies and Sony came in and tried to organize, out things in order and some didn't like it. Who knows.

The article can't decide what kind of picture it wants to paint except to say Firesprite is different now.

Given it's in Liverpool and having read the extent of their output - shut it down. The UK doesn't deserve gaming studios.

 

[Puff]

The studio was said to be working on a number of projects ahead of the acquisition which were then consolidated, putting pressure on project leaders. Staff were moved to new projects they had no interest in, some sources said, while support for middle management unravelled as Sony leadership focused on more pressing issues.

A push to hire specific talent prompted roles to be invented to hire specific people, sources say, only for this effort to be scuppered by a hiring freeze from Sony. "Sony has committed the worst possible mistake in buying a studio and meddling to the point where it may end up in a death spiral and unable to complete any of the projects it is working on," said one source.

Hermen Hulst should stay away from Arrowhead

 

[Yurinka]

Seeing as how Unreal Engine will probably be the standard moving forward with how expensive budgets are, i dont actually think that was a bad investment.

I think you quoted the wrong post, I was talking about Glassdoor reviews having 0% credibility.

But yes, UE is the standard and becoming more and more popular as Unity dies.

And I think Firesprite was a good acquisition, with a lot of potential due to stuff they released at Firesprite or due to the pedigree of their director/manager/lead/principal/expert/senior talent who previously worked at Liverpool Studio (XDEV originally was part of it), Evolution Studios/Codemasters Evo, Bizarre Creations and in a smaller portion Supermassive and Lionhead plus other AAA teams.

Obviously when there's an acquisition some people don't get happy, and people doesn't like changes even if related to them, or in the games they are making, or seeing people geting fired or some game cancelled. But I think generally it's normal stuff that in some time will be a thing of the past for them.

Hermen Hulst should stay away from Arrowhead

Hermen Hulst did help them grow from AA and become a successful AAA team, and helped them to create a very fair GaaS, plus keeping their servers alive despite way bigger than possibly expected volume of players.

Someone else maybe would have cancelled the game, could have asked for a more expensive price and more aggresive in-game economy, and wouldn't have put their GaaS (some acquired for the matter, as Bungie, Firewalk and Haven) expertise to help with GaaS stuff like economy and servers.

 

[Dabaus]

I think you quoted the wrong post, I was talking about Glassdoor reviews having 0% credibility.

But yes, UE is the standard and becoming more and more popular as Unity dies.

And I think Firesprite was a good acquisition, with a lot of potential due to stuff they released at Firesprite or due to the pedigree of their director/manager/lead/principal/expert/senior talent who previously worked at Liverpool Studio (XDEV originally was part of it), Evolution Studios/Codemasters Evo, Bizarre Creations and in a smaller portion Supermassive and Lionhead plus other AAA teams.

Obviously when there's an acquisition some people don't get happy, and people doesn't like changes even if related to them, or in the games they are making, or seeing people geting fired or some game cancelled. But I think generally it's normal stuff that in some time will be a thing of the past for them.

Yeah youre right, wrong quote lol. Sorry.

 

[Gediminas]

Hermen Hulst should stay away from Arrowhead

yeah, Jimbo gone. Hulst left, worse of the worse. i hope, no more acquisitions for PS till they fix their own house in order.

 

[Yurinka]

yeah, Jimbo gone. Hulst left, worse of the worse. i hope, no more acquisitions for PS till they fix their own house in order.

Some Sony head when showing a fiscal report a year ago that they were going to pause their acquisitions efforts for the short term due to several reasons (bad external market conditions, economy, Sony to get a big amount of cash around fall 2025 selling most of their banks business) and that were going to resume them in the mid (normally means around 3 years) to long term.

Meaning, unless there's some specific great opportunity or urgent stuff they shouldn't make any meaningful acquisition until around a couple years from now aprox.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

What was the point of buying this massive studio? Their output already sucks as much as the other studios

I thoguht they’d have like 5 games in production and be putting them out consistently but all they have to show for themselves is a VR game and now they are working on a survival horror game? Thats it for 250+ person studio?

The fact that they killed twisted metal means i have no faith in this studio surviving at all.

 

[Gamernyc78]

What was the point of buying this massive studio? Their output already sucks as much as the other studios

I thoguht they’d have like 5 games in production and be putting them out consistently but all they have to show for themselves is a VR game and now they are working on a survival horror game? Thats it for 250+ person studio?

The fact that they killed twisted metal means i have no faith in this studio surviving at all.

Twisted Metal

 

[Neversummer]

Buying publisher was the way to go to gain ip, scale & production & publishers are already a well oil machine like capcom or square enix these single studios hold 0 ip & have no cadence of release & cost bout 150 to 250 million.

Sony was better buying Square Enix or Capcom for double Bungie price & In some case Square Enix is about worth 5 billion so just about 1 billion more then Bungie while doubling they’re first part output reaching there targets.

Or buying Hoyoverse which would made PS mobile division really strong & allow them to expand to china from a first party level. Hoyoverse & Genshin Impact alone makes more profits then PS, Xbox & ABK as a whole. Much safer acquisition